Johnson

10 hours ago, johnson4 said:

It’s universal for all film, the only difference is the hot/cold peel aspect. Meaning how long you have to wait before peeling after pressing. This is just the optimal release temperature of the film itself, to let go of the print. 
 

heavy pressure, 300-320F 15-20 seconds for cotton. 
 

the temperature comes from melting the adhesive if you have properly cured your transfer. Some melt at lower temperatures some at higher. If the ink or powder wasn’t cured correctly, you’ll get a large variable of issues that appear during pressing that may look like pressing issues.

 

overall, I have used at least 10 different brands of film and 4-5 brands of powder. I use 300F 15 seconds, peel in 3-4 seconds. Never had an issue in any of them. For polyester I use 265F. 
 

now if your pressure sucks when applying the transfer, your heat press is off in temperatures , or your heat press is inconsistent, you’ll also get issues. I used 2 cheap Chinese auto open presses from eBay for a few years which worked fine until they literally broke apart, now I use heat press nation heat presses going on two years. Both worked fine.  For DTF I modified them with an air cylinder so they close at 60 PSI and I get a perfect embedded transfer every time. I can peel cold peel film hot with that. 
 

Over a busy period earlier this year I hurt my back pretty bad. You have two “ large” muscles in your back and I am left handed so I pressed ( with very heavy pressure) thousands of shirts ( hundreds a day) with four heat presses. I’d guess about 5,000 presses in 30 days. I was out for over 4 months, unable to do much of anything. It caused a “ disc” to slip and bulge as well as this large muscle was heavily inflamed. To this day I am still not able to do things I was able to do before. I am only 30. 
 

but, I also weigh 220lbs and had to practically lift myself off the floor to close the presses. For me, this is a must to make sure that transfer is permanent and embedded throughly, also so I can peel faster. Using heavy pressure makes them softer, embeds the print and literally makes it feel like screen printing. 
 

so I spent a few hundred and modified my clam presses to be semi automatic and now I just push a button to close them, they open themselves when timer goes off. Andy recommended California air air compressor so I went with that, it’s super quite. 

 

anyway, it’s all about the pressure, if your transfer is cured properly and the melting temperature of your powder. Nothing else. It’s not brand specific or printer specific. 
 

I will say that when you are printing, your ink settings will vary greatly from brand to brand and type to type. Other than that though, that aspect is practically all the same. 

It is very helpful for me to try to use DTF.

Thank you for your kind replying :).

Hi DTF experts!,

The heat press conditions are different from each DTF film product, aren't they?

To find the optimized conditions, a user should find it with her/his DTF printer and heat press machine. 

Does anyone who uses a china DTF printer, film (Audley product) and hotronix heat press machine has the conditions(temperature and time)?

Any comment for above helps me.

Thank you in advance.

On 10/19/2022 at 6:46 AM, johnson4 said:

There is no such thing. DTF film is preference based. The outcome of each type is the difference in the final transfer application and outcome. Each manufacturer has different quality standards. Every film listed can work great or terrible based on how it is produced from the manufacturer. 
 

you can evaluate this by testing all film types from your supplier. That’s the typical process to do so. They will likely vary batch to batch as well so expect that to happen. If you find a good supplier though this will be minimal. 
 

every film you have mentioned I have used good and bad versions of, it all depends in the manufacturer and your experience. Sometimes you just get a bad apple. 

Thank you for your replying

On 10/19/2022 at 6:14 AM, TeedUp said:

One criteria has to be consistency. 

Thank you for your replying

On 10/19/2022 at 4:51 AM, carlathebluegeckoprinting. said:

I can only speak from my own experience, which is not much.  But I have had good luck with single, cold peel film. I have had bad luck with hot peel, but nobody has really seen the issue I saw - so maybe a bad lot?  

On ink absorption, I will leave that to someone more knowledgeable than I.

Thank you for your replying

What are the requirements to be the best DTF films?

What are the bad cases of the DTF films?

1. Single / Double Coating?

2. Hot / Warm / Cold Peel?

3. How can evaluate the quantity of ink absorption?

and so on.

Thank you for your kind answer in advance.