New to this board and it seems like you all have a lot of great information here.
I'm having a problem with inks coming back out of the teflon coated backing I have set up on my GeoKnight swing press.
My routine is - press a shirt, remove, wipe down excess ink along sides, place new shirt/sheet, repeat.
Now I've noticed after a few shirts it becomes harder to wipe down the teflon coated backing of the press as the inks are becoming embedded.
Therefore when I place another shirt, the inks come out once the heat hits, and stick to the back of the shirt making it look, well, just dirty.
The only solution I've found is to use a blank shirt to "soak up" the inks after a few presses, but this is quite a waste, especially with the price of vapor shirts.
I was just wondering if anyone has any ideas as to what type of cleaner would get these inks out of the teflon coated backing, or if there is another way to avoid this from happening altogether (such as laying a sheet down under the t shirt or something?)
Re: Problems with inks coming up from teflon backing
JP-
If I understand you correctly, you have ink on your Teflon coated heat platen.
Clean it with simple green when cool...it works wonders. If you have a heavy build-up I have a colleague that uses Iron-off (its used for cleaning the surface of an iron). I think it is used when the surface is hot.
Also, dye sub ink will gas out over time but until then ALWAYS keep a barrier between your blank and the actual heat platen...Blow out paper which can be non-coated butcher paper or brown bag void fill works great. We use rolls and rolls of the brown bag weight.
As it relates to pressing a shirt, set-up your press as follows:
Blowout paper 1st
Shirt 2nd
Transfer 3rd
Blowout paper 4th
This should make your ghosting issue, due to platen residue, pretty much non-existent.
Re: Problems with inks coming up from teflon backing
Jae' nailed it. The cleaning tip is great. A blowout sheet over your work eliminates the problem. Some sub paper is very thin, but a full coverage image delivers an enormous amount of ink to the paper. Without an extra sheet over your transfer, you will have constant problems with blowback.
Re: Problems with inks coming up from teflon backing
What is brown bag void, please?
Quote:
Originally Posted by JaeAmera
JP-
If I understand you correctly, you have ink on your Teflon coated heat platen.
Clean it with simple green when cool...it works wonders. If you have a heavy build-up I have a colleague that uses Iron-off (its used for cleaning the surface of an iron). I think it is used when the surface is hot.
Also, dye sub ink will gas out over time but until then ALWAYS keep a barrier between your blank and the actual heat platen...Blow out paper which can be non-coated butcher paper or brown bag void fill works great. We use rolls and rolls of the brown bag weight.
As it relates to pressing a shirt, set-up your press as follows:
Blowout paper 1st
Shirt 2nd
Transfer 3rd
Blowout paper 4th
This should make your ghosting issue, due to platen residue, pretty much non-existent.
Re: Problems with inks coming up from teflon backing
While I agree with cleaning the sheet with simple green, when you're curing direct to garment printing, make sure your cure time, pressure, and temperature are all sufficient. Anything less, and you won't get a proper bond.
I'd be curious to know if you've performed durability tests on these garments (washing). Teflon is about the smoothest surface you'll encounter in printing, and just like cooking pots & pans, it's no-stick. We sometimes get a bit of "residual ink" that comes off with the cure, but it's always superficial.
Anyway, at a minimum, verify you're "doing it" properly. If you still have issues, it may be a result of a pre-treatment process (either with the DTG printing, or perhaps with the garment itself), or it might be a material content issue. Direct to garment printing ink adheres to different materials differently.
Good luck.
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Problems with inks coming up from teflon backing 
