# Mushy print with white ink on dark T



## mrOscience (May 1, 2013)

Greetings from Nebraska,
I have been printing for 20 years but can't figure out why when printing on dark T's with light ink, sometimes it looks "mushy". We strive to give the customer a "crisp" looking print that if you look close, you can actually see the mesh lines from the screen in the print. We are using a 89 mesh, bright tiger ink, sharp stiff (green) squeegee and this happens on our auto and manual printer. Looks the same on 100% or 50/50 cotton T's. I've also tried 1/8 " off contact with the same result. Any ideas out there?
Thanks,
Dan


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## Cl0ckw0rk (Jul 1, 2015)

Maybe you mesh count is to low, if you've ever seen a 38 mesh it looks like your screen door so maybe try going up to a 156. I get that problem sometimes when printing on a solid white underlay, the color on top sometimes gets strange moire or mesh lines.


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## Gparmesan (Jul 2, 2015)

any way you can post a pic of what you mean by "mushy"?


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## mrOscience (May 1, 2013)

I don't have a camera to do that close up.


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## synful prod (Apr 27, 2011)

why are yo using 86 mess? that is laying down a LOT of ink. you should be able to run a 160-200 and get a good white ink coverage. We only use 86-90 mesh when we do glitter or shimmer inks.


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## artlife (Jan 15, 2010)

mrOscience said:


> Greetings from Nebraska,
> I have been printing for 20 years but can't figure out why when printing on dark T's with light ink, sometimes it looks "mushy". We strive to give the customer a "crisp" looking print that if you look close, you can actually see the mesh lines from the screen in the print. We are using a 89 mesh, bright tiger ink, sharp stiff (green) squeegee and this happens on our auto and manual printer. Looks the same on 100% or 50/50 cotton T's. I've also tried 1/8 " off contact with the same result. Any ideas out there?
> Thanks,
> Dan


Okay first of all you really shouldn't see the mesh lines in a print. To get a crisp edge you need a couple of things- a mesh appropriate to the art and ink, and an emulsion that gives you good edge definition. This means the emulsion bridges the gap between threads without washing out to the next thread (which creates a sawtooth or jagged look). To achieve this on lower meshes you may need an 1 more coat of emulsion than you would put on your high mesh. That extra coat also allows you to lay down a nice deposit of ink without excessive floods and squeegee passes. Excessive flooding and too many passes can result in a) too much ink on the shirt b) ink getting pushed outside the edge of the art creating fuzzy edges and a messy looking print c) ink getting pushed into the fabric instead of a thin layer on top of the fabric. Plastisol inks are designed to lay on top of the fabric. As for correct mesh that is somewhat up to what you are comfortable printing, but all inks come with a data sheet that will give the recommended mesh counts for the optimum results. 
You can print from a low mesh and get a real crisp lovely print with nice opacity without it being heavy despite what some people think. For white or light color ink on a dark shirt you don't need to go as low as 86 but if you do, you can print it in one pass with no or only light flood. Metallics, sparkle/glitter and other specialty inks the mesh needs to accommodate the size of the particles (or be thick enough ink deposit) so be sure and check the manufacturer recommendation for mesh or you'll be printing too much carrier vs particles.


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## artlife (Jan 15, 2010)

You don't need a hard squeegee. If the squeegee is somewhat pliable you can lay down a smoother coat of ink in less passes unless your ink is really stiff.


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## mrOscience (May 1, 2013)

Thanks Artlife. We must be doing something wrong because most of the time we make 2 passes, flash and one more pass to get the white opaque enough on black T's. This is using brite tiger ink thru 89 mesh. Is there a better (more opaque) white ink?


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## gatorGRAFIX (Mar 11, 2015)

I agree with sinful on this one. I use 110m a lot for white and when there is detail in my white print I move up to a 200m screen. I think that 86 mesh that you are using is muddying up the white ink on you.

I like Union Bright Cotton white and One Stroke make a pretty darn good white ink too.

I haven't used the Tiger White in some time now so I cannot comment on it really.


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## artlife (Jan 15, 2010)

mrOscience said:


> Thanks Artlife. We must be doing something wrong because most of the time we make 2 passes, flash and one more pass to get the white opaque enough on black T's. This is using brite tiger ink thru 89 mesh. Is there a better (more opaque) white ink?


It depends on your needs and what type fabric you print most. You may need a couple of different whites. We use One Stroke white (2 different types) but we do mostly polyester so our #1 thing is dye migration. I recently tried an International Coatings white for cotton that works nicely on a 125 or higher, flashes very fast and is a very smooth matte finish (great as an underbase/white in a multicolor design) . Many companies will happily send small samples so try some out. I think you need to change if it takes that much ink to get good opacity.


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## synful prod (Apr 27, 2011)

what's your off contact on your screen? could also be a problem too.


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## mrOscience (May 1, 2013)

Thanks guys. We have tried different off-contact distances. We are sending samples to the ink mfr. to see what they say.


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