Author Topic: foil troubleshooting  (Read 1134 times)

Offline ericheartsu

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foil troubleshooting
« on: December 11, 2013, 11:07:52 PM »
We just started messing around with our first real foil job, and we ran into some roadblocks today. was hoping for some help as to what is causing these issues.

We printed a mettalic-ish gold ink without the shimmer, through a 102 mesh front and back print on a tee.

At first we tried transfering the foil at 30 seconds at 350 degrees. With that we were getting uneven tearing when pulling the foil off, as well as jagged edges on part of the design, and foil dust (is that a thing?).

So i did some research and bumped it up to 10 seconds at 375, then down to 6 seconds at 375. Still getting the same results.

We are peeling after the foil had cooled off.

What causes things like this? is it poor adhesion? the plastisol print is pretty thick
Night Owls
Waterbased screen printing and promo products.
www.nightowlsprint.com 281.741.7285


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Re: foil troubleshooting
« Reply #1 on: December 11, 2013, 11:26:35 PM »
First advice is to not print the whole order until you have succesfully adhered the foil to at least one test print. We even check adhesion throughout the run, as 500 pieces that won't foil right ain't gonna be fun.

So assuming your ink deposit is all good. You haven't mentioned pressure, the third piece of the equation and the hardest to quantify. We do 20 seconds at 350 or so with a medium pressure. Medium to me means some stiff resistance to closing the press completely, but not having to get agro on the thing to shut it. Different designs will require slight variations. If the foil is really hard to pull you are too hot heavy or long. Thats what she said.

Test test test, you will get it. Be sure you have at least an inch or two or more of wiggle room from the size of the design to the platen.

Lastly, we have gotten foil to stick to just about any plastisol, but have been using high density clear tinted to the foil color for awhile, just for it's printing characteristics.

Offline ericheartsu

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Re: foil troubleshooting
« Reply #2 on: December 11, 2013, 11:43:38 PM »
pressure might be what we have to mess with.

It's a 50pcs run, and we did a test on the first two shirts, which came out flawless! so i was quite shocked, when we ran the first two and there were some issues, as well as every tester we did had weird issues too.

but i'm gonna mess with the pressure in the morning!
Night Owls
Waterbased screen printing and promo products.
www.nightowlsprint.com 281.741.7285