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Chromablast Ink Transfer Grainy

2408 Views 1 Reply 1 Participant Last post by  calfax, 
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Hi...delurk post here.

I recently purchased a C88 Chromablast system for printing inkjet transfers directly to cotton shirts. I am using the provided Chromablast inks, paper and C88 drivers with "best quality" and the sawgrass color correction profile settings checked. The shirts I am using are 100% cotton Hanes Heavyweight and Gildan Ultracotton. My heat press is a HIX Presto 20 clamshell.

The transfer image prints out nice and sharp, but I am having problems getting it to adhere to the cotton. When I go to remove the transfer paper after pressing, not all the adhesive stays on the shirt, instead adhering to the transfer sheet resulting in a grainy "fibery" image as shown in the attached pictures. I also pre-press the shirts for 10-15 sec to flash off the moisture before pressing the transfer.

I have tried pressing at 375 deg F for 25 and 40 secs and up to 60 secs with no significant improvement. I have also tried pressing them at 400 deg F for 25, 40 and 60 secs with no significant improvement and some mild scorching. I press them pressing very hard with my full upper torso weight so not enough pressure could be the problem.....but I am pressing as hard as I physically can.

The colors produced are accurate and bright but without adequate complete image transfer, the system is unusable. Does anyone have any suggestions or insights that might help me get a clear, defined image as advertised? Or is this as good as it gets?

For the hell of it, I ran the Chromablast paper thru my Xerox Tektronix 860 and transferred that to see what would happen. What resulted was a clear, sharp image but with a colorshft towards yellow. I also transferred a "Sharpie" drawn smiley face :).

All the pictures attached are after 1 wash in warm water with a colorsafe bleach detergent as I would regularly wash my clothes. The Shinchan image, (backwards) business card image and the more olive colored bolt images are all printed with the laser printed transfer. The others are C88 inkjet transfers. As you can tell, the inkjet transfers, while having good color, are terribly grainy because not all the adhesive is coming off the transfer paper. Sorry about the washed out pics, I have a crap camera.

Attached pics:
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After calling Sawgrass and HIX both for advice, I finally figured out what what I was doing wrong. The type of clamshell heat press I am using has a lever which must be pushed down with some force to lock it in place while pressing the transfer. Once I figured this out, the Chromablast transfers began to live up to their hype. You have to use "lots" of pressure with this particular heat transfer paper.

Provided you have heavy pressure, the images produced by Chromablast are great on white or very light colored T's with good color fidelity. I can now recommend this product as adequate for transferring photo images. Not super great, but adequate. The search for the "best" heat transfer paper continues....
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