# T-shirts ripping??????



## ghetotige (Nov 16, 2008)

Hi Guys I have has any one ever had or know of this problem.....
Using a brand of t-shirt called Blue Max in the UK which is 100% cotton, after printing a black t shirt with a design it tears like tissue paper...

I pre treat the garment using DTG pre treat,
Press for 10 sec high pressure at 150 deg/c 
Print the design,
Dry under a stahls clam press for 120sec at 150 deg/c very light almost no pressure....
Then hit it for 10 sec at 165 deg/c high pressure..

Not that any of that matters as I have tried every combination I could think of and it came down to the time, even a unpretreated unprinted garment will tear if heated for 120 sec..... The funny thing is a printed garment will be fine where the print is it just falls apart around the non printed but heated area as defined by the heat press....

So why do I bother with this T-shirt? Well to fair we have used Starworld T-shirts for most of the year they print OK, but nothing I have tested holds the white ink like those blue max... They look truly stunning when printed, the white ink goes on smooth and shiny with none of those pesky lint fibers protruding... 

Im thingking it has to do with moisture in the fabric causing it to become dry and brittle after heating... Maybe a blast of steam after drying would solve the problem... any thoughts?


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## ralphe (Sep 25, 2007)

yes this has happened to me, several times. It was the shirt and something in it that when heated to 350degrees for 16 seconds caused it to fall apart like toilet paper, except that toilet paper is stronger. pick another brand, or in a few months try this one again, my troubles seemed lot related, and my guess was that the manufacturer had a whole bunch of bad colors, bleached them, then made them black- who knows, but its really something to watch these shirts fall apart.


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## grboc (Feb 19, 2010)

Hey guys,

I'm from Brazil, new here in this forum, and I found you mainly because I was looking for any solution to this very same problem. Some t-shirts I've done recently are ripping like they were made of paper!

Do you think the problem shall be in the tees' fabric? Something that, when submitted to the pre-treatment and heat comes up and causes that problem?

By the way, congratulations for this space you created and mantain. I feel I will learn a lot here. Hope I can help anyone as well...

Regards, Gustavo


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## tiger24 (Jan 11, 2009)

hi guys,

no offence but although it is a problem for you guys that sounds crazy!
i would like to see one of these t-shirts rip like tissue paper.

without the heat the t-shirts are strong as a normal t-shirt to begin with or are they
poor quality to begin with?


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## grboc (Feb 19, 2010)

Man, I know it sounds crazy, and I'm so much surprised as you do. I've been talking to my dealer, to suppliers of pre-treat & ink, and we are all trying to understand what should have been causing this issue.

The t-shirts are not poor quality at all. I mean, if you see and touch one of them, you would never tell that. But, I don't know, maybe there's something wrong with the fibers, or whatever... something we cannot tell without a more accurate analysis.

By the way, answering your question, the problem only shows up after heating WITH pre-treatment. It's the combination that seems to be destroying the fabric's structure.

Thanks for your concern anyway.

Regards, Gustavo


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## sunnydayz (Jun 22, 2007)

What is the content of the t-shirt? What is it made of? Maybe there is some content that does not react well to heat. What about heating the shirt without the pretreatment? Does it still happen from the heat? I have never had this problem with any shirt. 

Where do you buy your pretreatment from? Is it dupont? Sorry for all the questions haha.


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## grboc (Feb 19, 2010)

Well, I know it is a (very) rare situation... if it weren't, we would have found an answer by now. 

About your questions:

100% cotton t-shirts
various dark colors (which need pre-treatment)
DuPont pre-treatment, no dilution

We tried heating without pre-treatment. All normal, no ripping at all. 

When we use pre-treatment and heat, the fabric's structure becomes extremely fragile. And there is nothing to do with the inks, cause we're testing without printing anything. 

Conclusion: there is surely something to do with "heat + pre-treatment". The question is: WHAT?

- heatpress pressure?
- temperature?
- time?
- bad quality fabric (not detectable without proper analysis)?


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## sunnydayz (Jun 22, 2007)

My first suspicion would be that the pretreatment is not dupont but being sold as. If they are 100% cotton shirts there should be no reaction like that from the dupont pretreatment. I have been using it for over 2 1/2 years and have never had this issue. What temp and time are you curing at? For dark shirts I cure the ink for 3 minutes at 325 to 330 degrees and that is Fahrenheit.


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## Stitch-Up (May 26, 2007)

Where in the UK are you guys? I'm not implying that your location is anything to do with your shirts ripping 

I'm in sunny Wales and interested in what hardware you're using to print darks?

John


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## corakes (Nov 15, 2007)

I had the same problem once...
I used a different brand of shirts and everything was fine.... I have tried many different brands - some will print perfect - some ok - and some.... well I wouldn´t want to sell them....


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## equipmentzone (Mar 26, 2008)

I would suspect it is something in the shirt brand that you are using. The simplest test, of course, is to see if this happens if you use a different brand.

I can tell you that we have sold thousands of gallons of white pretreatment and have never heard of this problem from any customer.

Harry
Equipment Zone


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## grboc (Feb 19, 2010)

We haven't tested with a different brand of t-shirt, but we did test with some tissue shreds, and they ripped as well. It doesn' mean a lot though, since we bought them just to test some printing issues, and don't know their quality in terms of textile...

We'll try with another t-shirts, and I'll let you know.

Thanks for everybody who are getting envolved in this thread!

Regards, Gustavo


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