# What t shirt fabrics can you NOT screen print on? (water and discharge inks)



## Amaa301 (Jun 22, 2010)

Hello,

I'm about to order some blanks from Next Level and Alternative Apparel. Some of them are poly cotton blends and poly, cotton rayon blends. Although I have heard that some of these fabrics which aren't 100% cotton cannot be screen printed on with waterbased and discharge inks.

Can anyone help with this?

Cheers,

X


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## Amaa301 (Jun 22, 2010)

Any response will be appreciated! 
Thanks.


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## JantexInks (Nov 11, 2009)

Waterbase inks and Discharge are primary suited for 100% Cotton to 50/50 (cotton/poly). Rayon fits into the cellulosic brand of fibers along with the cotton.

Stay away from 100% polyester, spandex, lycras. They can be done with waterbase, but it is much more tricky.

Good luck,


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## Dan K (Nov 15, 2006)

The discharge solution does not work on synthetic fibers, you pretty much want to stick with 100% cotton for the best results, and even then, you should be certain to ask the shirt manufacturer or distributor for "discharge friendly" or "dye reactive" garments. For instance, Next Level Apparel requires that you specify this ahead of time, apparently they use different dyes and not all of their 100% cotton shirts discharge. We learned this the hard way, and for a time, they did not have any black garments in stock that would discharge well.

On a 50/50 garment you should expect 50% opacity on your prints, it can be done but you should expect a distressed faded looking print and never guarantee color matches or even the ability to get close to a color match.

I have also heard it said that discharge will work on natural fibers, but that is not always the case either. Bamboo does not discharge all that well. It is no longer allowed to be called bamboo either, I think it has to be called Rayon or some version of that. Rayon won't discharge.

You can get some decent results out of garments that are 90 or 95% cotton and 5 or 10% spandex, but the more fibers in the shirt that are not cotton, the less opaque the print will be.


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## Amaa301 (Jun 22, 2010)

Thanks a lot!
That was all very helpful!
I guess I will have to stick to mostly 100% then which is a shame because some of these blends look nicer and feel quite soft!

X


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