# Screen Printing on Sublimated Camo shirts



## teezecrost (May 9, 2007)

Hey, all!
I have a screen printing customer asking about printing on camo t-shirts. She's been told that printing on a sublimated material doesn't work. I've never heard this. Is it true?
Thanks for any info!


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## 20vK (Jul 9, 2011)

I can't see why it wouldn't work. The ink just bonds to the garment, right?

I print on coloured poly all the time - you just need low temp inks that cure under the sublimation temp.


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## mustangFWL (Feb 27, 2012)

You have to watch the bleeding... I print on badger digital camos from time to time... They have such a bad bleeding problem it's not funny... Even an athletic ink has problems holding the bleeding back


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## 20vK (Jul 9, 2011)

I always run my poly shirts through the drier at a higher temp first, then drop it to the poly ink temp. 

This helps to sublimate some of the ink out that may creep at your cure temp.

I did have dye migration issues with the black Patagonia shorts I did for our Olympic team though. They seemed to bleed before the ink was even close to cure temp. The blue and red tops were fine, though


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## MelonInk (Aug 29, 2008)

Just like everyone else said, keep the temp low and use a 100% poly ink as an underbase. We ALWAYS use 100% poly white ink as an underbase and then just print on top of that with either more 100% poly inks or inks meant for 50/50 shirts. We speed up our belt on the dryer and drop the temp about 25 degrees.


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## hbapparel (Jan 16, 2012)

We just did a bunch for travel teams from Holloway. Temp maxed out at 300, poly inks, still bled. They still look sweet though and bleed through have them a texture like.


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## OnTimeTees (Jan 27, 2014)

We use a grey base ink for the underbase of our polys. It works unbelievably well. A little more money but never any bleeding problems.


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## PatWibble (Mar 7, 2014)

teezecrost said:


> Hey, all!
> I have a screen printing customer asking about printing on camo t-shirts. She's been told that printing on a sublimated material doesn't work. I've never heard this. Is it true?
> Thanks for any info!


I've tried printing onto camo t-shirts that have been rotary printed, not sublimated. I had major problems with dye migration. Camo is worse than usual because you have three or four colours migrating.
Get her to provide a sample and tag it onto the end of your next print run that is using the ink that you would want to use for the job.
You could have a big expensive headache on your hands here.


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## texemb (Dec 2, 2005)

Just wanted to add my 2 cents worth. We did the same thing, high heat first to run the sublimated shirts through to help "evaporate" any residual dye.  We printed on the Badger red camo shirts with a sublimation blocking grey underbase and then added the poly low-bleed white and black to the top of the base. Low temp for curing the shirts after the printing, I believe it was no higher than 330 degrees. Shirts came out great, no dye migration the test prints.


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## redtoydog (May 18, 2013)

is the grey ink special for sublimation and if is could you tell me where you can get it.


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## SidelineSports (Jan 19, 2012)

OnTimeTees said:


> We use a grey base ink for the underbase of our polys. It works unbelievably well. A little more money but never any bleeding problems.


I use the Barrier Base Grey from Rutland it works for me. Contact rutland and they will tell u exactly whats to use!


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## Onewithpez (Jul 14, 2011)

Inks do not "evaporate" when you run them through the dryer before you print. All you are doing is making the problem worse. The inks will now attach to the plasticizer in your inks. 
I got this from 3 different pros this last year at ISS.


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## BandPrints (Feb 4, 2007)

If it is a smaller run you can run them through the dryer to help release the gases. Ultimately you will need a "low cure" series like Willex that cures at 290 or one stroke's. You can try an low bleed but be aware that you will want a good flash between each ink hit to stop the dye migration, they will need to come out as low as possible but cured. Dye migration will start around 320.


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## Steelheader100 (Jan 18, 2007)

One Stroke Inks makes ink for this. You can use the OSI Poly Transfer System or Sublimax LC Series. I also like Rutlands barrier grey.

Polyester Ink Page 1


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## BandPrints (Feb 4, 2007)

Finally had time to find it. One stroke also makes the Production Series.

One Stroke Inks - Screen Printing Inks & Supplies

This is made to fight dye migration and can be used on 100% poly or digital came. Difference between this and other inks is it isn't "low cure". Will need to cure at 320. But we use this a lot since on big runs such as C2 Sport we can't mix a low cure ink and the production series. We have printed a lot of basketball uniforms with badger and no issues. Production series flashes SUPER fast.


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## SidelineSports (Jan 19, 2012)

OnTimeTees said:


> We use a grey base ink for the underbase of our polys. It works unbelievably well. A little more money but never any bleeding problems.


I agree with OnTimeTees i use the grey barrier base from Rutland and i have done a lot of digital camo and never had any problems with bleeding


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## arobidoux (Jun 15, 2016)

I found this thread because I am scouring the internet for how to use a screen printed transfer on Sport-Tek's HexCamo shirts (LST370). It appears like the middle is sticking to the shirt but the outsides of the image peels up like nothing ever happened. I've tried a variety of temps, times and pressure... called the distributer AND where I bought the transfers. No one has any real concrete info. Pretty much at my wits end over here. Have all the supplies and the job is due 9/26. 56 shirts should not take this long! Does anyone have any advice? 

(Oh first time poster here, nice to meet you!)


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## tfike (May 2, 2011)

I've used the One Stroke and they bled just like our poly inks.


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## tfike (May 2, 2011)

We don't print on any of the digital camo but did a lot of testing before deciding not to use them. I use Rutlands poly inks and they bled, I tried One Stroke and had the same problems. The only thing we've used that worked was Rutlands Silextreme silicone base ink. It works great, looks amazing and also has a very nice hand. It's also expensive and a little difficult to work with compared to regular plastisol ink but once you get the hang of it it's not bad. We even tried vinyl transfers on the digital and it bled through them. The only other sublimated polys I've seen printed that looked good were way undercured and the ink washed off in about 2-3 washings.


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