Printing on polyester will require a slightly different process than standard cotton prints. Here are a few tips to get you started:
• Pretreatment – Use light pretreat for white garments with no white ink. You don’t need to use as much pretreatment as you would with cotton; you just want a damp even square.
• Pretreatment Drying – The Temperature of drying poly is a little lower than cotton. The standard is about 220 degrees F. Hover the heat press over the garment for 30-60 seconds. Then press with light pressure for 30 seconds twice.
• Rip Settings – You may need to slightly lower the ink volume if there is any bleeding in the print. You may need to reduce the ink percentage, or print in a lower resolution. Printing on dark garment requires slightly different setting than on cotton prints. You will need to increase the amount of white ink. The color pass should stay the same. You will get an increase amount of white ink by changing the resolution to 2,880 X 1,440 or 2,880 X 720
• Ink Drying – You will always want to use the settings provided by the manufacturer for curing. Poly has a tendency to burn at the average direct to garment pressing temperatures so a lower temperature is required. The cure time for light garments with no white will typically be about 60 seconds.
