[Neilc]

Hi all,

Having a few isues with pressing printed vinyl products. We seem to very occasionally get a "distressed" element, with what looks like the ink being damaged and exposing the vinyl underneath. It's difficult to see on the pics below, but hopefully you can. It's basically the white markings around the right-hand edge.

There seems to be no real pattern to this. If it happens on one, it won't seem to happen on the one before or the one after. So I'm not convinced it's a pressure or temperature thing. But I'm pretty clueless!

 

[Neilc]

One thing I forgot to mention - the damage is apparent beneath the backing sheet before it's removed.

 

[idonaldson]

One of two things look as if it is happening -
1 - air bubbles between mask and vinyl
2 - temperature is too high and the vinyl is being scorched

if it is sporatic see if it happens initially and not after use - press is cooling down between presses and not burning
Press not evenly heating or bad element
Squeege air from mask no leaving bubbles or pop with pin -

 

[ericsson2416]

What about giving the shirts a quick pre-press to evaporate any moisture? Not sure what the climate is like where you are located but I've found big differences with colder weather and/or rain can change the feel and how it presses.

 

[Neilc]

Hey Irv - will try those out, especially dropping the temperature a few degrees.

Eric - yeah, we pre-press all our garments, not least just so we have a nice flat surface to press on. And with us being in Wales, there's very definitely a lot of moisture in the air!

 

[idonaldson]

Neilc - some folks believe that pre pressing shirts once is enough - you need to press until the moisture stops rising out of the shirt. The indicator for moisture in the shirt is the vinyl not adhering - I am leaning towards the scorching.

 

[Zenergy]

Neilc - some folks believe that pre pressing shirts once is enough - you need to press until the moisture stops rising out of the shirt. The indicator for moisture in the shirt is the vinyl not adhering - I am leaning towards the scorching.

I find when I do this I get really bad press marks after I've applied the vinyl and pressed that as well. When you prepress, are you doing it at full pressure or just lowering the platen on to the shirt?

 

[idonaldson]

Press at medium pressure as you would most vinyls - on my machine that is 5. Pressing has not messed up my shirts you do see the changing of the color on the reds and oranges but that returns to normal when it cools. After the moisture is gone then you press the vinyl as normal. Normally if shirt is not moist only 4 seconds is required for pre press. I do not press for long periods of time (20 secs) I do it at 5 second intervals.

 

[Neilc]

Thanks all.

We thoroughly pre-press our shirts, so there's definitely no moisture in them when the vinyl is applied. And the damage appears after the very first press.

I've reduced the pressure and heat by a few degrees and it hasn't happened again. Fingers crossed!

 

[theflowerboxx]

Looks and sounds like you're using the wrong transfer tape.