applying ink to shirt with a mold

[BorisB]

Hi,

does anyone have  experience with these method?

http://www.toads.fr/video.html 

and then look for second part of haute frequence video.
Firts part of video is high freqency welding which I know how to do. Second part looks simpler, but type of ink and all other setting including type mold/plate are mystery so far.

Boris

[tonypep]

I don't have direct experience with it but i know some history. When HD inks first hit this was thought to be a breakthrough application. It was either Rutland or Wilflex who brought it to my attention. There are companies who can make the molds for you or you can buy the mold equipment yourself. The HD ink was applied as you see. The excess ink is carded and wiped clean. Then again as you see a simple heat transfer machine finishes the application. There were two problems.......first after costing it out the molds, ink, and production rates it was completely out of line for retail. Second there were often durability issues. See the ink isn't cured all the way through.
Fun to watch though.

[Doug B]

  We played around with it a few years ago. We used magnesium molds that we also make for
vinyl debossing. It was fun and all the rage at the time so we tryed to test it in real production by
setting up a line with multiple molds, pickers and appliers. Never could get it to be production
friendly (profitable).   

[RICK STEFANICK]

what they are doing in the video is called RF welding.. its all done thru a die and heat generated thru radio frequency waves. real popular in the late 90's.

[Command-Z]

Seems like making the mold itself would be expensive. CNC routing, probably.

[Doug B]

  They are actually showing both processes. The stuff they are squirting in the mold is nothing
but a thinned out plastisol. That is semi-cured and heat pressed. The first part of the vid is RF
welding. The plastisol used a magnesium die as I said. They are pretty cheap and are made with
a photographic process similar to making pad plates. The RF molds however, are made of
brass and quite expensive. The drawback is the actual unit to apply the RF. They are fickle
and if they are not set just right, no go. When we did them, we usually had to help them stay
on with a little Super Glue or fabric glue. Also, you can't use an RF unit that is very strong anywhere
near an airport. It obviously interferes with radios. Tubes for those suckers have a life of only about
2,000 hours and cost $3,500.

[mk162]

Rutland was who brought the process in here and showed us.  It was cool, but after running the numbers, it didn't add up, nor did we even have a market for it.

[sweetts]

Maybe if you have someone make the mold for numbers for sports teams. All you need to do is buy the molds and reduce your ink a bit and there you go. Other then that I don't see much use for it, vinyl would be quicker. If anyone wants to beta test that and give me molds to try , I prefer 6 inch numbers lol. Very interesting to see though, I am always amazed at how many ways people come up with to do the same task.

[mk162]

the cool thing about the molds was you could bevel the edges and make the design really thick. 

[RICK STEFANICK]

another option without any investment would be high density printing. you wont get the height but its a real sweet alternative.