# Plastisol Transfer Nightmare!



## toriver

I purchased transfers to do an order (because I hate printing white ink!). The customer called yesterday to let me know that the white ink is cracking on all of the shirts. I called the transfer company to let them know and their response was "We don't know how you printed those or how the customer washed them". No response to what could be causing the issue. I now have to reprint this order on my dime. Can anyone tell me what caused this issue? I printed 375 degrees 10 seconds, heavy pressure. Soft Touch Transfer.

Thanks!

Cindy


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## proworlded

My suggestion would be to test one yourself to see if you get the same results.


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## splathead

Contact your customer and get the information the transfer company asked for. Then relay that info to them and ask what you should do differently.


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## Graphicsforme

We used to use transfer express from stahls a little pricey at times but we never had an issue with the transfers. Perhaps you should look into using them.


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## toriver

I'm on wash/dry #3. No problems so far. I talked to the customer and they said wash #5 is when it started. They are using Tide, I'm using Gain. The detergent should not be causing the issue. I may have to try Stahls/Transfer Express to get through this order.

Thank you all for your input. I will keep you posted on the results.


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## Graphicsforme

I have found that usually its the heat from the dryer. We have used plastisol on our shirts also as now do silk screening and usually when it cracks its because it was over-cured and when it falls off its because it was not cured at the right temperature for the right amount of time.


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## toriver

I did 5 wash/dry in cold. Still no issues. Customer says some washed in hot and some washed in cold and they all were having the same problem. I'm going to try a few today in hot water to see if it makes a difference.


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## proworlded

We have never had any negative feedback with cracking of our custom transfers. It's a tough call when the customer says they are 'all' cracking.


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## toriver

I know. He sent me another picture today. It looks like the same picture he sent the first time. Says the girl washed twice a week in Tide. I'm on wash 9. This one hot/hot water and it came out fine. I raised the temperature in my dryer to high. It should be dry soon. I have seen no cracks and the design is still stretching like it did when it was first printed.

Update*** It's dry. No cracks or flakes. Still has a good stretch. I give up!


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## Dtag1971

Did they use adhesive crystals? Feels kinda like sand paper. I print my own. I have washed and dried several, several times. But the heat from the dryer will cause them to crack over time. But not after 5 times. The paper is so important also. I use ultra strip 3000 from ace screen supply. Best paper on the market.


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## hawaiianphatboy

I would definitely ask to see the shirts in person. Some customers cracking are another persons distressed look. It also sounds like they are giving you all kinds of excuses as to how you are washing them "wrong" and that is why yours are not falling apart. I had a customer once tell me that the ink was coming off on all the shirts I did. I purchased and printed a new order, only to find out that about 5 of the shirts just needed to be spot cleaned. It was a waste of my time and a loss of a lot of money only because I took their word for it before I looked to see what the problem really was. Good luck.. Aloha


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## bluebird12

So sorry you are having that problem. Especially with your test shirts and no control over your customer and how they take care of your work for them. I have used plastisol transfers with great success om all kinds of fabric. We press at 325 degrees for 7 seconds. Seems to work very well. Just a suggestion! 

Good luck with future happy clients and many more shirts!


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## abetterimage

ALWAYS require ALL the complaint shirts to be returned to you for inspection BEFORE doing ANYTHING about it. ALWAYS give customers the "inside-out" wash and dry instructions.

We switched white ink brands once and found we were under curing it. I had to re-do about 5 jobs that time, and so I also bought a donut thermometer for my belt dryer, which was well worth it. Those laser dot thermometers are way off on a belt dryer (sometimes over 40 degrees!)

It sounds to me with your washing that you likely did everything right. It's up to you if you want to keep this customer or not. Many are worth redoing the job. Some customers are worth firing.


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## br1ght

Cindy, 

This just me, but I would ask that the customer bring in all the defects and I'd be good for it IF it looks genuine AND they didn't exaggerate the defect. And as someone else wrote, Stahls is my supplier of choice and I have yet to have a failure that was Stahls' fault...

As abetterimage stated, I hand out wash instructions with all my 1st time customers and with all bulk orders... Because I do various garment embellishments this is my standard handout:

Washing Applique products

1)	Unless the wearer is sensitive to formaldehyde, your garment is ready to wear. For most, no prewashing required. 
2)	Please wait a minimum of 48 hours from receiving your garment to do the initial washing.
3)	wash inside out whenever possible
4)	Follow the garment manufacture’s instruction for laundering and use the permanent press setting and cold or warm water. If using a dryer, removing the garment while still slightly damp and hang to finish will extend the usable life of your apparel.
5)	Avoid unnecessary laundry products. Do not use liquid fabric softener or bleach. Use household purpose detergent and pre-treat any stains with detergent. If a dedicated pre-treater such as Shout!™ is required, avoid the applique areas. The manufacturers of our applique products condones the occasional use of pre-treaters, however, our experience suggest that they are best avoided.
6)	Do not iron graphic area(s). 
DO NOT DRYCLEAN OR USE COMMERCIAL LAUNDRY DETERGENT 

I have a different instruction handout for rhynstone/nailhead etc adorned garments...


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## franktheprinter

toriver said:


> I purchased transfers to do an order (because I hate printing white ink!). The customer called yesterday to let me know that the white ink is cracking on all of the shirts. I called the transfer company to let them know and their response was "We don't know how you printed those or how the customer washed them". No response to what could be causing the issue. I now have to reprint this order on my dime. Can anyone tell me what caused this issue? I printed 375 degrees 10 seconds, heavy pressure. Soft Touch Transfer.
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> Cindy


Hi. going by your post its likely the customer has washed and/or dried the garment either under very hot conditions
(hot wash hot dry or both) what this probably did is 
"force" the ink to crack up... the ink literally has 
no where to go that's because the shirt has shrunk
quite abit in size.

The best solution to find out where the problem lies is to ask the customer to send you the shirt(s) then when you get it/them print another of their designs on a blank t (same brand)and wash/dry it under the care instructions that was provided by the transfer company - do same amount of wash/dry cycles they did and compare them... if the shirts have excessive differences in size then its the customer who is at fault....if the shirt you printed is still fine then the problem most likely is that the shirt(s) you pressed for the customer wasn't properly pressed then the fault is yours...
and finally if your shirt has cracking/peeling problems then its likely overcurred and then your transfer supplier would be at fault.


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## br1ght

franktheprinter said:


> Hi. going by your post its likely the customer has washed and/or dried the garment either under very hot conditions
> (hot wash hot dry or both) what this probably did is
> "force" the ink to crack up... the ink literally has
> no where to go that's because the shirt has shrunk
> quite abit in size.
> 
> The best solution to find out where the problem lies is to ask the customer to send you the shirt(s) then when you get it/them print another of their designs on a blank t (same brand)and wash/dry it under the care instructions that was provided by the transfer company - do same amount of wash/dry cycles they did and compare them... if the shirts have excessive differences in size then its the customer who is at fault....if the shirt you printed is still fine then the problem most likely is that the shirt(s) you pressed for the customer wasn't properly pressed then the fault is yours...
> and finally if your shirt has cracking/peeling problems then its likely overcurred and then your transfer supplier would be at fault.


Frank has a good point, if you have a large solid graphic there is a risk of fabric shrink and 'over curing' causing puckering and/or cracking. I do my best to leave as much white space (ie bare garment) as possible as this helps to reduce the possibility of pucker and cracking... However, if someone is determined to cause cracking thru using an overly hot dryer or leaving the dryer run well past the dry point (laundromat dryers are notorious for this) there is nothing you can do to short of switching to water-based inks/discharge which I have yet to see quality commercial produced transfers that use either for somewhat obvious reasons...

If anyone knows of a commercial discharge transfer manufacturer that price point compares near plastisol transfers I'd love to know about it...


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## wormil

Every customer is going to wash and dry the shirts wrong. Count on it. A good print or transfer will hold up.


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## Kr8ve1

toriver said:


> I'm on wash/dry #3. No problems so far. I talked to the customer and they said wash #5 is when it started. They are using Tide, I'm using Gain. The detergent should not be causing the issue. I may have to try Stahls/Transfer Express to get through this order.
> 
> Thank you all for your input. I will keep you posted on the results.


It’s Tide that is likely the issue. It’s the harshest detergent on clothes. I always tell people to use anything but Tide.


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## Fbermudez

What I started doing after this happened to me is that now I sent out washing instructions with every shirt order at least to cover my back if its something that I did not do wrong.


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## toriver

Thank you all for your input. It took me until September to get the shirts from him. I had reordered all 150 shirts because he said "all of them are cracking". I replaced the 14 that he returned. When he said something about the shirts cracking I told him it had been 9 months. I'm not replacing any others. It's not up to me to let them wear the shirts for that length of time and reprint the entire order based on 14 messed up shirts. The shirts that I got back had grease on them and a couple had bleach spots. It was definitely the way they were washed and nothing that I had done wrong.

Thanks!

Cindy


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