Problem with two-color print "bleeding"
Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2015 9:07 pm
Hello...new to the forum, so a little background. My father has been running his own small sign and screen printing business since the 70s. I've been in the sign industry for the past 15 years, and a few years ago I started up my own sign/graphics/screen printing business. My father mostly does simple, single color printing...doesn't do much mutil-color work, but my customers are younger and expect a bit more, so more complex multi-color work is going to make up a lot of my business. We have a four color manual carousel and a small Ranar belt dryer. We only print with plastisol.
I'm currently doing a two-color job on 100% polyester shirts (Badger 4120 Core performance shirts). It is a white base with a black top color, flashed in between. I printed all of the backs just fine, but I'm having problems with the front heart print. It seems like the top color is "bleeding" on the edges and just not producing a crisp print. The white prints great and the black prints great by itself, but as soon as the black goes on top of the flashed white, it looks awful! My inks came from Catspit, but we also tried using my father's Union Ink with the same results. We also tried a print on a 50/50 shirt, again with the same results. We're both completely stumped. He says he's never seen anything like this in his almost 35 years printing shirts. We are using 110 mesh wood framed screens with Ulano EZ50 sheet emulsion stencils. One thing to note, the screen for the black is ever-so-slightly warped...not sure if that would make a difference. Any input anyone can share would be much appreciated. Mesh too coarse? Is the emulsion too thick? Too much or too little off-contact? ????
Here are photos of the black alone, then the black on top of the white. (Don't mind the poor registration...I know how to fix that!)
I'm currently doing a two-color job on 100% polyester shirts (Badger 4120 Core performance shirts). It is a white base with a black top color, flashed in between. I printed all of the backs just fine, but I'm having problems with the front heart print. It seems like the top color is "bleeding" on the edges and just not producing a crisp print. The white prints great and the black prints great by itself, but as soon as the black goes on top of the flashed white, it looks awful! My inks came from Catspit, but we also tried using my father's Union Ink with the same results. We also tried a print on a 50/50 shirt, again with the same results. We're both completely stumped. He says he's never seen anything like this in his almost 35 years printing shirts. We are using 110 mesh wood framed screens with Ulano EZ50 sheet emulsion stencils. One thing to note, the screen for the black is ever-so-slightly warped...not sure if that would make a difference. Any input anyone can share would be much appreciated. Mesh too coarse? Is the emulsion too thick? Too much or too little off-contact? ????
Here are photos of the black alone, then the black on top of the white. (Don't mind the poor registration...I know how to fix that!)