Transfers - muddy / blurred edge

[Admiral]

We made some transfers a couple weeks ago and when they were heat pressed the edges came out blurry instead of clean.  We ended up just directly printing the job.

We used typical settings (through the dryer for 35sec at 240, heat press at 350 for 8 seconds), that have worked for transfers for us for the last few years.  It was black ink and not a 'transfer' ink so I believe that might be the issue but I doubt everyone is buying all kinds of transfer inks for their in house transfers.

Any ideas?

[ebscreen]

Assuming the edges looked good before application, I would hazard a guess that something in the application settings changed.
Is it a "smushed out" blurry or a "not fully adhered" blurry?

[bulldog]

I've seen this and every time for me it seems like I made the stencil too thick. It looks clean on the paper but then it gets smushed into the shirt and becomes kinda jagged.

[Frog]

Admiral, a pic could only help

[Admiral]

What happened with ours:


What was done previously by someone else:




I did just find our transfer black ink too...no time to test it though.

[Frog]

Too much ink or too much heat or too much pressure could do that.

I don't see I was looking for; the blur only in one direction indicating creep as the heat platen came down if a clam shell type.

[mimosatexas]

looks like too much pressure AND a slight move while pressing down.  The fact that you can very clearly see the fibers of the substrate through the ink on yours is the best clue in my opinion

[BorisB]

is it polyester? maybe you can preheat it to prevent shrinking. In general it's non absorbent material so you need thinner ink layer

[Admiral]

It's polyester.

We preheat everything.

This is with a pneumatic heat press - hotronix air fusion, possibly done with too much pressure though(I believe 40 psi was used).  Could also be from too thick of a stencil but the worse opacity leads me away from that...(even if there was too much pressure).

When I have time I will try the transfer black ink we have and lower pressure though.

[GaryG]

If too much of an ink film, the "texture" will let it squirt out in the valleys of the weave.
Think of it as being corduroy, the ink is going to seek the valleys...

A hot-split or specific transfer ink is best.

[Admiral]

If too much of an ink film, the "texture" will let it squirt out in the valleys of the weave.
Think of it as being corduroy, the ink is going to seek the valleys...

A hot-split or specific transfer ink is best.

Too much ink? how would you get an opaque white transfer on a dark garment then? this was with a 160 mesh screen.  110 or 80 would be typical for white ink transfers..