# Charcoal/Asphalt Discoloration after curing...



## EricDeem (May 7, 2011)

I have tried several brands so worse than others but for some reason I keep having issues with dark grey/charcoal/asphalt color shirts. Everything looks great then I get a "bleaching" effect that appears around the image after curing the ink!! Anyone else have this issue and what have you done to resolve it? I have used LAT, AA, District, Canvas and Cotton Heritage and ALL of them have this issue.


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## lkt1954 (Nov 15, 2009)

Eric- we had an issue with LAT 6901 charcoal putting ghost images on the second side. Dressing the shirts to dry pretreat and cure the print solved the problem. We have done several other LAT colors and didn't get any ghosting. 

Currently running a job on CH asphalt tees, I will look very close and see if any bleaching effect. We have had these shirts since mid fall and have more coming next week. I will keep a couple of the older ones back and compare to new ones. Maybe its a issue with where they are made or like Gildan they have done something to the material.

I will keep an eye open for this effect, since these colors are our new black.. everyone wants this color. Sorry I couldn't be of more help.


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## 23spiderman (Jun 26, 2008)

yes, i have noticed this myself. for me, backing off the pretreat amount is what helped. i did wash one that i had done for a customer, and it looks fine after being washed, but i realize that isn't a practical solution.


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## treefox2118 (Sep 23, 2010)

Which pretreat a did you all use?


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## EricDeem (May 7, 2011)

I've had issues with DuPont and image armor.


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## whitetigermom (May 31, 2013)

Does any one know what to do with the Charcoal grey yet? We have a large order to do and has to be done by next week. I order Charcoal for the Adult size in District and the kids in Gildan both 100% cotton.


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## lkt1954 (Nov 15, 2009)

One of our employees tried dressing each side and going to a cure time of [email protected] 45 seconds and [email protected] 90 seconds. This has seemed to stop this issue on both cotton heritage & American apparel tees. I realize this is 45 seconds less than recommended, but our heatpress is air fusion and the lowest pressure we can set it to is 20 psi, rather than light pressure like a clam press. So I am thinking extra pressure offsets shorter cure time.

Wash test have been good. Customer picked up an order of 125+ tees last week and so far only 1 has come back with print coming off (I suspect pretreat issue). 

What I noticed was happening when doing 2 passes @ 90 seconds & 20psi it was like the ink was being pressed further into the fabric (LAT tees) giving it a halo effect. While at 45 & 90 second cure time it didn't happen. We have switched to these cure time on all our lighter weight tees and the results are great. I have washed several and they still look good.


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