Damn, I thought that I had this polyester sublimation issue licked. HELL NO! I used QCM's Polyester White - flood > print/print > flash > flood > print/print > flash > top color flood > print/print. Oh my. it looks great until it comes out the end of the dryer.

I call QCM... Colin - my QCM representative (good guy) tells me that I'm probably over heating the garment and the gases of the garment's dye are creeping up into the ink.

So, I turn the heat down to 350° and slow the belt down to a crawl... same print menu and now the prints are acceptable.

Colin also said that there are different "grades" of polyester and I'm probably printing on a lower grade.

I get most of my apparel from SanMar. Does anyone know where to get a higher grade of polyester?

J.R. Sanford
Production Manager
NW Awards
185 NW Chehalis AV
Chehalis, WA 98532
(shop) 360-748-7346
(cell) 360-880-6384
jr_sanford@yahoo.com

__________________
Cast aside your limitations;
And you shall be boundless!

• Email User • Private Message User • Reply & Quote

I like the Union Poly white though I'm sure most are the same. I would suggest keeping your heat at 340-350 and speeding your dryer up. Use a laser heat detector pointed at the print area as it goes through the dryer and as long as the print reaches 320-330 your all set. Basically try to get the shirt through as fast as you can while still allowing the print to cure. Over heating of poly shirts will definitely cause this problem no matter how many layers of poly white you lay down. I use a 110 mesh for my underlay and a 140 mesh for the spot screen, hit> flash> cool> hit . Then through the dryer as fast as possible while still allowing to cure.

__________________

• Email User • Private Message User • Reply & Quote

Run your belt speed faster , this works for us. Too slow, too much heat and it will bleed.

• Email User • Private Message User • Reply & Quote

Use One Stroke Inks VerseMax Extreme. Keep you belt speed up. Try augusta sportswear for quality poly.

• Email User • Private Message User • Reply & Quote

yeah I agree. All you have to do is speed your dryer up a little bit until you get your print nice and sharp. When you run your shirts through the dryer lay them out as well seperate and let them cool. Because of the properties of polyester printing, if you pull them out of the dryer hot or let them fall in your bucket the ink will bleed because of the heat within themselves.

• Email User • Private Message User • Reply & Quote