# Printing white ink on dark garment on automatic press?



## Unik Ink (Nov 21, 2006)

We recently had our first automatic press installed, and we ran an order of 200 red shirts with a white only print. I am trying to find a method to print the white without having to p/f/p. Here is what we currently tried with ok results. We ended up having to flash to get the coverage that we wanted though.

• Newman Roller frames- 156 mesh high tension
• 1 coat emulsion on squeegee side, 3 coats t-shirt side, round edge of scoop coat used
• Wilflex Bright Tiger white ink
• 70 single durometer squeegee
• Flood stroke pressure set high to fill the stencil when flooding.
• Squeegee stroke pressure set just enough to clear screen. Squeegee speed slow.
• Also tried double stroke which helped a bit, but still not opaque enough.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I just don't want to have to p/f/p/f when printing multicolor designs on dark garments.


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## red514 (Jul 21, 2009)

for a bright white on darks (especially reds, they're the worst for dye migration), i wouldn't recommend any other way other then p/f/p

if you're not doing a p/f/p then you're most probably needing to lay down more ink for good coverage and brightness giving a heavy hand feel and possibly a rough print. in my personal opinion p/f/p is the way to go for a bright white with a decent hand feel and smooth print.


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## foot print (Jun 2, 2010)

did you use 2 screens..? P-F----P on your last arm So if you have a 8 color auto print on arm 1 flash arm 2 print arm 8 also make sure your off contact is good to high and you will pop a screen to low and screens won't clear.


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## INKSCREENS (Jan 28, 2008)

Unik Ink said:


> We recently had our first automatic press installed, and we ran an order of 200 red shirts with a white only print. I am trying to find a method to print the white without having to p/f/p. Here is what we currently tried with ok results. We ended up having to flash to get the coverage that we wanted though.
> 
> • Newman Roller frames- 156 mesh high tension
> • 1 coat emulsion on squeegee side, 3 coats t-shirt side, round edge of scoop coat used
> ...


What was the tension reading and off contact? And what was the squeegee pressure at? Have you made sure the floodbar is "filling" the mesh?


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## Unik Ink (Nov 21, 2006)

I used one screen and just ran the shirts around twice, but if I did it again I would use two screens. I am mainly concerned about multi color prints on dark. I would need to print white, flash, then print the other colors. It is a 10 color very old American Centurian (8 working heads), with flashes at 2 & 8 (8 flash rotate motor is messed up and flash does not rotate off press when press is idle). I turned up the mechanical pressure on the floodbar to where I could see the image area once flooded instead of a layer of ink covering image area, and had the air pressure on the head at 45 psi. The squeegee pressure allowed the ink to barely release from mesh with one stroke. No newton meter, but we just retightened our frames as tight as we could make them. Off contact was set to 1/8" by the tech that did the install last week (Ed with Press Doctor- awesome guy).

Here are possible solutions that I thought of in order of preference. Let me know if they are viable solutions or waste of time:

• softer squeegee
• more off contact 
• thicker stencil
• plastisol discharge white ink
• thick athletic ink


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## INKSCREENS (Jan 28, 2008)

Unik Ink said:


> I used one screen and just ran the shirts around twice, but if I did it again I would use two screens. I am mainly concerned about multi color prints on dark. I would need to print white, flash, then print the other colors. It is a 10 color very old American Centurian (8 working heads), with flashes at 2 & 8 (8 flash rotate motor is messed up and flash does not rotate off press when press is idle). I turned up the mechanical pressure on the floodbar to where I could see the image area once flooded instead of a layer of ink covering image area, and had the air pressure on the head at 45 psi. The squeegee pressure allowed the ink to barely release from mesh with one stroke. No newton meter, but we just retightened our frames as tight as we could make them. Off contact was set to 1/8" by the tech that did the install last week (Ed with Press Doctor- awesome guy).
> 
> Here are possible solutions that I thought of in order of preference. Let me know if they are viable solutions or waste of time:
> 
> ...


I would try more off contact, a thicker stencil (3/3 coat), more squeegee angle, and maybe some union diamond white lo bleed ink. Bright tiger from Wilflex is a great all purpose ink, but we find it doesn't handle bleed too well.

EDIT: I would also use the lowest squeegee pressure you can, just enough to transfer the ink onto the shirt. Make sure the ink is a bit warm and worked before printing the run. At 35 newtons, our squeegee pressure is usually at 25-30psi on most shirts.


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## out da box (May 1, 2007)

A lot of folks have tried getting one hit white on an auto. I almost did it once, but it very very hard. nothing like manually printing white. I've heard beveled squegees and triple durometer will help, but I have not tried. Let us know if you get it to work.


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## printing40years (Dec 27, 2008)

Union 1050 Low Bleed Polyester white is a good sugestion....especially on red or maroon shirts.


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## malibusurfer (Dec 21, 2006)

This may be a bit more advanced (or not); but my shop would print a discharge base or discharge white (160 mesh) with a plastisol white on top (230 mesh) - yes, this is still a print/flash/print method, but will yield the softest print possible. As previously mentioned, red shirts are one of the more difficult to put a pure white on if not familiar.

Mike-


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## coacheschoice (Feb 19, 2011)

we did a lot of research as well and wound-up buying two flash units for our automatic... p/f/p/f is the best for quality.... thanks


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## Unik Ink (Nov 21, 2006)

Thanks for all of the suggestions. I contacted another local printer that I have a good relationship with, and he suggested print white underbase, flash, print other colors, then have another white screen at the last print head for just the white parts of the design that are showing. I plan on trying the other suggestions as well to come up with a way that we don't lose a color where the second white screen would be.


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## red514 (Jul 21, 2009)

Unik Ink said:


> Thanks for all of the suggestions. I contacted another local printer that I have a good relationship with, and he suggested print white underbase, flash, print other colors, then have another white screen at the last print head for just the white parts of the design that are showing. I plan on trying the other suggestions as well to come up with a way that we don't lose a color where the second white screen would be.


using the top white is good standard practice, you'll get a nice bright white without a heavy hand this way. This really is the ideal solution in my opinion but i realize you are trying not to add that extra screen.
the other solutions may cause more issues like excessive ink deposit, smudging/bleeding, pickup,...

would like to hear the results!


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## alan802 (Mar 24, 2008)

I am very familiar with printing on an older centurian. If you'd like to talk about it or need any additional tips with that machine and printing on it, email me at alan@SRimonogramming.com


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## ffokazak (Feb 23, 2006)

coacheschoice said:


> we did a lot of research as well and wound-up buying two flash units for our automatic... p/f/p/f is the best for quality.... thanks


What is the second flash for?

Are you printing colours on top?


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