What foil adhesive are you using and whats your set-up?

[RICK STEFANICK]

We have had decent results using the same Rutland glue, mesh , squeegies, pressure ,temp and time on smaller runs but we have a really large order coming and cannot risk any inconsistency. There has to be a more consistent product out there. Also are there any that peel HOT. Thanks in advance
-Rutland NPT foil adhesive
- 110(F)110 SINGLE STROKES
- 70/90/70
-330 degrees
-12-15 second depending on garment
- med- heavy pressure
- sometimes with Teflon sometimes not.

[tonypep]

Hey Rick.......in the past I've found a P/F/P of two 158s works a bit better than one 110. Smoother finish.
best tp

[TCT]

I am going to be bold and opinionated, and say there is not a better adhesive product made that is better than the Virus adhesive.
If you disagree with me, you are wrong and I hope you have something that tastes bad for lunch.... 

[BP]

If you have a gas dryer I would use water base. The best adhesive I have found is by Virus hands down. And remember if you are going to  do a wash test, you have to wait 5 days before washing.

Good Luck!

[DCSP John]

Everything you've listed is right on the money...(except I would add a few more seconds to the heat press)

water based adhesive (Rutland X Glue)
Unions Uni-Foil

Use a hard squeegee, double stroke on a low mesh count screen.
We've found that the real ticket to good foil is getting the glue on as smooth
as possible... Slow double stroke... The most important part of foil printing is getting the glue
to lay as smooth as you can, filling all voids in the fabric. This sets you up for the
perfect press and cold peel. Not sure if there is such a thing as hot peel foil.

Heat press 15-18 seconds, medium pressure. We use a dry board eraser real quick on the pressed foil
as an added measure...

Good luck on your run... 

- John


Good luck. Foil is labor intensive, but the end results are great if you can get those nice easy peels

[ebscreen]

Has anyone mentioned Virus yet? It's the best. Makes application dummy proof (tried and true!)
and the end result is actually somehow softer and has better stretch.

No hot peel that I know of, though we do peel silver foil warmish. That's the most difficult color
to get the hang of for some reason. We were putting it on poly blends and pressing for  2-3 seconds max.
Weird stuff.

[tonypep]

If going the Plastisol route try that smoothing screen from Action Rick

[RICK STEFANICK]

Thanks for all the GREAT input. The results we are  getting are much improved from the way they have always done it. Seriously they were double foiling at times, running gold ink over the adhesive under gold foil , blue under blue trying to mask the real problem. VIRUS IT IS. Thanks

[ZooCity]

Any foil brand that "likes" the Virus adhesive best or is preferred all around?

Dug and found some discussion between Amagic and Crown Roll Leaf.  Anyone use Univacco?

[DannyGruninger]

I've tested all the foils over and over. Right now the best for my shop is infiniti foils. Since switching its made life easy to foil

[Jonny O]

We also run the Virus adhesive (also labeled under the Amagic name), tinted just for precautionary measure
Amagic foil, 16 micron thick
low mesh double stroked with 75/90/75 blade, medium speed
dryer at 340 degrees for approx 50 seconds then heat pressed for 8 seconds
Cold peeled

Works very well for us.

[acescreen]

We use Wilflex high density clear double stroked through a 110 mesh. We keep our dryer off and flash only.  Then off  to heat press,  45lbs of pressure and pressed for 10sec with teflon sheet. We rub down on image area with shop rag and we normally peel while warm....maybe 30 sec after it comes off press.... we've tried cold peeling but we seem to get better results this way. We've done both gold and silver and we've really only used the A magic foils. I need to give the virus adhesive a try.

[RICK STEFANICK]

Thanks..

[Itsa Little CrOoked]

Has anyone mentioned Virus yet? It's the best. Makes application dummy proof (tried and true!)
and the end result is actually somehow softer and has better stretch.

No hot peel that I know of, though we do peel silver foil warmish. That's the most difficult color
to get the hang of for some reason. We were putting it on poly blends and pressing for  2-3 seconds max.
Weird stuff.

Agreed! Silver is the hardest to get good performance of the films we've tried. But why is that?

We like Virus also. But we do Gold foil the most and it works just fine with Wilflex HD Gel II Clear PFP'd through 156 or even 110. Depending on the job, I prefer it to Virus. But on Silver?? Never! Or largish areas with no "distressing" Virus is superior, but it DOES "dry in" and must be managed. During Reclaim, Virus can be harder to get out 100% in my shop. YMMV....

[ABuffington]

Tony nailed it.  Print flash print with a 150-160 screen.  The first print fills the fabric texture, the second is smoother and sits on top and is a bit higher in elevation above the fabric.  This method avoids any voids in the foil application.  Not all heat transfer presses are created equal, so results can vary if you have a unit that has hot spots and cold spots in the head.  The key is a floating head with consistent temps across the entire face. 

If you really want a challenge try puff foil!  This method was how we printed many Disney shirts in the Little Mermaid/Beauty and the Beast era.  You could do this today with gels as well.  But the key trick is if you print engineer it right and use a puff ink that re-lofts you can run the foil print back through the oven after foiling and get incredible textured gold nugget look.  Use coarse enough mezzotints suitable to print puff through a 110 mesh on a keyline and the results are incredible.  We also used matching puff ink colors like gold or grey for gold and silver foils. Our entire production was this technique combined with water base or discharge.  So check out this article for another print method for your clients.

http://murakamiscreen.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/3D-Puff-foils.pdf

Al