DECORATING INSTRUCTIONS FOR POLYESTER FABRICS

• Due to the nature of polyester, special care must be taken throughout the decoration process. Here are some tips to effectively decorate our performance products.
• Garment temperature must not exceed 320°F or 160°C. Exceeding this temperature will cause the fabric to shrink, become wavy or cause dye migration.
• Dryer temperature and belt speeds must be changed accordingly for polyester fabric.
• If flashing these garments, do not exceed 1-2 seconds. Anything longer may damage the fabric as stated above.
• Screen Printing: These garments require the use of poly inks that cures at a lower temperature. A Dyno Grey base blocker on all colours and a second white base blocker on all dark colours are recommended. Please consult your ink supplier for more information.
• Polyester requires a longer cooling time than cotton. Avoid overlap of garments and screen-print/heat transfer until the garments are cooled. Failure to cool the fabric prior to stacking into a printer’s fold may cause the fabric and applied ink to stick together.
• Heat Transfers: Poly mark heat transfers need to be created with an anti-migration layer in the design. This process can only be done on white or very light colour shirts. Inks used in printing paper design needs to be darker than the base fabric or colour will migrate with the fabric colour resulting in a bleeding effect.
• Sublimation Printing: As noted for the poly mark heat transfers, this process can only be done on white or very light colour shirts. Inks used in printing paper design needs to be darker than the base fabric or colour will migrate with the fabric colour resulting in a bleeding effect.
• If you heat press these garments, you must adjust the time, temperature and pressure. Failure to do so may damage the fabric as stated above.
• A test sample run is recommended, especially if you have a large order or if your printer does not specialize in printing on performance fabrics.