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Screen printing on hoodies can be challenging due to the thicker, textured fabric, but with the right techniques, you can get vibrant and long-lasting prints. Last week we discussed different adhesive options and best choices. This week we discuss printing techniques to achieve the best fleece prints.
1. Pre-Treat and Pre-Heat the Fabric
- Hoodies often have loose fibers and moisture that can interfere with the print. Use a lint roller to remove loose fibers, and preheat the hoodie with the flash dryer to remove moisture and smooth the surface. As discussed last week, using a roller squeegee PRE printing, you will not only improve the adhesive's ability to hold, but create a much better printing surface. Preheating also helps with ink adhesion, especially for water-based inks.
2. Use the Right Ink for the Fabric
- For hoodies, plastisol ink is a popular choice as it sits on top of the fabric and provides vibrant colors, even on darker fabrics. Water-based ink can work well, too, but ensure the ink is thick enough for opacity. If using water-based ink, make sure the hoodie’s fabric is pre-shrunk and capable of absorbing the ink evenly. If printing manually, a little mix of softhand base can help with the viscosity and laydown of white ink.
3. Adjust Your Squeegee Pressure and Angle
- Use medium to firm pressure (this will depend on your press and air set up) with a preferred 70/90/70 durometer squeegee, or my pro tip double squeegee for white on fleece. This allows the ink to penetrate slightly without overloading the fibers. Be mindful not to press too hard, as excessive pressure can distort the design and lead to blurry edges and fibrillation leading to nasty prints.
4. Flash Cure Between Colors (For Multi-Color Prints)
- Hoodies absorb more ink, so they may require flash curing between colors to prevent smudging or bleeding. Flash cure each layer just enough to make it tacky to the touch—don’t fully cure the ink until the final pass. This will help maintain alignment and crisp edges, especially with multi-color designs. If printing wet on wet, you can use silicone spray on the screen to keep it from sticking and pulling the fleece up.
5. Keep Proper Off Contact
- Make sure to adjust your off contact for fleece. Too often, we forget after printing t-shirts that we have to adjust the off contact to accommodate fleece. You want between ⅛-3/16 of an inch off contact to allow for proper deposit and snap of the screen.
6. Select The Proper Screen
- Mesh selection and coating are crucial to printing fleece. Printing white on a dark fleece requires you to use a 110-160 mesh screen, preferably thin thread, with a 2/2 coating method to achieve optimal EOM to lay down a proper ink deposit. Thin thread will allow more open area to lay down more ink, but with a thinner deposit allowing for a better print. Dark prints on light fleece, you can select a 160-200 mesh that I would prefer a 2/1 coating method. Properly tensioned screens are critical to printing fleece.
Keep in mind that a lot of variables will play into achieving great prints on fleece. The type of face on the fleece, the inside of the fleece, the sponginess, the art work, all play into choosing the right techniques and tools to get the best results. Following these guidelines, and putting a process in place in your shop leads to increased repeatable results, and saves you hours of labor and frustration.
Pro Tip: I cannot stress enough the value of pre heating and rolling your fleece prior to printing. If you have the head space, you can achieve this on one go around, if not, the time spent doing this will save you from frustration, stopping the press trying to “fix” problems and losing money on rejected prints or loss of business from poor prints.
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