Fibrillation

sitotisk - več o sitotisku - novo

Fibrillation in printing is an annoying term that often makes clients complain to printers that their print is washing off. But that’s not really it… What exactly is fibrillation and how can we avoid it?

Have you ever gotten a beautifully printed white T-shirt, soft to the touch, made from pure cotton? But after the first wash, the print wasn’t as bright anymore, as if it had washed out. The print had “faded”. Well, that’s fibrillation.

The softer the T-shirt feels to the touch, the more “fluffy” it is, the higher the chance of fibrillation. Some brands are particularly prone to fibrillation because they use yarn made from short fibers. Cotton fibers that make up the threads used to manufacture T-shirt fabric vary in length. Yarn made from short fibers is less processed and consequently cheaper. You could say it’s also more eco-friendly, although that depends on your perspective on environmental issues… Brands that, in our experience, use short fibers include Sol’s, B&C, Gildan, among others in certain models. This doesn’t mean these aren’t good T-shirts. They are; these T-shirts are great, wearable, maintain their appeal for a long time, and also print beautifully. However, it’s important to consider the high likelihood of fibrillation, especially on white T-shirts from these brands, during printing.

Because it is actually difficult to predict in advance which shirts will fibrillate and which will not – even with many years of experience, it is still sometimes hard to judge in advance whether we need to be careful or not, we prefer to always be careful and approach printing on white shirts of all brands and models (also of different weights, as weight greatly influences the susceptibility to fibrillation) a bit differently.

We approach preventing fibrillation differently for different types of printing.

If we are printing DTG, it is also sensible to use pretreatment fluid on white shirts. It is necessary to ensure that enough fluid is applied, that it is smoothly rolled, evenly applied, and of course, properly dried. Some printers also print an underlayer of white ink on white shirts that tend to fibrillate… an interesting trick that also increases the print’s durability. Never print on old pretreatment. Although it’s possible to prepare shirts with pretreatment fluid in advance, we advise against printing on shirts that have waited a long time… The components of the fluid simply react better with white ink if they are fresher.

In screen printing, there are many ‘tricks’ that are actually entirely part of the technological process, but most printers like to skip them to reduce costs. T-shirts can be printed multiple times. Each layer of ink reduces fibrillation. Additional (underlaid) layers of ink can be transparent, white, or gray, and sometimes it is possible to use the same ink that you are printing as the underlay color – you simply print multiple layers. Fibrillation is also reduced if you use enough ink, which means you need to use a sufficiently fine mesh and a well-sharpened squeegee, which you push at the correct angle, with the right speed and force … Well, a lot more could be added here. Namely, the screen printing process is influenced by 100 factors. If all factors are considered and consistently followed, then we print according to the technological process. As soon as one factor is omitted, a good print becomes quite the magic trick 🙂

This site uses cookies to offer you a better browsing experience. By browsing this website, you agree to our use of cookies.