# Issue with several batches from F&M...advice / help / questions



## DUBKORPS (Sep 17, 2009)

Short background on our company...we have small clothing line that we retail from our website. We have been screen printing for the past 2 years and recently wanted to give transfers a try. We bought a top of the line press (16x20) and started ordering transfers. 

We were very very happy with our first couple designs so we jumped in whole hog and started ordering designs by the hundreds and moving all of our designs over to transfers. 

We have several designs that are Fashion forumla grey ink and we are getting a clear under coat that shows up around all of the artwork. 

It simply looks like an off registration issue as it clearly looks like the clear under base is high left from the design a fraction. Some of the transfers we have received are worse then others. 

I am not familiar with the process in which these transfers are made and I really do not know the reason for the clear under base as dealing with the sales people and not production people is hard to get technical answers.

We have since gone back and forth with F&M over the past few weeks and we were told they had some registration issues. They agreed to reprint our desings free of charge....well they show up and they still look the same ! 

We are not talking about small orders here at all. We currently have several hundred transfers per design spread across possibly 10 or more designs. 

We sent samples back to F&M, we spoke to some VP guy and sent him specific samples but still our designs show up reprinted with the same issues !!

We are getting a little frustrated with this issue and are at a loss. I want to find another supplier but jumping all around is such a waste of time when you already have a business relationship with said company. 

Can anyone advise as to what the clear is under the artwork (all one color designs) and what is the process for making these transfers that somehow is causing all the design to arrive out of registration ? 

I will say F&M has been great at getting us new replacements but they are pointless if they are going to keep sending the same crappy product. 

The biggest problem I can see here is that F&M has offices all over the place and those whom we are dealing with have no contact physically with the production floor. It seems that the QC process is lacking on this. 

Help. 

RUSS


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## splathead (Dec 4, 2005)

Russ, I having difficulty understanding in my head what you are seeing? Do you have a picture you can post of the transfer on a garment?


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## DUBKORPS (Sep 17, 2009)

I may have an image saved from sending to F&M but the best I can describe is this....

Assume you are screen printing a one color design and you were laying down a white under base and then putting a red ink over the top. When the red is put down over the top the white is peeking out from behind the red. 

Thats the best I can describe but F&M is using a clear "glue" under our grey ink. When we transfer the design we are getting a clear "ghosting" showing our from under out design. 

If we print it on a white garment is not noticeable but we print everything on darks so essentially every shirt has a clear highlight to it.


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## DUBKORPS (Sep 17, 2009)




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## DUBKORPS (Sep 17, 2009)

Also let me add that all of these are the "fashion formula" transfers.


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## wormil (Jan 7, 2008)

Based on other threads it sounds as if there has been some changes in their process and quality control. I haven't ordered from them in a good while so I haven't experienced these problems but I will be ordering again soon and I can't have any clear halo around my prints on darks.


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## scottyjr (Sep 12, 2009)

In the thread following this thread, there is an image posted of a transfer printed by F&M that has the unwanted outline similar to yours. It doesn't looks like a registration problem. If it were, the outline on the letter D wouldn't have the outline on both sides of the vertical elements.

There is posted within the thread a response from F&M about this problem. It seems that they overprint the entired graphic with a clear coat and it seems that they trap (overprint with a spread) the graphic rather than try for an precisely registered, no-trap print.

I did read in other posts that this 'shadow' washes out. I'm suspecting that this clear coat is not a plastisol ink but an adhesive to ensure a good transfer application and that the adhesive 'shadow' then washes out.

- Scotty


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## midwaste (Apr 8, 2008)

The "shadow" does NOT wash out.


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