Printing onto fabric stuff

[picagiftuk]

Hi
I've been doing sublimation printing for a while now, and I'm having one main problem, which I can't figure out - printing onto any fabric.
I've tried aprons, t-shirts (adults and for teddies), towels. The picture comes out blurred or faded, sometimes all over, sometimes only in some spots and sometimes I finally get it right!

This hasn't been happening with other stuff, such as metals, clocks, keyrings etc and also not with cushions which, funnily enough, come out perfect first time every time, maybe because the cushions I have are a shiny fabric (different to the aprons, t-shirts etc).

If anyone has any ideas of why this would happen and how I could fix it I would be very grateful, as I have been wasting so much!

The only thing that is different between the fabric stuff and the rest is the paper, but I used the fabric paper for the cushions too, so I'm not sure. Also can you use the regular paper for fabrics?

Thanks,

Peni

[Kaz]

Hi Peni

Are you using the right types of fabric items? i.e are they poly cotton/polymer?

Also, which type of paper are you using?

[picagiftuk]

Hi KAZ,

Most are polyester but all are for sublimation printing, and i either use regular sublimation paper or the sublimation paper for fabric.

[Kaz]

But which make is the paper? Trupix, jetcol etc etc, or is it a cheaper brand?

The difference in the print quality from the cheaper papers to the above mentioned is astounding

[picagiftuk]

I now use Trupix after using different brands but the same thing happens.

I was reading through some older posts now, and I saw mentioned a few times about putting a mousemat or a piece of rubber into the press with the t-shirt. Iv'e never heard of this before, how does this work, and could this be the solution to my problem?

Thanks,

Peni.

[accdave]

Most are polyester but all are for sublimation printing,


Are all the items from one supplier ?

[picagiftuk]

No but all are from established uk companies.

[John G]

Is it your heat press, I had this problem from my old cheapy clam press so had to buy a better model. Basically on my old press the heat wasn't even across the plate.

Cheers John

[bms]

There could be a number of reasons for the problems you're suffering, but if we assume your press is okay (because you can print fine onto hard substrates) then the issue must be something to do with the transfer into fabric based products.

If you have a back of a t-shirt to experiment with then please try the following:
1. Prepress the garment to remove any excess moisture (say press at 180 degrees for 30 seconds) and it will probably steam.
2. Have a picture printed onto TruPix paper with a range of colours.
3. Press this picture onto the t-shirt at 180/185 for 75 seconds. What is the quality like? The time is slightly longer than normal but this won't matter for the test.

Can you report back on what the quality is like and we might be able to help further...

[picagiftuk]

Hi,

Thanks for all your suggestions. I'm going to try now what Martin suggested and I'll let you know how it goes.

Peni

[picagiftuk]

Martin - Thank you, thank you, thank you!
I tried what you suggested on an apron which I haven't gotten perfect ever, and the picture printed perfectly! So I tried again to make sure it wasn't a fluke - perfect again! I tried again on a different apron, then on a teddy t-shirt and they both came out beautiful! I'm so amazed!
I tried the same method on a towel, but this time the colour sort of fuzzed a bit (I don't know if thats a word, but thats what it looked like), do you have any idea why?

Thanks for your help with this,

Peni

[picagiftuk]

Although to add to my last post, the towel did print better than in the past, the photo is still clear enough to see well,

Peni

[NASH]

180* for 75 seconds does this not scorch the fabric ?

[bms]

The temp will cause a scortch, so for example 210 degrees for 30 seconds may scorch, but a lower temp for slightly longer should be fine. As will all times, they are a guide and not a precise science. Glad the trick worked! ;)

[picagiftuk]

I always cover the material with regular paper before I press down the heat press so as not to burn any fabric, but the truth is I don't really understand the technical part of sublimation, I got into this because I used to love playing around with photoshop and creating pictures and things so I thought why not make something out of it. The problem is that I never know what I should be increasing or decreasing when I get printing problems!

Peni

[NASH]

Thankyou Martin i`ve learn`t something today

[frizbee]

Be very carefull that the transfer does not move as the press opens as this can cause a blurr in the first couple of seconds whilst everything is at print temp.

Even just opening the press and waiting a few seconds before touching the transfer can make all the difference. We had load of trouble and it was all becuase we were swinging the press to the side too fast, a delay of 5 seconds made so much difference.

Let us know how you get on., between all of us we shoudl be able to get your printing perfect products :)

[picagiftuk]

Hi Frizbee,

What you said about not moving the paper too quickly makes alot of sense. It's happened a few times to me and when I told my husband that I thought the picture was blurred because he moved the paper too quickly he was not convinced, but you've managed to convince him now, so thanks!

Peni