Scorching

Scorching is thermal damage to fabric — yellowing, browning, or a crisp, brittle patch — caused by heat press temperature or dwell time exceeding what a garment's fibers can tolerate. Synthetics scorch at markedly lower temperatures than cotton: a 100% cotton tee tolerates 320-330°F without issue, while nylon and some polyester-spandex blends can start to yellow or glaze as low as 270-280°F if held even a few seconds too long.

It shows up worst on light-colored synthetics, where discoloration has nowhere to hide — a white polyester singlet or a pastel performance tee will flag scorching immediately, while a black cotton hoodie can hide the same heat exposure almost entirely. We've had a rush order come back from the press with a faint tan halo around a number transfer on a white soccer jersey, the direct result of running a standard 320°F plastisol program on 100% polyester instead of dialing the heat down.

Pros test press settings on a scrap of the actual garment before running the full order, especially on unfamiliar synthetics, and keep separate press programs for cotton versus poly, spandex, or nylon goods rather than one default setting for everything. Lower-temp presses run longer at reduced heat to still hit full ink cure without crossing into scorch territory on sensitive fabric.

Buyers often assume scorching only happens from obvious operator error, like leaving a press down too long. In practice, the more common cause is simply using cotton-rated press settings on a synthetic or blended garment that scorches at a lower threshold — the press behaved exactly as programmed, the program just wasn't matched to that fabric.