Heat transfer trucker hats

[lancasterprinthouse]

I have an order for a couple hundred plastisol transfer trucker hats. I’ve never done this before. I went out and bought a Hotronix cap press because the job paid for it (love it when that happens) and frankly I’ve been outsourcing heat pressed patch hats for a while so it’ll be nice to do them in-house.

Anyways, it’s a teal ink color (319) on black foam front trucker hats. My concern is opacity and how to achieve it. Typically this ink color would not look good on a black shirt without an underbase but is that different on the hats because I’m transferring? The design has some small lines that I would typically print through 230 mesh as discharge but I could get it on a mesh as low as 156 without any issues.

What would you recommend for mesh, ink and application?

Thanks!


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[Frog]

Note that this is very old information as it's been a while since I did plastisol transfers on hats, but when I did, my rule of thumb on dark hats, light ink, was one step coarser on the screen than I usually use for direct manual printing.
Keep in mind, that back then, 110 was typical for whites!
Cold peel also helped me keep opacity.

[ericheartsu]

I believe because it's sitting on top of the hat, and not being driven in, you'll get a much more opaque design, than if they were being printed.

But if you are using polyester hats, Watch your temp, as you can see some migration of the ink.

For transfers we typically will use a 157 or a 180, sometimes we'll go a little lower if the design is blocky. For darker inks, we'll use a 230 mesh, but mainly we stick with the two aformentioned screens.

Also, make sure to get some adhesive powder, and coat your prints before they are put through the dryer. It's a little extra insurance that they will stay stuck!

[kingscreen]

Contact F&M or Ace Transfer and be done with it.

[lancasterprinthouse]

Contact F&M or Ace Transfer and be done with it.

Have you used Ace? I’m had some client supplied transfers come through before and I believe they used Transfer express but they were trash. Opacity was crap, at best. Edges of the artwork were somewhat blurry too. Very bad lines and overall quality that’s why I’ve been nervous to send anything out.


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[kingscreen]

Those are my two go-to’s. I prefer F&M over Ace but I’ve had great luck with both.

[Frog]

Don't forget also that opacity can be greatly affected by the "Heat Seal Triumvirate",  temp, pressure, and time

[royster13]

I have used both F&M and Transfer Express for 10+....F&M is my 1st choice....But I can not recall a problem either....But I can tell you a few stories about some other places....

[mimosatexas]

We order a ton from fm. Their QC is...lacking. have gotten some truly terrible prints from them in the past. Everything from blurred prints to missing parts of the art, to issues with the vacuum platens holes coming through in the prints. That said, they are still better than most of the other big transfer companies. I got samples from 8 or 10 companies when I started offering transfers years ago and half of them were horrible, like 1/4 inch out of register horrible, or printed on the wrong side of the paper horrible. I was kind of shocked.

[lancasterprinthouse]

So I got started on these today and I’m happy with the detail and opacity but I’m wondering how I can get rid of the mark shown in this photo. The mark is the outline of the transfer paper. I pressed this at 300 for 8 seconds on medium pressure. I tried lower temp and lighter pressure and anything less doesn’t full transfer the artwork.

Any suggestions?




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[Frog]

Is that a pressure mark or could it be adhesive residue on the paper?

[lancasterprinthouse]

I believe it’s from pressure but I’m not sure. Is this normal? Any less of pressure and it doesn’t adhere although I haven’t tried extreme temps. I’ve seen some folks post about 340+ but that seems way too hot for poly foam hats


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[Frog]

I'm wondering if when you apply the adhesive, and shake off the excess, if there is still a coating of the fine powder on the paper.
You could check this possibility by pressing a blank paper.
Usually the only pressure marks I have to deal with are from the platens themselves. (Like on the bottom of your example)

[lancasterprinthouse]

I just tried that suggestion and I still got a mark and although not as noticeable, it is still there.

Post pressing with a piece of paper larger than the transfer size seems to help diminish the mark. I’d hate to have that extra step but whatever it takes I suppose..

[lancasterprinthouse]

250 hats later and I never did find a solution. We made it almost impossible to see by cutting the paper around the design in a die cut fashion. Not even noticeable to the average Joe when said and done.

I’m wondering if it’s just our paper. What is everyone using for transfer paper and where are you getting it?


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