Discuss the various aspects of heat press technology. Transfer paper, inks, plastisol transfers, vinyl cutters, printers, commercial usage, durability, suppliers, etc.
Well, it's late, I'm tired and I printed 5 image clip sheets and forgot to reverse the image. These are my first ImageClip transfers. The directions say to reverse the image, but it looks to me like that would actually make it reversed on the shirt. If I print the imaging paper (red) normally, then press that to the transfer sheet (green), the image on the transfer sheet should be reversed, which would make it come out correct once pressed to the shirt.
What am I missing here? Do you reverse the image before printing?
Yes you will need to reverse (mirror) the image. The image you print should not transfer to the green transfer sheet, only the bankground polymer. After pressing your red imaging sheet and green transfer sheet at 215-220F, your image should remain on the red imaging sheet which you will later press onto your shirt at 400F.
I can see your confusion as I once pondered the same thing but after several hundred prints I sleep better now
The green sheet is basicaly a sheet of adhesive.
When you press the red to green the adhesive from the green sheet bonds to the toner on the red sheet.
when you peel the two sheets apart the adhesive from the green sheet peels off - transfered to the red sheet. covering the image/toner image on the red sheet.
At no time (during the first pressing ie: red to green) does the image actually leave the red sheet.
After you peel the sheets you are still left with your transfer on the red sheet but the image/toner is now covered in poly adhesive. This is the magic of the papers.
since only the areas covered in the poly/adhesive will transfer to the garment.
Hope the slears things up.
Bill
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Sudden Impact Signs / Sassy Shirts www.sassy-shirts.com - "We print on all kinds of neat stuff"
Well I tried pressing some imageclip with pretty poor results. Before I waste any more, I thought I'd show you some photos. The one on the right was 215*/10 (checked with a laser). The one on the left was 220*/12. The one on the left has A LOT of adhesive that transfered to the white areas. The one on the right has an unacceptable amount in the white, but less than the left. As you can see, the main issue is that there are large area where the adhesive is not bonding to the toner. The "adhesive in white area" issue is worse with more heat and time, but the uncovered areas of toner seem to be less.
I'm using an Oki C8800 with heavy paper setting and I'm peeling as hot as I can. Just as soon as I get the press up, I'm peeling.
Any ideas? I have a job to do today and I'd like to use imageclip.
I hope it is not the Oki printer because I am about to buy one myself. My experience with the image clip is that either the temp is too low or not enough pressure if the polymer doesn't stick to the toner. You said you had alot of polymer in the white areas also which is strange because with my printers (Minolta 5430 and old Panasonic) when it doesn't stick to the toner it also does not stick to the blank parts, this is what makes me think that it is having trouble sticking to the toner. It is very rare that I get a really clean transfer (meaning no polymer on the blank areas) but usually it is minimal. I would keep playing with the variables, your temp seems right so it must be pressure. I would say play with the press time but usually more time makes the polymer stick more to the blank areas too, sometimes I only press about 8 seconds.
Is anyone else using the Oki printers with Image Clip?
Rusty
Here is round two. There are two things going on here. (1) The adhesive is still not sticking to the toner in some areas and (2) there seems to be a feed roller track right in the middle, almost like a feed roller rolled through wet ink. I pressed this one at 215/10 but I preheated the lower platen for about 5 seconds hoping that would buy me some peel time in case that was an issue.
I think I have a toner problem. I did another print that came out of the printer very light. I pressed it and hardly any adhesive stuck to the toner. I think there has to be a quite a bit of toner there for the adhesive to stick. There must be a reaction between the adhesive and the toner and when the toner is light, the adhesive doesn't transfer.
I have the printer driver set to heavy paper. I'm going to try setting the printer itself through it's menu system to heavy. Other than that, I don't see any other way to get more toner down on the paper and if I did would it just make a "wet ink" mess.
I was under the impression that the Oki printer was on the top of the list as far as printing ImageClip. I hope it's just a simple setting that I've overlooked.
Have you tried actually applying any of these transfers to cloth? I have found that sometimes it will look like the polymer is not covering an area when it actually is. Also, the polymer in the unprinted areas may not be a big deal when printed.
Also, check this thread for some great ImageClip technique and trick advice from Luis.
Yes...The areas that look like they have no polymer do not transfer. I've tried all sorts of different temp, times and printer settings and I keep getting the same results. Every now and then I'll peel a decent one, but the majority come out like the photo. The specks do show and they are quite noticeable.
I can see your confusion as I once pondered the same thing but after several hundred prints I sleep better now
The green sheet is basicaly a sheet of adhesive.
When you press the red to green the adhesive from the green sheet bonds to the toner on the red sheet.
when you peel the two sheets apart the adhesive from the green sheet peels off - transfered to the red sheet. covering the image/toner image on the red sheet.
At no time (during the first pressing ie: red to green) does the image actually leave the red sheet.
After you peel the sheets you are still left with your transfer on the red sheet but the image/toner is now covered in poly adhesive. This is the magic of the papers.
since only the areas covered in the poly/adhesive will transfer to the garment.
Hope the slears things up.
Bill
The same thing happen to another member. He has mistakenly assumed that the green paper was the one that is pressed on the shirt. The instruction is sort of ambiguous. I struggled with that also when I red the instruction the first time. I also thought the green paper, which was termed as "TRANSFERRING" paper, will be the one that is pressed on the shirt. But, going over the instruction a few times the instruction clearly states which paper to use for pressing (red).
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Luis MAD Scientist JR. AKA MS2 Digital Artist. My canvas is t-shirt and my paintbrush is heat press.
When pressing the two sheets together, which goes on the bottom? Does it matter? I have the green on the bottom and the red on top closest to the platen.
I bumped my temp up to 225 and increased pressure and got a decent press, but there was too much polymer in the white area. Some areas of the white were completely covered, not just specks. A few specks are acceptable, but I'm getting more than 50% coverage on the white, which shows on the shirt worse than a polymer window. If I set my temp, time and pressure to reduce white area coverage, I get spotty coverage on the toner.
Here is round two. There are two things going on here. (1) The adhesive is still not sticking to the toner in some areas and (2) there seems to be a feed roller track right in the middle, almost like a feed roller rolled through wet ink. I pressed this one at 215/10 but I preheated the lower platen for about 5 seconds hoping that would buy me some peel time in case that was an issue.
I think I have a toner problem. I did another print that came out of the printer very light. I pressed it and hardly any adhesive stuck to the toner. I think there has to be a quite a bit of toner there for the adhesive to stick. There must be a reaction between the adhesive and the toner and when the toner is light, the adhesive doesn't transfer.
I have the printer driver set to heavy paper. I'm going to try setting the printer itself through it's menu system to heavy. Other than that, I don't see any other way to get more toner down on the paper and if I did would it just make a "wet ink" mess.
I was under the impression that the Oki printer was on the top of the list as far as printing ImageClip. I hope it's just a simple setting that I've overlooked.
Two things could be causing your problem:
a) It seems that the pressure is not enough to force the polymer from green sheet on to the toner on the red sheet.
b) I think you have toner fusing problem. I red from one of the posts in the duracotton thread that some of the newer Oki printer the fuser does not get up to temp from cold start until few pages has been printed. It does not present a problem with regular paper but it is a problem using transfer paper.
I've had that problem with my Oki C5200Ne which is older model than yours. What I did to resolve that is, before I print on the transfer paper I print a file with space character on 10 blank sheets. Following that I also send the image file to the printer so that it would be sitting in the cue so that it will be ready immediately after the blank sheets are printed. Make sure you add 1 extra sheet to the number of copies to be printed. Before I feed the transfer paper to the printer I feed a bond paper to print the design. This will further insure that the fuser is at temp. You will waste some toner this way but you will be rest assured the transfer paper will not be wasted. I then proceed to print the rest of the transfer(s). I have added this in my process. Since then I do not have fusing problem.
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Luis MAD Scientist JR. AKA MS2 Digital Artist. My canvas is t-shirt and my paintbrush is heat press.
I am using an OKI C5100. When I originally purchased this Photo-Trans ImageClip transfer paper about two years ago, I was getting unacceptable results that I stopped using it. I recently purchased another heatpress and decided to give this paper another try. Now, I am getting excellent results when peeling the red and the green sheets 100% of the time using 225 for 20 seconds with heavy pressure.
Last edited by aportis; September 13th, 2007 at 11:28 PM.
When pressing the two sheets together, which goes on the bottom? Does it matter? I have the green on the bottom and the red on top closest to the platen.
I bumped my temp up to 225 and increased pressure and got a decent press, but there was too much polymer in the white area. Some areas of the white were completely covered, not just specks. A few specks are acceptable, but I'm getting more than 50% coverage on the white, which shows on the shirt worse than a polymer window. If I set my temp, time and pressure to reduce white area coverage, I get spotty coverage on the toner.
Try putting the green paper on the top to see if you get better result.
To minimize the polymer transfered to unprinted area try using the cookie sheet technique that I posted in another thread. A member was successful using it.
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Luis MAD Scientist JR. AKA MS2 Digital Artist. My canvas is t-shirt and my paintbrush is heat press.
So running blank sheets through the printer heats up the fuser? I'll try that. Someone else posted success at 210*/10 with the green sheet on top. I think I'll try that also.
ImageClip procedure 
MAD Scientist JR. AKA MS2
