Screen printing on moisture wicking clothing

[twogirlscatspit]

Question regarding printing on moisture wicking clothing. I tested white opague ink on black moisture wicking 100 poly sweatpants. Ran through the dryer as normal and ink turned yellow. Suggestions??? Thank you

[ApeShirt]

Are you using a poly ink? Regular plastisol ink allows dye migration. Some poly plastisol flashes/cures at a lower temp which helps reduce migration.

[twogirlscatspit]

Thanks. Can you suggest a brand of ink and what temp would it cure at ?

[Leadfoot]

I personally use Excalibur 1550 athletic inks...they cure at 290 and you can use it on cotton apparel too so no need to stock different types of ink if smaller and on a budget or in a pinch. It does have a different feel but prints nicely.

[twogirlscatspit]

Thanks for the suggestions. I am going to order ink and do a test.

[drew]

I just finished a 80 shirt order of 100% poly moisture wicking shirts. I used international coatings(IC) poly ink and cured at 290°. They came out great and customer loved them. Its a thicker ink but if you mix it very well, it can print through higher mesh with no problem.

[twogirlscatspit]

Problem is.. we printed white ink on dark maroon t-shirts- no problem.. But when printing white ink on dark green sweatshirts we are encountered what I think they call "the orange peel look" the print looks very, very rough and looks terrible. We have the off screen contact set as high as possible. (I think). We are using Union high opacity white ink.

Does anyone have any suggestions

Thanks.

[Dip.Schlitz]

I print exclusively Union, and I absolutely stand by their "Athletic White" for polyester garments. I'll reply with the product # tomorrow. It cures between 290 and 320. It has been suggested to reach 320 to be on the safe side. It doesn't necessarily have to sustain 320 like normal plastisol inks. I have a 4 element infrared dryer with fixed panels, so I can only manipulate belt speed, not panel temp. I speed the belt up from 19 feet per minute to 25 feet per minute, also I don't stack them one on top of the other while they're still hot or let them pile up in the box as that could result in a big, steaming pile of sublimation.

As far as the "orange peel look" it could be any number of things, but likely temperature. Too much heat maybe.
Try any one or a couple of these :
reducing flash time
raising the height of the flash
letting them cool between flashing and hitting
speed up your belt
raise your dryer panels, if you can.

[ApeShirt]

Good tips by Dip.Schlitz. I also suggest lowering your off contact. You don't want a lot of off contact as you indicated.

[Dip.Schlitz]

Union EF Premium LB White - ATHP - 1070