# screen printing on polyester



## theTshirtkid

Hey everyone I am trying to print a simple logo an a tech running shirt (ie.polyester) I need to know what kind of ink to use and how long to cure it and any other advice one might have. thanks!


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## Moo Spot Prints

*Re: printing on polyester*

Peruse the ink manufactuers' web sites. They have guidelines for their inks. I know union ink has a line specifically for polyester.


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## Jasonda

*Re: printing on polyester*

While you _can_ screenprint on polyester, the best way to print on it is to use dye sublimation. Check out this section of the forum:

http://www.t-shirtforums.com/dye-sublimation/

Also this website:

DyeSub.org - An educational site for dye sublimation and digital transfer printing.

Also these threads:

http://www.t-shirtforums.com/dye-sublimation/t8665.html

http://www.t-shirtforums.com/dye-sublimation/t4916.html

http://www.t-shirtforums.com/dye-sublimation/t6840.html


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## Moo Spot Prints

*Re: printing on polyester*



Jasonda said:


> While you _can_ screenprint on polyester, the best way to print on it is to use dye sublimation.


Sublimation is great, if the fabric can handle the temperatures. Most of the stuff that the running shirts are made from cannot. Look through some of the threads I've started to see what I've found out.


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## theTshirtkid

*Re: printing on polyester*

Thanks! for the advice ! I am set up to screen and have no Dye Sub stuff.
I am just doing a small batch for a running club.
I also checked at union for their poly ink and they don't have black! do you know of any other brands that have poly ink?


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## Rodney

I think rutland has a black ink for 100% polyester:
Rutland: Black Ink Selection Table


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## theTshirtkid

I'm a little slow. I have been looking all over the internet to buy this ink can you suggest a good place!


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## Fluid

one of the main worries with poly's is that the dye migrations is pure hell. Most ink brands should carry inks for poly garments. 
If your printing multi colored on dark garments get yourself a Poly white. You can use your regular plasticol inks for the top colors but you definently need a poly white or your inks will turn colors after running throught hte dryer and then even more after cooling.


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## theTshirtkid

I am printing on white shirts.


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## GSG

OK if you are using a 100% white polyester shirt you wont have migration at all. As simple as using a regular plastisol black ink print it on the white shirt. If you are using any other colored polyester you will have to print a poly white cure that then print the color on top of it. Printing a nylon shirt just use plastisol mixing in nylon bond chemical with your ink. Printing spandex you mix in spandesol with your plastisol it works. ANOTHER THING TO TAKE IN TO ACCOUNT TO MAKE 100% SURE THE PLASTISOL INK BONDS ON TO THE POLYESTER SHIRT YOU NEED TO ADD 5% OF NYLABOND CATALYST/ADDITIVE.


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## FreeYourself

What about 65/35 poly-cotton?
would a garment like that need a special treatment as well?


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## Fluid

only issue you might have is dye migration I mentioned above. Polyester dys migrate through the inks big time. Stopping this can be a pain depending on the color. If you print a noreml white on a poly normally, after running thought the dryer and cooling, You pretty much guranteed the ink will have taken on a tint of the shirt color.


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## COEDS

I suggest you talk to steve at shopdyesub.com. He is a wealth of information on printing with various types of ink.


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## Moo Spot Prints

Is dye migration something that you only have to worry about when you screen the shirts or is it also a problem for transfers?


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## Fluid

With too much pressure youll get bad results as well. Im not qualified in this are yert have read a lot in Industry Magazines. Make sure you follow the transfer specs for poly garments.


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## jkeezy

I am a soccer coach that just got a sponsor for our team. I have a screen with the logo of our sponsors and want to print it on a blue 100% poly jersey. The logo will be in white ink. My experience to date is simple cotton screen printing. Can someone tell me the best way to print with limited equipment on polyester.


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## Nehe555

i've got the same question. any answers out there?


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## Tj Ryonet Tech

You want to use a Low-bleed poly white ink to prevent dye migration.


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## TshirtGuru

Can dye migration occur later on after you print? Such as after you wear and wash the shirt?


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## davisint

The keys to printing polyester are using a good quality poly ink, an appropriate ink deposit, getting a full cure without overheating the garment.

It is possible to experience bleeding after you print. This is usually caused by too little ink or ink that is not fully cured. Most plastisols cure at 320 deg, but there are some poly inks that cure at 290. Too much heat excites the dye molecules causing the dye to sublimate through the ink film. The lower cure temperature helps avoid this.

Print-flash-print with 83-110 mesh and watch your cure and flash temperatures.


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## TshirtGuru

davisint said:


> The keys to printing polyester are using a good quality poly ink, an appropriate ink deposit, getting a full cure without overheating the garment.
> 
> It is possible to experience bleeding after you print. This is usually caused by too little ink or ink that is not fully cured. Most plastisols cure at 320 deg, but there are some poly inks that cure at 290. Too much heat excites the dye molecules causing the dye to sublimate through the ink film. The lower cure temperature helps avoid this.
> 
> Print-flash-print with 83-110 mesh and watch your cure and flash temperatures.


Thanks,

I have a 5 color print, white underbase included with white in the graphic on black dri fit shirts.

What I plan to do which I haven't done in the past is mix some high opaque white regular plastisol ink with lo bleed diamond white (I noticed the lo bleed has some puff in it).

Then I will print the rest with regular plastisol.


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## davisint

TshirtGuru said:


> Thanks,
> 
> I have a 5 color print, white underbase included with white in the graphic on black dri fit shirts.
> 
> What I plan to do which I haven't done in the past is mix some high opaque white regular plastisol ink with lo bleed diamond white (I noticed the lo bleed has some puff in it).
> 
> Then I will print the rest with regular plastisol.


When it comes to bleed resistance I would say there are 4 categories of whites:

1.) Cotton whites. Virtually no bleed resistance (Usually have the term cotton white right in their name)

2.) Multipurpose low bleed whites. Used for cotton and most 50/50 garments. 6 out of 10 bleed resistance (Snap white, Arctic White, ITC 7031, Ryonet, Buffalo, Bright Tiger, etc)

3.) Poly Blend Whites. Often used for general purpose as well but have slightly higher bleed resistance for troublesome polyester blends 7 out of 10 bleed resistance (Excalibur 50/50, Diamond White, Phoenix White, etc)

4.) Poly whites. Made for 100% poly applications. 9 out of 10 bleed resistance (ITC Paramount, One Stroke, Wilflex Poly, Excalibur Sport Pro, Union Poly, etc)

Some dry fit materials are pretty good to print on and other bleed like stuck pigs. Printing a poly white base and general purpose colors on top would be acceptable, but I am concerned that you are starting with a poly blend ink (I assume you meant Union Diamond white) and are further reducing the bleed resistance by mixing it with a less bleed resistant ink. Unless you know that your material is not a bad bleeder, I would recommend a Poly white as the underbase. 

Taking your word for it that the Diamond white does, all of the poly blend inks I listed above have some blowing agent in them. Not all of the poly whites do however. I know Paramount does not. Some Poly whites can have good stretch characteristics which is good for dri fit as well.


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## abchung

Hi all,
Does anyone know the difference between WilFlex Athletic Trophy White and Wilflex Poly White?

Any help would be great.

Also which is best(ie whitest) to print on Ploy?


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## SilverStitch

TshirtGuru said:


> Thanks,
> 
> I have a 5 color print, white underbase included with white in the graphic on black dri fit shirts.
> 
> What I plan to do which I haven't done in the past is mix some high opaque white regular plastisol ink with lo bleed diamond white (I noticed the lo bleed has some puff in it).
> 
> Then I will print the rest with regular plastisol.


 
Hi. How do you go about spot drying between colours? or do you spot dry at all? I've had no luck with multiple colour prints on poly shirts, because the polyester can't take the heat, and lifts off my platen when heated.


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## DedMan

We use One Stroke Ghost inks for poly with good results.


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## lpbosch

I am printing on 100% Polyester soccer jersey's. One white one black. The white jersey will have black printed on it and the black will have white printed on it. How can I do this? Do I need a bonding agent such as Tri-Bond?


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## drscotty14

i have read that one of the main thing poly ink does is cure at a lower temp (285-300 instead of 320) this would help as to not overheat the dye ink in the shirt. but if you print plastisol over a white poly base, you defeat the purpose of curing at a lower temp because now your shirt has to cure at 320. can anyone else chime in?? i need to buy a poly ink and print regular plastisol on top of it on black 50/50


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## Tj Ryonet Tech

if you have a two color job on poly and you are going to use a performance poly white ink (cures 285-300) then you will also want to use a performance poly for the other colors as well. Most poly lines have several colors available. A poly black will allow you to cure both in the 285-300 range.


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## TshirtStan

I'm surprised the Ryonet guy didn't tell you about the low cure additive. That has saved me many times when printing on poly. Works great. It allows the plastisol to cure at the same as poly inks-285 to 300. I know Ryonet sells it, not sure what it is called by other companies


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## beanie357

Wilflex and probably others have a specific gray unerbase for this material. Seems to work.
We also set these jobs end of day, run a proto, and see if it bled when we come in the morning. Crap dye from overseas is always a challenge as well as all the regular variables.


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## drscotty14

does anyone know if the hanes 5170 has less dye migration than gildan 800?? i have used the gildan 800 50/50 black shirts with regular plastisol and the dye migration was pretty bad. but i wasnt very careful at keeping temp down low.


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## TshirtStan

drscotty14 said:


> does anyone know if the hanes 5170 has less dye migration than gildan 800?? i have used the gildan 800 50/50 black shirts with regular plastisol and the dye migration was pretty bad. but i wasnt very careful at keeping temp down low.


This is something we demonstrated just about a month ago. Typically we print on Gildan 8000.....but a customer wanted the Hanes ones. The Hanes ones - well we printed them with regular plastisol and we had to reprint 50 percent of the 400 piece order. So, needless to say, we print with poly white from here on out. BTW - we never had a problem printing Gildan 50/50 with regular plastisol....but don't heat them past 340 or there will be migration also.


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## tshirtca

There are a number of issues you can have printing on polyester material, sublimating can definitively be an issue, shrinkage can be a problem, or worst case scenario melting. Now there's obviously a lot of different shirts and material types to choose from and before starting any job you need to test the product. We've printed on Helly Hanson Lifa in the past and this in my experience is the worst!! I love the product, just don't love printing on it. But some of our customers are sponsored so we didn't have a choice.. So for this product we do whats called a high stretch cold peel transfer and heat press the garments. This process can be done at a much lower temperature and not damage the garment.


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## NoSequel

What ratio of spandesol do you put in the ink?


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## FiveOneSix

NoSequel said:


> What ratio of spandesol do you put in the ink?


Good question!!!


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## mergeink

I see here many of you have been talking about dye migration and i have a trick to find out if your shirt will dye migrate at a faster pace. After printing the poly shirt with your plastisol ink and additives, place the shirt in the oven for the curing. RIGHT when the shirt comes out, place it in a shopping bag and seal it while its still hot. After a few minutes, you will see if it is going to dye migrate.

Mergeinkprint


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## williekid

Try athletic black UNION


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## FiveOneSix

williekid said:


> Try athletic black UNION


Are there other colors or would you use that as a base then plastisol over it? I know there's a white poly for that.


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## krikster

Yea even with heat transfers the dye migration is an issue. I worked for Avery Dennison pre press getting jobs set up for the press and we had to design a backer blocker to the art and screen it to the ink prior to the adhesive runs.


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## FiveOneSix

How good is spandesol? Assuming it's an additive, and by the name...I'm guessing it's an additive for plastisol?!?! How good does it actually stretch? Also, why not just use it all the time?
Thanks all!!!


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## tournamentwear

Hi, Do you do contract printing? Need someone who can print 3 -4 colors on dark polys.


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## tcv19

I don't really see this to be happening with great results. There's too many variables that might conflict with the process, let alone curing.


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