# My screenprint is washing off on part of my design



## EmbGuy (Dec 20, 2015)

Hi. New to screen printing here. Decided to get some equipment and ran a few jobs. I just got an email from a customer that PART of the design is washing off. Flannel Boxercraft pants. White ink. Print flash print with plastisol ink. Print runs down the leg. Part of the top letter is washing off when my customer washed it. AHHH. I'm not sure if it is 1 pair or the whole run. I did a lot of testing prior to running production on my manual print machine and all seemed ok so I ran the project. I only flashed about 10 seconds.... 

I am thinking that I didn't flash correctly but am not positive. Did I over flash? Under flash? Or does this sound like something else? 

Thank you in advance. Any feedback would be MUCH appreciated.


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## jeron (Jul 16, 2012)

How did you cure the ink? What type of ink, plastisol, water-based?

From the sounds of it you didn't cure the ink properly


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## EmbGuy (Dec 20, 2015)

Thank you for replying. 
Plastisol ink. International coatings. Ran through on my Vastex ECII dryer. I don't remember exact specs, but my temp gun read plenty high. From my memory around 370 decrees F or so. Unfortunately you can't do a stretch test on this garment be the garment does not stretch but I did a scratch test and it proved ok. 

My flash is 18x18 and the design was 16" tall so the part that is washing off is towards the end of flash but I think if anything I Under flashed because I know over flashing causes issues.


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## Printor (Apr 16, 2015)

Over curing makes the ink more brittle and may crack sooner in the long run but wont make it wash off the fabric right away. my guess is your conveyer settings were borderline. and since the print was close to the ends of your flash, the middle was flashed better than the end. Is it possible that the ink was laid down thicker at the top end than the lower? If your stripe print was real close to the screen frame that can happen, If you changed your squeegee angle or pressure during your pass/s that can happen, If your off contact was different at both ends of the screen that can happen.


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## Kenneth59 (Sep 28, 2013)

Will only come off in an undercure condition.


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## Dakent012 (Nov 7, 2012)

Do you know what the dwell time in the dryer was? In addition to ensuring your garment exceeds the manufactures proper cure temperature it is also important to ensure a garment has the proper amount of time in the dryer chamber. We have multiple production lines and depending on the type of dryer/ink/ and garment style each one varies on proper dwell time. We arrived at the settings of each dryer after a variety of wash test on each press/dryer.


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