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…
This post isn’t going to have illustration. There are many many possible illustrations for this post, but there is no reason to hurt anyone’s feelings. Do you want a bad looking t-shirt ? Here are a few pointers: 1. Just design whatever you want and don’t think about what kind of shirt it is going…
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.…
Some reflections at year’s end on lies and truth in our industry, here are a lucky 7 of each for you: Lies: “One Coat” ink is the answer to all your printing problems.” I made that name up, but no ink is the answer to all your printing problems. There is no miracle white ink…
This is the media advisory from PolyOne about the purchase of Rutland. Not particularlyly revealing, but seems to be all anyone has on this for now on this big industry news. My only other take on this is that there is a possibility of Wilflex taking a longer view on the business in terms of relationships…
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…
