# Ink not going through screen on hoodies



## bob57 (Oct 2, 2013)

Doing a run of hoodies, the first few were fine but then I started getting large areas of the screen the ink would not go through. I'm having the problem on several of the screens. The off contact is good, the garment is secure on the platten but no matter how many times I squeege, the ink just sits in the screen making a real mess of the garment. If I put a tee shirt on the platten the ink goes through fine. I've done a lot of tees but not many hoodies and most 1 color. This is 3 color job with a white underbase.


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## PatWibble (Mar 7, 2014)

Are you positive the off contact is ok? In needs to be higher than it is for t-shirts ( unless using waterbased ink). If it work ok for t-shirts it sounds like an off contact problem.

What press are you using - how many platens? Are you allowing the underbase to cool before printing the other colours. Printing onto a hot platen too soon after flashing can cause the ink to cure in the screen. That will only be made worse if you are curing on the press as well.


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## bob57 (Oct 2, 2013)

I'm have a 6 color Workhorse manual press. I have the off contact higher than for tee shirts but I'll bring it up some more and try it. I am doing a couple flash cures and I do make sure it cools enough before doing the next color. The ink doesn't seem to dry, it just sits in the screen for some reason.


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## 2020 PrintWorks (Apr 22, 2011)

It would help if you could take pics. Is this happening on the underbase screen or the overprint screens or all of the above?


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## bob57 (Oct 2, 2013)

It's happening on all the colors. White underbase and colors printed on the underbase. I've even had trouble printing a second white after flash curing the first white. I'm attaching a pic if it can help.


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## screen260 (Aug 3, 2008)

What mesh screens are you using?


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## 2020 PrintWorks (Apr 22, 2011)

Your just not clearing your screen on your first coat of white. Just need to use more pressure or more passes with the squeegee. A softer squeegee will make it easier if your using a pull stroke(which I recommend). If none of those work you'll have to go to a lower mesh screen. It can be really tough to get white to lay down good on a sweatshirt with anything higher than a 156. Some hoodies have a coarser weave too and are near impossible some times.


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## luckypw (Nov 5, 2015)

How close is the flash (position) to the print station. I agree that the screens could be too hot and the ink is curing in the screens....as mentioned above.


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