We have received a few requests to examine shirts lately where the ink cracked. I also have seen numerous posts on Facebook that ask, “did I overcure the ink?” Wishful thinking is usually involved in that last question. It is technically possible to overcure ink, but I have actually never seen it myself in over…
I would rather be writing about the Mothers of Invention, Frank Zappa and all that, than thinking about nylon. We always avoided printing on nylon, but eventually we somewhat embraced it. Nylon shrinks when you heat it and ink doesn’t really want to adhere to it and nobody technical gives you any consistent information, other…
We received a panic inquiry from a supplier that we work closely with. They had a customer who claimed that they could not get their prints to cure on a canvas bag. We field many questions for our vendors, since printers love to blame the substrate for printing problems, so our vendors use us to…
I often get inquiries from folks trying to figure why the ink has washed off their shirts. I wish I had a dime for every time they are sure it is caused by the garment or by overcuring. Sorry, it isn’t. While both of those things are possible, they are highly highly unlikely to happen.…
We print a lot of canvas bags and in particular for made in USA companies who send us the canvas to print before they are sewn. We have printed everything from 6 ounce to 22 ounce and all kinds of weaves. We recently screwed up an order and it reminded me of everything that can…
I got a request last week to help someone figure out why their ink cracked. They thought it was the shirts. I have never seen a shirt that would cause the ink to crack all by itself. There is always an ink solution for cracking. WHAT CAUSES INK TO CRACK? Primarily the cause of the ink cracking…
I was asked to look at some shirts today that supposedly had “ghosting” issues. Ghosting we have covered before (see a prior ink kitchen.com article), it basically is a bleaching process when certain inks give off a gas when they are hot and stacked and a lighter “ghost” image appears on the shirt placed on top…
Nice distress filter on that ass, right? A tremendous photoshop filter created that nice distressed look, right? Not! It is supposed to be a nice solid coating of ink and after washing it is not, it is cracked and washed off. That’s what ink looks like when it is not cured. For you non-printers out…
Q: What temperature should I set my dryer at? A: I don’t know. That’s the best answer to that question. Another answer is to say, “whatever temperature raises the ink film temperature to 320 degrees for ten seconds.” Curing ink will be affected by the ambient temperature, how long your drying chamber is, the height…
This time of year in the US of A it gets scorching hot. One of the hottest places in the country yesterday was South Carolina, a scorching 100 degrees in Columbia. Though that is mild compared to the world high of 118 F. in Kuwait yesterday. It was a low is the lower 48 US…
