Transfer printing water- based

[SERJ]

CMYK- Magnaprint HB,mesh 120,90 Lpi
White- Magnaprint Aquatrans, mesh 77
Transfer paper-Arjo Wiggins T 105
Transfer adhesive- DAKOTA TAP 4073
Printed on Chameleon
Few video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMy8kQ__9Ec&t=8s

[Itsa Little CrOoked]

WOW!

Thanks for posting this Serj. I currently use a vacuum platen, not the carousel, but I'm willing to try it. If I can find a platen adhesive that is acceptable for this process, that is.

[mimosatexas]

Great finished product. A few questions and comments:

What's the shelf life of the transfer using this ink?

In my experience, flashing on press wrinkles and warps the paper. It seems like this isn't an issue here and wondering how you get around that?

Another issue I've seen pop up is when doing longer runs of transfers with flashing on press the platens heat up like they do when printing shirts,  which aids in flashing time, but also causes the final base white or clear to gel a bit prior to removal of the paper which in turn causes adhesion issues with the powder sticking to the base. Again, doesn't seem like an issue here and wondering why.

I know English isn't your first language, but would love more info. Google translate may help here

[SERJ]

Thank you, tomorrow I will answer questions when I transferred to english

[SERJ]

When printing transfers, I always consider in the first place the recommendations of the transfer paper manufacturer. If the TDS says the pre-shrinkage of paper should be done at 130C for 30 sec., I follow that.

Arjo Wiggins declares that transfers should be heat pressed within the 6 months after printing. I presume this is minimum guaranteed shelf life and in fact it is longer, but it has to be proved.

To flash on press, I set up the flash unit power at 50%. The longer you print, the hotter the pallets become, and you have to adjust (reduce) the flash time.

When you print with water-based inks, you shouldn't overheat the pallets. If the pallets are overheated, the issues that you described occur.

[larryk]

WOW!

Thanks for posting this Serj. I currently use a vacuum platen, not the carousel, but I'm willing to try it. If I can find a platen adhesive that is acceptable for this process, that is.

Could this be done with a vacuum platen ... sending each color through the dryer to flash? Is this paper different than the normal cold peel paper we use?

[Frog]

WOW!

Thanks for posting this Serj. I currently use a vacuum platen, not the carousel, but I'm willing to try it. If I can find a platen adhesive that is acceptable for this process, that is.

Could this be done with a vacuum platen ... sending each color through the dryer to flash? Is this paper different than the normal cold peel paper we use?

The biggest difference we have with our carousels over flatbeds is that we don't need to remove and re-set our substrate like conventional printing methods other than screen printing generally do. It's needed on apparel because it could never be re-registered.
If that can be utilized on transfers, it's a plus.

[Itsa Little CrOoked]

Just for giggles, yesterday I did a single color transfer job, adhered to my shirtboards with my "go to" waterbased adhesive, CCI Top Bond...just with refreshing the adhesive with my scrubby of choice... and Simple Green, Lemon Scented as I dislike the smell of the original.

With warmed shirtboards, I was able to print, on my manual.... multiple passes of tiny detailed plastisol over flashed, previous passes--well registered.

The trick for me was keeping the paper dry from the "conditioning trip" through the tunnel (265 degrees, 45 or more seconds..and maybe twice...) until printing.

Registration was nearly perfect.

I like these 3M scrubby pads.

[Itsa Little CrOoked]

I missed your question, Larry.

Serj said (somewhere...?) the paper was T105. I remember specifically. It might have been in the video.

Stan

[Frog]

I missed your question, Larry.

Serj said (somewhere...?) the paper was T105. I remember specifically. It might have been in the video.

Stan

Listed in the body of the first post:
CMYK- Magnaprint HB,mesh 120,90 Lpi
White- Magnaprint Aquatrans, mesh 77
Transfer paper-Arjo Wiggins T 105
Transfer adhesive- DAKOTA TAP 4073
Printed on Chameleon

[SERJ]

Thank Frog. Mom told me teach English

[mimosatexas]

This may be more appropriate in a new thead, but I wanted to update here since SERJ's video is why I decided to revisit this process (with plastisol instead of waterbased) instead of the vacuum platen method.  This is basically random thoughts related to printing the transfers with spray tac, flashing between colors, and how it compares to running each color through the dryer instead.  Some of this will differ based on my setup vs someone else's setup as well.

First, it took quite a bit of testing to get the spray tac figured out.  The first few times I straight up tore the paper and had to apply new pallet tape.  Too little tac and the paper wrinkles a bit when flashing (i tried 3 different brands and they all had the same issue).  I eventually figured out the right amount of tac though, and kept a spare piece of paper to apply, lift, apply, lift to sort of pick up any clumped areas that might cause the actual transfer to tear when removing.

Second, the registration is dead nuts vs the "standard" method I use of running each color through the dryer.  I typically build art to compensate for minor registration issues and I do pretty detailed transfers just fine.  If someone is battling paper shrinking issues or doesnt have a great method of re-registering on press between colors the spray tac method will definitely fix that.

Third, the time it takes to print it this way, at least with my setup, is MUCH longer.  I have an infrared flash and I'm printing manually either way.  I ended up having to print one transfer sheet at a time vs being able to print on all four stations at once, meaning there was lots of waiting around for the flash to do its job.  There were two reasons for this: the time it takes to print additional transfers between colors meant by the time I got back to the original  transfer sheet to print the next color was enough for the paper to cool a bit and cause registration errors, even if I rotated the other way and flashed immediately before the next print stroke.  Basically too much of a temp swing between colors.  I don't use a hot box when doing it my standard way, but with preshrinking and letting the paper acclimate prior to printing each color i just dont have issues with paper shrinkage causing registration differences.  I could not figure out that equilibrium flashing on press.  The only way I found I could keep constant registration was to do one at a time and basically print within a few seconds of the flash and then back under the flash immediately.

Final thoughts, great idea for super tight registration, but not great for high quantities unless you can overcome the issues with paper equilibrium.

Still would love to try this with waterbased inks like SERJ.

[zanegun08]

I eventually figured out the right amount of tac though, and kept a spare piece of paper to apply, lift, apply, lift to sort of pick up any clumped areas that might cause the actual transfer to tear when removing.

Get a heavier weight paper, the Arjo Wiggins T75 is what we use, he is using T105 which is heavier.  We do it the same as this method except with plastisol.  The water base blows my mind, but I have just never tried it.

Also there is a finesse to taking the paper of the patten without ripping.

Sometimes we run multi color transfers on the autos for large runs with this same method, flash between each color, and spray tack the platens (only where paper goes)

[mimosatexas]

I have some of the T105, same issue.  The paper that tore was pretty much glued to the pallet tape, like it completely shredded and getting off the parts that were stuck was going to take longer than just replacing the tape.

[Itsa Little CrOoked]

That's a great post Mimosa.

I too did a 4 screen transfers job yesterday, registration a la Sergey...and like you, it was with plastisol.  My manual uses  infrared flash, and I timed each pass, to be just beyond transferring to my fingertips. Shirtboards were quite warm.

My early observations were similar to yours, but I found it was about the same or maybe even faster than one pass at a time...the way I do it.

<edit>  I used the carousel as intended. That is certainly why it was faster for me than Mimosa. It did take about 20 seconds to hit the level of flash I wanted, so that is slower than tees, and LOTS slower than sweatshirts. The fact that the paper is down tight on the platen, makes the heat sink effect of the soft top aluminum (Action Engineering) increased the flash time. The Wilflex red I used needed 2 more seconds. My manual flash is a 120V Workhorse. I would probably move a bigger job to my Gauntlet and use revolver mode.

I used my usual waterbased adhesive,  CCI's Top Bond and although my tac level was nearly perfect for this job, it was just a happy accident. I simply renewed it by defuzzing as I listed above....but after printing many tee shirts. No paper shredding or tearing at all, but it did curl after removal. I had talcum powder ready, but never needed it.

I am much less experienced at transfers than you, but the registration was UNbelievable!  I used T-105 paper.

I did do 2 conditioning passes through the tunnel @ 265ish for 50 seconds, and immediately into the hot box. 1 pass would probably be fine.

I'm anxious to try waterbased as in the topic of this thread.