# delivering shirts with platen marks?



## miktoxic (Feb 21, 2008)

just received my first order of plastisol transfers. i'm pressing both sides of a 100% cotton black tee. the transfers call for high pressure and after printing the first side (pocket) i'm realizing that i'll be delivering these to my customer with platen marks on them. i've shyed away from telling him that i would be using transfers so now i'm worried. without washing the whole bunch of shirts is there another way to avoid/get rid of the press marks? TIA


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## tiger24 (Jan 11, 2009)

hi tim,

this happens to me as well.
i sell them with the platen marks.
if they say anything at the time of sale i assure them the marks come out after the first wash.

other then washing them i don't know how to get rid of it...
maybe steam cleaner?


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## splathead (Dec 4, 2005)

Have you tried re-pressing the entire shirt?

I have read here that teflon pillows help eliminate marks.


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## miktoxic (Feb 21, 2008)

thanks for the quick replies. i was thinking about repressing the entire shirt but wouldn't know how to go about it. i mean do i press one part, reposition it, then press another etc.? or press it folded as one press? that's alot of pressing and changing pressure..........yikes! i think i'd rather spend the $10 and wash 60 shirts.


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## proworlded (Oct 3, 2006)

Tim, I don't think you will find that a problem. It does comes out with a wash and it is a 'nature of the beast'.


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## sunnydayz (Jun 22, 2007)

I myself would never give a customer a washed shirt. They want their shirts to look new, and once you wash it and fibers lift, it no longer looks new. One little trick that works for me sometimes if I have press marks in the shirts, is to lightly mist it will distilled water to lift the fibers back up.

When ever pressing a transfer, you should always put something like a mouse pad under the print area to raise it up. This will make it so that the press edges are not pressing into the garment, but only getting pressure where the print is.


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## miktoxic (Feb 21, 2008)

sunnydayz said:


> I myself would never give a customer a washed shirt. They want their shirts to look new, and once you wash it and fibers lift, it no longer looks new. One little trick that works for me sometimes if I have press marks in the shirts, is to lightly mist it will distilled water to lift the fibers back up.
> 
> When ever pressing a transfer, you should always put something like a mouse pad under the print area to raise it up. This will make it so that the press edges are not pressing into the garment, but only getting pressure where the print is.



yeah i know.........now (after i prewashed and dried 80 shirts). i had read posts in the past where people swore by it. and then last week i started a thread where i remember your response which made alot of sense to me (about people with allergies and the different detergents etc.). this is my first REAL job and i just wanted to do everything possible to give the customer the best. now it's this problem with the platen marks. i really like the way the transfers came out it's just when you hold the shirt up it's obvious that it was pressed. so i'm thinking that they've already been washed once, why not twice?


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## midwaste (Apr 8, 2008)

I did some charcoal shirts tonight and they had an outline, but it seemed to fade over a few minutes. I spritzed some with water, it seemed to help too.


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## majesticmind (Sep 1, 2007)

Do not wash the shirts. they are buying new shirts not used shirts. Dont worry about the marks. If you look very close at a screen printed shirt as soon as you pick it up after printing , you will see platen marks to. Dont worry yourself over it.



miktoxic said:


> thanks for the quick replies. i was thinking about repressing the entire shirt but wouldn't know how to go about it. i mean do i press one part, reposition it, then press another etc.? or press it folded as one press? that's alot of pressing and changing pressure..........yikes! i think i'd rather spend the $10 and wash 60 shirts.


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## proworlded (Oct 3, 2006)

I was not suggesting that you wash the shirts prior to giving them to the customer. I was saying that the press mark will dispappear after washing.


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## GHEENEE1 (Jan 8, 2007)

I throw the shirts with a damp towel, in the dryer to get rid of my platen marks as well as any size mouse pad marks. Mike P.S. I only use pre shrunk shirts though.


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## miktoxic (Feb 21, 2008)

the customer bought the shirts and gave them to me so he knows they are not 'used'. he's also a friend so that gives me some leeway. i thought that if you applied ink or vinyl to 100% cotton that wasn't pre-shrunk that the shirt would shrink (once dried) and not the print, leaving wrinkles etc. now i know. thanks all!


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## wormil (Jan 7, 2008)

Don't worry about it. The marks will fade after a little time and I've never had anyone even mention it. A teflon pillow does help a bit, they're also just nice to have.


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## tofshirt (Jan 7, 2009)

We print on mostly Bamboo fabrics and regardless of the pressure it leaves terrible platen marks.
Even when you use a pillow or mousepad, you will still have some sort of box around your design.
I would Never sell a garment with press marks on it!! ( If you want to keep a good reputation!!)
Repressing the whole shirt?? looks terrible!! You will see the seams and especially the neck pressed in the back of the shirt.
We sell most our garments in our retailstore and only a small percentage of our business goes to custom orders for other companies.
The only way we get our garments to look decent without press marks is by steaming them!!
It takes several minutes for each shirt, but you will have a professional end result.. ( and that is what we are after!!)
You can buy a steamer at Wallmart for $50.00 ----> $125.00
Hang your shirt on a hanger and go up and down with the steamer......the press marks will disappear right in front of your eyes.
The customer will now receive a proffesional printed garment without wrinkles and Press marks.
A happy customer will come back to you and also tell his friends!!
In the end YOU will also get the business from the other clothing printers, because no customer wants to buy a shirt with Ugly shirt press marks and the Guy behind the counter telling you it will get better after you wash it.
Maybe if your customer is looking for the cheapest chinese $1.50 giveaway promo shirts this is acceptable?

I haven't tried the the damp towel in the dryer, but I am going to give that a go?
In my trials i did trie a garment rack with zipper tent around it...put the steamer in the bottom for a 1/2 hour to raise the humidity to nearly a 100%.... this faded the press mark a little, but it was still visible.


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## wormil (Jan 7, 2008)

It sounds like you're using way too much pressure or maybe the rayon is just more susceptible.


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## cctsandwich1 (Aug 5, 2008)

We steam ours out. Same with embroidery hoop rings.


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## HGE (Mar 3, 2009)

I have done alot of shirts that are pressed and have only had one customer even mention it, I told them that it will be gone after one washing and the average person does not even see the marks or believe that it is marks/lines from folding.
But after reading this post and a couple others I decided to go to a local shop that sells tourist shirts etc and see if I was correct in my assumptions.
I picked out a couple shirts that I felt the platen marks were very obvious and asked a few customers in the shop if they saw anything on the shirt that would detour them from buying the shirt. I held it up and all three of the people I asked did not even see the marks. They seemed to be more focused on the design rather then the marks or wrinkles on the shirt.
So then I went to a local shop that I had sold transfers to and looked at the shirts they had on display. On the black ones I could see a faint mark but not as bad as when I first pressed it. I also bulk fold when I deliver goods to customers. I find that the ones that fold them individually have handled the shirt more and the platen marks seem to fade after more handling. I then asked the owner if he had had any complaints or concerns about the shirts. He stated "No" the only requests he had were for different colors and had no complaints on the shirts.
Well just another 2 cents thown in the pot, i think that being as we print the shirts we know that the platen marks are there and see them more then others because we are looking for them while the average person is not looking for the marks and therefore does not see them as much as we do... 2 cents that make sense? you decide...!


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## miktoxic (Feb 21, 2008)

i completed the order the other day. i was nervous because it was my first job with plastisol transfers. i had read in previous posts started almost a year ago where people highly regarded on this forum had said to always prewash the shirts. coming from the silkscreening side of the industry i kinda found this strange but taking notes and wanting to make sure i followed tips to the t i went ahead and did it for this order. then came the platen marks issue. after pressing once on the front and twice on the back i wanted to test the hold-up of the transfer in the wash as if i were a union electrician doing his laundry (no offense to these guys but i doubt if they follow garment care instructions). i tossed my shirt in the wash along with a load of regular stuff and then threw in in the dryer at high temp. after 20 mins the clothes were dry and the transfers came out fine (no probs what so ever). so i don't care if the shirts don't look brand new (i.e. right out of the box) i'd rather give a shirt to my customer without the outline of the pocket and collar smashed into the back. don't most customers hold the shirt up and take a look at it when pulling it off a stack? i thought the object of giving them plastisols was giving them silkscreen like product? how can you say that when there's press marks all over the shirts? (and it's obvious)


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## tiger24 (Jan 11, 2009)

HGE said:


> I have done alot of shirts that are pressed and have only had one customer even mention it, I told them that it will be gone after one washing and the average person does not even see the marks or believe that it is marks/lines from folding.
> But after reading this post and a couple others I decided to go to a local shop that sells tourist shirts etc and see if I was correct in my assumptions.
> I picked out a couple shirts that I felt the platen marks were very obvious and asked a few customers in the shop if they saw anything on the shirt that would detour them from buying the shirt. I held it up and all three of the people I asked did not even see the marks. They seemed to be more focused on the design rather then the marks or wrinkles on the shirt.
> So then I went to a local shop that I had sold transfers to and looked at the shirts they had on display. On the black ones I could see a faint mark but not as bad as when I first pressed it. I also bulk fold when I deliver goods to customers. I find that the ones that fold them individually have handled the shirt more and the platen marks seem to fade after more handling. I then asked the owner if he had had any complaints or concerns about the shirts. He stated "No" the only requests he had were for different colors and had no complaints on the shirts.
> Well just another 2 cents thown in the pot, i think that being as we print the shirts we know that the platen marks are there and see them more then others because we are looking for them while the average person is not looking for the marks and therefore does not see them as much as we do... 2 cents that make sense? you decide...!


hi orion,

great recon work!
i found your post very helpful.


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## miktoxic (Feb 21, 2008)

as for my last post i washed the one shirt..........and as i said i couldn't be happier........no issues with the plastisol transfers in the wash and in the hot dryer without special care (i.e. turning garment inside out etc.) and i thought i would do it to all of the lot because it washed the marks out. anyways, so the customer is one of my friends who i gave a shirt to off the top w/o washing and "i thought" obvious platen marks on it. well we both went to our local watering hole where an hour later he had given it to another one of my friends who sported it the rest of the night with rave revues from everyone (you don't know my friends...geez). well so much for the concern!
thanks everybody for your input. as orion had said above i think the general public (outside of what we do printing shirts) focus more on the design rather than a mark caused by the pressing. -peace. NO MORE WASHING SHIRTS!!


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## HGE (Mar 3, 2009)

I'm glad it worked out. It seems to me that the marks are terrible and obvious, _but_ it does seem that the average Joe does not see them or really mind if they do and once washed like you were stating, they are gone anyways.
I think it just means we are more aware of them because we make them!!!
Still glad that all turned out well, saves time in the future...!


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## sjidohair (Apr 9, 2008)

If I recall, the press mark, is from the Moisture that is lost on the shirt while pressing, and comes back slowly red usually takes 20 minutes or so to grab moisture,, back, but if you are in a very dry area,, and it is a Moisure issue, after one wash it goes,, if it does not, it is a temp problem with the shirt,, 
My worst, is Safety Green,, in the summer, when it is dry.

Now as mentioned above a Steamer, would be nice,, and makes sense,,, thanks for the tip
MMM


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