Why Prints Crack, Peel or Fade (Ink, Cure or Wash?) | Battle Born Clothing
Troubleshooting
Why Prints Crack, Peel or Fade
Is it the ink, the cure, or the wash? Here is how to diagnose a failing screen print — and how a shop that cures correctly prevents it in the first place.
Cracking, peeling and fading are three different failures
People lump them together, but each has a distinct cause. Match your symptom below to find the real culprit.
Cracking — usually a cure problem
A print that cracks after a few washes was almost always under-cured. Plastisol ink has to reach roughly 320°F all the way through the ink film to fully crosslink. If it only gel-sets on the surface, it stays brittle and splits. Over-application of ink or printing too thick on the wrong fabric also causes cracking.
Peeling — usually an adhesion problem
Peeling points to poor bonding: contaminated fabric, the wrong ink for the material (for example, standard plastisol on nylon or waterproof gear without a bonding agent), or a heat transfer applied with too little time, temperature or pressure. Screen prints that are cured correctly bond into the fibers and do not peel.
Fading — usually a wash and heat problem
Fading is typically caused by care: hot water, hot dryers, bleach, and washing right-side-out so the print scrapes the drum. A correctly cured print resists fading far longer, but no ink survives repeated high heat.
The cure is where most shops go wrong
There is a real difference between a flash-cure unit that surface-sets ink for the next print stroke and a conveyor dryer that fully cures it. We run every garment through a Workhorse conveyor dryer at a controlled temperature and belt speed, and we verify cure temperature rather than guessing. That is the single biggest reason a print lasts — and the step that is easiest to shortcut.
Quick diagnosis table
| Symptom | Most likely cause | Fix / prevention |
|---|---|---|
| Cracks after a few washes | Under-cured ink | Full conveyor cure to temp |
| Edges lifting / peeling | Wrong ink or weak transfer bond | Correct ink system for the fabric |
| Color dulls / fades | Hot wash & dry, bleach | Cold wash, low dry, inside out |
| Whole design washes off | Severely under-cured | Remake — a cure failure, ask your shop |
Prints that are cured right, the first time
Every order is cured to temperature and quality-checked in Yerington, NV.
Get a Free QuoteRelated guides
Keep good prints looking new with our wash & dry care guide. If an order arrives wrong, see our remake policy.