0.5mm Aluminium

[ArferMo]

Bought some standard single sided 0.5mm white aluminium panels from Subli Metals, arrived next day well packed. Printed some test cards to build a custom ICC profile, Looked REALLY nice, rich colours and super glossy.

Anyway...... after building the profile decided to have a play with them to see how much abuse they would take when I spotted a strange effect on the surface when viewed at a certain angle in certain lighting. Normally a punter would not notice this as they really do look stunning.

Printer:- Ricoh GX7000
Ink:- Sawgrass
Paper:- TruePix
Press:- Medium pressure (3bar) at 180C for 60 seconds.

The problem:-
In the top image you can just make out a sort of mottled effect when viewed at quite an angle. By the way to give you an idea of the size the numbers are 2mm high on the print. I initially thought this was from where the protective plastic had been peeled off, but it seems permanent and won't polish off. In the 2nd (bottom) picture between the arrows you can see a distinct line where the edge of the transfer paper was. I have also tried transfer paper from TMT with the same effect.

Anyone got any thoughts.

[spongerobinson]

Have you tried printing the other way around? As in heat applied to metal, rather then paper. We had some metals in the past (not SubliMetals), and these produced a somewhat similar effect, and I seem to remember printing the other way around helped.

Oh and on an unrelated matter, what are you using to build your profiles? Missed out on a ColorMunki on eBay the other day, so still on the look out!

[ArferMo]

Ooops forgot to say, placed in the press paper down, metal on top then heat applied from back of metal.

Profiling using Datacolor spyder studio 4 Elite

[Justin]

If you speak to Subli Metals they'll give you guidelines for temp.s etc. but this effect is like the surface is melting slightly? I reduced my temp and time and pressure to very light, worked a treat

[spongerobinson]

Ooops forgot to say, placed in the press paper down, metal on top then heat applied from back of metal.

Profiling using Datacolor spyder studio 4 Elite

That's me out of ideas so! Been looking at the Datacolor Spyders as well...kind of like the fact the Colormunki is all in one, and the spot colour picking on the 'Design' version is something that would be very useful for us, but must check out the Spyders properly as well.

[ArferMo]

@Justin It was there instructions that I followed with great results just being picky......

"Press Aluminium at 170-185 degrees C for 40-60 seconds at light/medium pressure."

On an Adkins pneumatic press, light pressure is 2bar, medium is 4bar and heavy is 6bar. So I pressed at 3bar, light/medium.

[ArferMo]

@spongerobinson any of the colour checkers are quite good. I went for the Datacolor spyder studio 4 Elite as I needed to do multiple monitors and not all are suitable for LCD and Plasma, the Datacolor spyder studio 4 Elite will profile any monitor/mobile/tablet/TV/camera which made me go for that. Got the previous model kicking around here somewhere. OK for printer profiling but the other bit is only really suited to CRT profiling due to the type of sensor in it.

[spongerobinson]

@spongerobinson any of the colour checkers are quite good. I went for the Datacolor spyder studio 4 Elite as I needed to do multiple monitors and not all are suitable for LCD and Plasma, the Datacolor spyder studio 4 Elite will profile any monitor/mobile/tablet/TV/camera which made me go for that. Got the previous model kicking around here somewhere. OK for printer profiling but the other bit is only really suited to CRT profiling due to the type of sensor in it.

Thanks for that. CRT as in the old school fat monitors? Thankfully don't have any of them that need profiling. We've got two laptops and an iMac that will need doing, as well as 4 printers. Was looking at a Spyder3 on eBay not so long ago. Sold for a good price, but from what I could find out, the software for the printer profiling wasn't compatible with OSX Yosemite. If your ever looking to sell it on, let me know and we may be interested, but will depend on compatibility really.

Oh and sorry for taking the thread off topic a little

[Quinsfan]

Could it be a moisture issue. I have started putting kitchen roll on top of my prints when pressing onto metal to draw out the moisture.

[ArferMo]

If it was moisture then I don't think there would be such a distinct line where the edge of the paper was, as shown by the arrows in bottom picture.

The transfer paper was left for about an hour before printing and the aluminium was 2" under the hot press for a minute or two so was quite warm, but it was a humid day store room humidity was 37%.