[efimage]

I Just tried to dye sub my first license plates today and I am wondering if I am doing them correctly? The plates are from Digital Grafx Dye Sublimation License Plates and Blanks and looking straight at the them the look great but If looking at them at an angle in the light you can see the coating. Is this the UV coating?
I also have the Unisub test/sample pack which has 4x4 aluminum tiles which when dye sub does not exhibit this.
Just checking if this is normal for UV coated license plates

I tried posting some pics but it is hard to get the right angle with my phone
Thanks

 

[skdave]

This is called orange peel. In this case you paid less and you got orange peel. Certain art does not matter, as with the flag on a plate. If it was a photo from a high priced shooter it would bother me put I think it is ok on a plate.

 

[skdave]

I may be wrong . After blowing it up, It may be to MUCH pressure embedding the paper fiber into the soft surface of the coating.
Try one with almost no pressure and I think you will be good to go.
I assume you are press art up and metal down which is the correct method on metal under 16" x20"

 

[efimage]

You are spot on about the pressure. I know have one more issue. I am pressing at 375 degrees for 65 sec at very light pressure. I am not getting the marks I was before but the Image is not transferring all that good. I am getting some fading . What do you think I should try to increase Temp? or go a little heaver on the pressure. I allotted myself 10 plates to test with. I have used 8 so far

 

[skdave]

400 f on the heat 1 min 20 sec Leave the pressure alone. After pressing Flip or Snap the transfer off the metal REAL FAST. Do not drag slowly.

 

[efimage]

400F @ 1 min 5 sec gave me bad results not as bad as my original ones but not good. I think my sweet spot using Texprint-R is 385f @ 60sec extremely light pressure

I will say there is a huge difference between the cheaper dye sub aluminum and the Unisub stock. For a comparison I tried a few of the 4x4 test squares i had. I followed Unisubs instructions 400f @ 70 sec medium pressure and they came out perfect. The price difference sucks but the quality is there.

Since this was my first time doing licensee plates I wanted to get a larger quantity to play around with. I have a order of 15 plates for a realtor this week ( my first order ) and these will hopefully work though I have not received the art work yet.

As for the better blanks which is better Dynasub or Unisub ?

 

[cprvh]

I think you will find the metal works well once you have the correct time/temp/pressure dialed in. We use the following for that metal:

Transfer face up/alum face down with Nomex pad on bottom
350°F
90 seconds

400°F is not the magic temperature for all sublimation products...regardless of what the distributors tell you. As you have found...you have to do some experimenting.

 

[efimage]

cprvh can I ask you what heat press are you using ?

My DC16 came with a Nomex pad which I have not used yet. Maybe I will give it a shot. are you using any craft/butcher paper between the pad and the plate ? I was playing around with using blank newsprint and craft paper today. With the heaver craft paper I had to turn the temp up to get the same results.

Any tips to using the Nomex pad

Thanks

 

[skdave]

As for the better blanks which is better Dynasub or Unisub ?

Unisub but on a plate it does not matter to me for the price.

 

[cprvh]

We use either 16" x 20" or 30" x 40" presses...either one does well. Do use a piece of newsprint or cheap copy paper on top to keep your platen clean.

Use the Nomex pad on the bottom...it will make a world of difference. It's soft so you can use a bit more pressure to get good contact with the plate for even results. I would increase the dwell time instead of the temperature. The high temperature is causing the issues. The dyes should sublimate even below 300°F with longer dwell times.

 

[efimage]

Update here. I took cprvh's advice and used the Nomex pad and lowered my heat and increased my dwell time. Since making these changes I have been getting very good repeatable results. I pressed 15 plates last night for a real estate agency and they came out great .

So far I think my sweet spot with these plates are
Face down on the Nomex pad.
I used a sheet of 24lb 11x17 copy paper on top and bottom
360 F
80 Seconds
Light - Medium Pressure.

It took a bunch of blanks to dial it in but since this was my first time I figured I would have a good bit of spoilage. My " day job" is in digital laser printing and I am used to trial and error and testing but what hurts is when it is your money that is going towards the spoilage

 

[BRC]

Everyone says that Unisub blanks are better, but my experience having done thousands is just the opposite. The only tags that have faded prematurely are Unisub (yes you can tell the difference, the size of the blank is smaller). The only ones with dents in them right out of the box were Unisub. The only ones with chipped edges were Unisub. The only ones with pieces of coating laying on them just waiting to ruin the tag were Unisub. The one time I mentioned this at a show Unisub said "If you don't like them send them back" so I did even though it was a 200 mile round trip. I have not used their blanks since. High priced does not always mean high quality.