I'm just looking for suggestions. I'm wondering if sublimation on shirts is worth it for medium to large size orders. Here is what I have to do to keep ink from migrating to other parts of the shirt or to the pad or heat platten. 1st put a piece of paper on pad. 2nd, put a piece of paper inside the shirt to keep ink from going from front to back. 3rd, put a piece of paper on top of shirt followed by teflon sheet. ...If I am doing a two sided job I do each step again. I'm beginning to wonder if it's worth it?
Does anyone have a more streamlined system? I'm open to suggestions.
Re: Sublimation on shirts- Ink bleeding- Best system?
ummmmm yeah - i skip steps 1 - 3........what printer/ink/paper/software setup are you using? if you're doing all that and getting migration you've gotta be putting down waaaaaaaay too much ink!
i do a lot of dye sublimation and all i ever do is top the shirt & transfer with a teflon sheet and go......and i've never had a problem with migration or bleeding of any kind.
Re: Sublimation on shirts- Ink bleeding- Best system?
Quote:
Originally Posted by jberte
ummmmm yeah - i skip steps 1 - 3........what printer/ink/paper/software setup are you using? if you're doing all that and getting migration you've gotta be putting down waaaaaaaay too much ink!
i do a lot of dye sublimation and all i ever do is top the shirt & transfer with a teflon sheet and go......and i've never had a problem with migration or bleeding of any kind.
What size transfers are you doing. I did a full 8 1/2x11 and am having problems.
I just recently started having problems with ink drops on the shirts even though there was no ink there on the transfer. I had dark colored drops of ink outside where the transfer was and the image was a light color around the edges and dark in the middle.
Any ideas.
I have spoke with conde and they said they do not recommend the teflon. I used craft paper and still the same thing.
I have a Brother printer also and no problems so I know it is not coming from the platen because I use craft paper there also
Re: Sublimation on shirts- Ink bleeding- Best system?
Quote:
Originally Posted by martinwoods
What size transfers are you doing. I did a full 8 1/2x11 and am having problems.
I just recently started having problems with ink drops on the shirts even though there was no ink there on the transfer. I had dark colored drops of ink outside where the transfer was and the image was a light color around the edges and dark in the middle.
Any ideas.
I have spoke with conde and they said they do not recommend the teflon. I used craft paper and still the same thing.
I have a Brother printer also and no problems so I know it is not coming from the platen because I use craft paper there also
Thanks in advance for any suggestions
chris, that brother printer may be the problem in itself - all of the sublimation information i've ever read said to use ONLY epson printers since the heads produce NO heat which will mess with the integrity of the dye as it's being printed...as far as the teflon......all i can tell you is that i've pressed a ton of dye sub garments with the teflon without problems - and that conde is the company that sold it to me - along with the press and sub inks and transfer paper. no clue why they'd change their story now unless it's the issue that's been discussed before regarding the dreaded blue stringy things in the soft link shirts....
Re: Sublimation on shirts- Ink bleeding- Best system?
Quote:
Originally Posted by jberte
chris, that brother printer may be the problem in itself - all of the sublimation information i've ever read said to use ONLY epson printers since the heads produce NO heat which will mess with the integrity of the dye as it's being printed...as far as the teflon......all i can tell you is that i've pressed a ton of dye sub garments with the teflon without problems - and that conde is the company that sold it to me - along with the press and sub inks and transfer paper. no clue why they'd change their story now unless it's the issue that's been discussed before regarding the dreaded blue stringy things in the soft link shirts....
I'm sorry I should have clarified better.
The Brother is a direct to garment printer, it also has to be heat pressed, that is how I know there is not ink on the platen itself.
It is only when I do sublimation on shirts
I cannot take the brother with me, so I do sublimation at the festivals, but I am getting those ink drops. it is not the blue dots from the baby blankets that softlink is known for because we lint roll them. The ink is dark. Don't know where it comes from
Re: Sublimation on shirts- Ink bleeding- Best system?
chris, the blotches are of ink are appearing outside of the transfer paper area??? if there's no paper, it's gotta either be in the shirts themselves or perhaps on your press.......
and as far as the blue squigglies......i heard that from hanes about the baby blankets too, but wouldn't you figure they'd also be making pink and yellow and green baby blankets? why do we only get blue squigglies....?? and i roll the heck out of my shirts before pressing to - and yet there they are i have even washed some of them prior to pressing......nope, random blue squigglies....
Re: Sublimation on shirts- Ink bleeding- Best system?
The blue can come from other sources such as lint from a carpet or a chair or most any thing the shirt comes in contact with. I never could understand why it's always blue though.
Re: Sublimation on shirts- Ink bleeding- Best system?
Craig,
Let's start off with a couple of questions. What dye sub printer are you using? What ink are you using? I would imagine that it is ArTainium since you mentioned Conde - which is what they sell. What type of paper are you using? What items are you doing that you get the blue squigglies?
Here is why I ask these questions. The R1800 printer is an ink hog unless you can control the amount of ink dropped and not lose the colors and blacks. If you are running SubliJet IQ, then you are probably using the PowerDriver IQ. There are plenty of posts that talk about this printing device dropping way too much ink. The paper question is important because there are different types of paper based on how quickly the paper will absorb/dry the ink versus how much ink is released from the paper. TexPrint XP does a good job of releasing more ink, but can take a little longer to dry the ink. QC Pro dries the ink real fast, but does not release as much ink. Thus, it takes less ink when using TexPrint XP (which is used a lot on the large format side for Decorators with a RIP software) compared to QC Pro.
I have seen the blue squigglies as well. I was told that it can be a combination of the substrate (primarily the apparel) and possibly the paper (how the paper is made). This was a bigger problem a couple of years ago, but the apparel manufacturers (like Vapor Apparel and TexPrint XP) have addressed this issue. I don't see this that much any more except ocassionally on metal - which makes me believe it is part of the paper since metal does not have lint. Try snapping your shirt (if that is the problem) before putting it on the press and make sure you pre-press to remove the moisture.
Sublimation on shirts- Ink bleeding- Best system? 
1st put a piece of paper on pad. 
Re: Sublimation on shirts- Ink bleeding- Best system? 
