I received a call the other day that a brand new press was installed and the company would print 50 shirts and “the press would go out of register.”

Some presses can go out of register, but we are spoiled as ours in fact do not. In fact, the press going out of register is usually not the cause for registration issues.

Let’s start with the basics, much like checking to see if your computer is plugged in before calling in a technician.

First check the artwork and see if the films are out of register. Also an artwork problem will cause a registration problem that will appear on every garment printed in exactly the same place on the design.

Basically for the print to be out of register and it not be in the artwork, either the garment is moving between colors printing or else something on the press is moving when it shouldn’t be moving.

Today we’ll talk about the garment moving, tomorrow the press.

Adhesive - If the garment doesn’t stay glued down to the pallet, it will move and surely the print will go out of registration. This particularly can happen when you are printing dark shirts if you don’t use an adhesive that can handle the heat of flashing. Always check that the shirt is staying in place for its trip around the press.

Garment - Again it seems obvious, but it apparently is not that the garment cannot be two-ply and be printed in registration. Any type of lining and the inner lining will glue down and the top one can move. With static or with some new fabrics in the marketplace it feels like it won’t move but in any case it can. The adhesive holds down the inner layer of fabric and the top one moves as you print it. Jackets or other two-ply garments need a mechanical device, usually some sort of gasket that fits over the garment to stretch and hold the garment tightly so as to (hopefull) stay in register. Otherwise you are limited to one color, and for you non-printers, that means one color on lights because for dark garments you usually print two colors, an underprint and an overprint.

If you must print a two-ply garment that is dark, you can see if you can print it with discharge ink which does not need an underprint. However, all garments don’t discharge, you have to test them.

Shrinkage - Certain fabrics can shrink if heated. So, if you are printing and using a flash, as the fabric heats up or cools down, the fabric can expand or shrink, and the print will be out of registration. The rarely happens with t-shirt fabrics, but this can happen with nylons in particular and also can be seen occasionally with canvas. A solution in any case would be to maintain consistent temperature, usually by pre-flashing the garment so that it is warm before the printing starts and just stays warm.
For canvas it can be caused by the moisture content in the canvas and it may help to run it through the dryer before printing to stabilize it (and cover it with plastic so it can’t reabsorb moisture.

In the next post we’ll look at press issues that can cause registration problems.