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Heat Seal - Heat Press - Whatever you want to call it! => General Heat Seal => Topic started by: mimosatexas on March 25, 2015, 10:23:59 AM
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I have ALWAYS used the adhesive powder when printing my own transfers. I have tried here and there to go without and had pretty mixed/poor results. Small detail seems to not want to stick, one transfer will work fine and the next won't etc.
I run them through my dryer, 30 seconds of dwell and they exit at 200F on the dot. I press with medium-heavy pressure for 8-10 seconds at 350-375F (I adjust based on the ink/garment, but those ranges seem to almost always work). I use the the Ultrastrip 3000 hot peel transfer paper http://acescreensupply.com/product_info.php?products_id=98 (http://acescreensupply.com/product_info.php?products_id=98) and the same inks I use for direct printing. NO issues with the adhesive powder.
I would really like to start not having to use the powder though. For those who skip that step, do you have any tips/tricks/advice? Am I doing something wrong with my current process, but the adhesive powder is acting like a bandaid?
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One thing I see is that the small details will always be a problem without the powder, especially if the transfer requires a low pressure application. If you can get your powder in a fine enough grind, mix it into your ink before printing.
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I do very few plastisol transfers anymore, but when I did, seem to remember that some inks were specifically described in their tech sheets as good for transfers. At the time, I was almost exclusively Union.
Perhaps the loss of detailed sections adhering is due to inks not good for this application.
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You can always use a printable adhesive as a last down on the paper instead of the powder.
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We do our transfers the same as you do, my question is why do you not want to use the powder? We do not have any issues and feel it is part of the process rather than a band aid.
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Main reason right now: I'm low on the powder and have a rush job :D
Main reason for the rest of the time: it takes up time that I'd love to save.
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Main reason right now: I'm low on the powder and have a rush job :D
Main reason for the rest of the time: it takes up time that I'd love to save.
I'll just file that^^^ in the "Ain't no shortcuts in screen printing" category.
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Opposite end of the spectrum here, we rarely use the powder. Dwell time and pressure will be the main issues,
read Unions Transopaque tech sheet for directions. Had the pleasure of using that ink the other day, it is what it says,
which led me to thinking, what constitutes a quality transfer ink? My assumption would be a thick heavy ink, not unlike
a white or maybe even just adding some cabosil?
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I do very few plastisol transfers anymore, but when I did, seem to remember that some inks were specifically described in their tech sheets as good for transfers. At the time, I was almost exclusively Union.
Perhaps the loss of detailed sections adhering is due to inks not good for this application.
Hot split inks is what you are talking about. Just about every ink manufacturer makes them. They are typically sold to transfer printers, because direct print shops don't want the added expense of carrying another type of plastisol ink, one for direct, poly, nylon, transfers, list goes on. Hot split inks have the ability to remelt, which gives you a better transfer and release. We have access to some really great hot split inks and can order them, but I do not stock them.
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Hot split inks are what we use and never use powder. If someone wants a funky color that we don't stock or can't mix we do it on cold peel. Since the ink is not split like on the hot split most any plastisol will work..... as far as the losing fine details and not sticking a lot of the time that is caused by dryer temps.. the finer the detail the quicker the cure.... or overcure in these instances. You might need to fine tune the dryer for those. That has been our experience and it works for us. We typically do 500 to 1000 transfers a week.
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-Small details will always adhere better with powder, no matter what ink you use. It will improve transfer's adhesion.
-Thick layer of ink helps as well. 60 microns is min.
-Good control over gelling temperature. Choosing good ink is of great help in controlling gelling process. Why? Some transfer inks have large temp. range in which they gel properly, yet some have narrow window within which you need to be. To make things worse not all shades work in same range. if your dryer is HQ hot air, this is less of a problem. With IR dryers this is important consideration. We had best experience with Wilflex TF super opaque inks (apart from TF super red). Even with our $100 dryer we managed to do good transfers ( back in 1995). Union was slightly more sensitive, Sericol even more, Rutland was useless, but I think they gave up on HS inks, anyway.
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Boris' suggestion of thicker ink layers is borne out with the instructions I remember from Union Ultrasoft suggesting much coarser mesh when used for transfers.
http://www.unionink.com/media/22830/plue_ultrasoft_tds_v14.pdf (http://www.unionink.com/media/22830/plue_ultrasoft_tds_v14.pdf)
I always kicked it down a notch when I used it for transfers.
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We almost always go with 86 mesh on hot split and 110 on cold peel. Plenty of ink on those babies!
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We use the powder- mixed into the ink for private labels and powdered onto the sheets for cap transfers.
Good advice on the thickness of deposit. We've found that for private labels a 225/40 mesh is the limit of mesh to get a thick enough deposit on the transfer paper and that is pushing it, small details likely would not hold without the powder at that thickness. We try to use a 150 mesh for all transfers but those private labels always have tiny details and clients don't want to pay for a first down clear, which is what I would prefer to see.
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Chris, you've got some fine powder if you can print through 225/40 and not clog screen with mixed in powder.
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I tried mixing in the powder a while back. I forget which was the finest, but I bought and tested 4 or 5 different brands. One was definitely finer than the others. That said, it didn't seem to do anything. I mixed it in a bunch of ratios, to the point where it was laughable, and it had no effect.
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I wonder what transfer powder is?
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I wonder what transfer powder is?
I think it's just a hot melt glue, crystallized/ground down. Maybe heat activated polyurethane?
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So I decided to just say freak it, didn't apply powder, didn't insert anything between layers, and pressed with my standard settings....and it works flawlessly. ugh
The transfers don't stick to anything through the holes in the mesh for whatever reason, no issues with adhesion on the top layer of the mesh, etc.
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We use to use the powder, which makes things pretty full proof. But after a incident where I got the powder mixed up with my Columbian marching powder, I realized I need to get serious. Made a switch to transfer ink from Excalibur, 900 or 950 series. Stuff is great! Bet we've done close to 2,000 transfers with it, that is all we use our electric dryer for. Temp set at 185 belt speed at 20, Workhorse dryer.
If anyone wants, I can use a temp gun tomorrow(provided I remember or am reminded) and see what the paper actually reads in the dryer.
With the Excalibur ink the transfer printing area is MUCH cleaner, and my nose candy is not mistaken anymore.
- Cocaine jokes, were just that, jokes, I'm fine guys... ;D
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Some 40 years ago (yes, that is a "4") when I printed hundredsof thousands of transfers,
there was no such thing as powder. All in the mesh, dryer temp, heat press temp, pressure
etc. Now I wonder why in the hell did I stay in this profession (he thinks aloud).
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I'm late to the party here but this has been on my mind a lot also.
I print my transfers (white ink on dark) 50/50 shirts and have only really found one ink that transfers well with bleed resistance (WM Plastics 9008) and I add hot split additive to it at 10%.
It prints great and transfers great but if I don't use the powder then after a few washes the transfer starts to degrade (even more so on 100% cotton, oddly enough) - I'm using 110 mesh coated 2/1 round.
I gel at 199 degrees through the dryer and the transfers come out just gelled at my temp/speed. (sometimes they would even smear a little if I ran a full belt of them and touched them so I know it has to be right on the edge of the gel range)
I press for 6 seconds @ 366 (which is within range of ink specs) at medium-heavy pressure on my Hix (about a 7)
Now I'm starting to wonder if I've been doing something wrong because here and there small details still crack after a few washes.
So...has anyone thoroughly wash tested (with dryer) without using the powder? Anyone see something glaring that I might be doing wrong? Or suggestions?
I would LOVE to get away from powder, as it is messy as hell and I could crank out transfers 10x as fast without it...but need something that will hold up.
On a side note, I've talked to Ray at Polyone about this and he pretty much told me I needed to keep using powder or print the last down clear. So I'm even more confused.
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Hey Bulldog, Onestroke has a transfer system perfect for bleed stuff. We have it it's pretty slick.
You fully cure the transfer then press at 275 (I'm pretty sure that's it), and cold peel.
Basically you are only melting the adhesive powder and then it has to cool.
Won't bleed for sure!