Ugly texture when sublimating prints

[crwoo]

Hi, I am trying to sublimate my pictures and am getting a weird texture. attached is a picture of one of my prints on a sublimation blank ceramic tile. I am getting the same results whit alum sheets.

I tried temperatures from 365-400. The alum pieces i press have tried 1-2 minutes and the tile I'm trying 8-11 minute range.

I am blaming my paper. I have tried Benjercorp and dyepress papers. the texture gets a lot worse if i raise my ink loads and if I lower the ink load the colors start fading.
Can anyone give me suggestions what it could be?

[Wayne Fox]

What press are you using? could be related to pressure.

[crwoo]

i am using a stahls clam style press. to much or to low pressure? i have made some where i know i used too much preassure and i tried what i felt was low preassure. especially on the alum.

[brinked]

you're using too much pressure/time or a combination of both.  What you are seeing are the paper fibers embedded into the sublimation coating.  This is known as "orange peel".

What type of aluminum are you using?  If its chromaluxe, and you get this same effect, then its due to not enough pressure/time. What are your exact settings?  If your transfer paper looks like it didnt sublimate fully then you are likely not applying enough pressure.

Clamshell presses are very difficult to work with for aluminum and anything that requires heavy pressure.

[crwoo]

the tile in the picture i have sent was at 187 degrees and axactly 10 minutes. preassure was low. on my first few tiles i was shootinh for high preassure and the tile broke, and i tried to remember that preassure as too high.

when i press the aluminum i can that i am certainly not using too low pressure because you can see the shape clearly formed into the paper. I'm pressing aluminum for 70 seconds.

i am sort of blaming my sublimation paper at this point.

any other suggestions... anyone?

[brinked]

I still need more information.

What type of aluminum are you pressing?  This makes all the difference in the world.  Chromaluxe you need to be doing face up (transfer on top with heat tape) applying very heavy pressure 70-75 PSI at 400 degrees F for 1:45 - 2:10 with poly fabric on top.

Dynasub or other aluminum on the other hand require very light pressure, aluminum face down into the transfer paper.

Your photo reflects very much how my prints looked when I first broke into the world of sublimation and was trying to do chromaluxe prints on a cheap clamshell press.  Do not do chromaluxe on a clamshell press...its just not worth the time and I dont think you can get enough even pressure on one.

Part of getting into sublimation is trial and error.  Do not blame your transfer paper, its very unlikely to be the culprit. 

[crwoo]

hi, I haven't tried chromalux. I am using dynasub and Digital Grafx. I will try higher preassure and longer times. i notice that the colors that seem to be missing on the print are still on the paper.

the way the good clamshell presses work is that when you clamp down and the lever goes over center the action is straight down. and i am working with 4x6 and 8x11 pieces so evenness isnt a problem. the ceramic  tile in the picture is 4x4x.25 and if im not careful it will easilly break.

[crwoo]

ok, I set my temps to 400 and pressed very hard for 2:10 and the the texture is gone. WOW.
the gloss finnish is damaged so maybe too hard or too long? a few tries should get me there. my colors arent right yet, i am a awaiting delivery of a stack blanks and a i1 pro v1.

hope profiling is a breeze. i made 4 profiles with my colormunki and all of them are different.

[brinked]

actually for dynasub you need very light pressure for about 45 seconds depending on the size...400 degrees.

Place a paper towel on top of your kraft paper.  You should have kraft paper on bottom on top of your rubber pad, transfer paper face up.  dynasub aluminum face down, kraft paper on top, then paper towel or poly cloth on top as your final layer (this will give it more even pressure, you may need to boost up your time to 1:15 with this).

Your damaging the coating because you're applying way too much time and pressure.  You need to focus on applying even pressure, which is hard but not impossible with a clamshell press.

[crwoo]

hi, thanks for the info, it has helped a lot.

I followed your instructions and now have this rough texture. the surface on top is perfect, the text on my picture is pretty crisp. the texture is all over the print. worst around the midtones.

the top surface is nice and glossy, no damage there. the texture is in the print.

the picture is a 2x3 inch area, so it's pretty rough. what on earth could that be? it wasnt on the print.
I pressed at medium pressure, 400 degrees, 1m5s with paper towel just like you explained.

do you have any suggestions?

[brinked]

looks like the texture from the paper towel.  Try using a paper towel with a smooth texture and try less pressure.  But really, you should buy some fabric if this is the best you're seeing.

Dynasub has a softer coating than chromaluxe, so its more susceptible to having imprinting left if applying too much pressure.

[crwoo]

Hi, i tried using a fine cloth and nothing at all and the texture is still there.
Here is what I also tried. 2 minutes and the textures was worse. 1m5s and the texture was the same. and 45s and the colors weren't transferred. Also, sublimating the sheet at 2 minutes face up with transfer face down seemed to solve the burned finish problem, even at 2 minutes.

Does any of this info help you figure out what I could try next?

I am using his sheets http://www.digitalgrafx.biz and he tells me he prints fine art quality with them. he recommended 350-365 degrees and 60-75 seconds with transfer paper face up. doesn't seem like that's enough time for my ink to sublimate.

[brinked]

do you mean you are buying transfer sheets from this company as opposed to printing your own sublimation sheets?  If so, thats your problem right there.  You need to sublimate a print onto dynasub within 12 hours, or the transfer will go bad, doesnt matter which paper you are using.  I can never sublimate onto dynasub with transfers older than that, they just never look right.  You can get away with this more with chromaluxe, but not with dynasub.

[crwoo]

No, that's not what I meant. I am buying the sublimation blanks from that company and printing my own transfer sheets.

[brinked]

I have tried many different types of sublimation aluminum when I first started out on my clamshell press.  The softer coatings are almost impossible to get a proper transfer with a clamshell.  I could not get a proper print with any aluminum (including chromaluxe) with the clamshell.  You are going to waste a lot of money in trial and error trying to get your print right and you could just invest that money into a proper heat press for your needs such as a swing away press, or a pneumatic if you can afford it.

Clamshell presses should never ever be used for aluminum.  I spent hundreds of dollars in wasted materials trying to get it right.  Dont go through the same hell that I went through.

[crwoo]

not sure i would blame my press as it heats even and am able to put a lot of pressure on it. i dont have a cheap pos clamshell press. i have a high end Stalls press. it heats even and presses hard if you set it hard.

that said, you know more about sublimation than I do but what would you have to do to get the crazy texture i am getting? too much ink? too much heat? if it was my press, what would my press be doing wrong? doesnt it apear the ink is boiling by looking at the picture?

[brinked]

that bumpy texture you are getting is the sublimation coating being imprinted by your towel, protective sheet or whatever you have on top of it.

Most sublimation aluminum coatings (excluding chromaluxe/unisub) are very soft.  This means they melt at a certain temperature.  This is normal, but the aftermarket ones that are no dynasub tend to melt even more and this is the issue you come up with.  This is why its critical to have a pneumatic press so you can set the exact pressure and go from there.  You will never have consistent results with a clamshell because you will find yourself always needing to calibrate it.

Are you sublimating with the aluminum face down into the transfer sheet?  that would be the way you should be doing it.

[crwoo]

hi, the texture is not on the surface. the surface is shiny and very glassy... perfectly in tact. the texture is 'printed on'
it's not there when i look at the printed transfer sheet.

i am having less problems with damaging the surface with alum white side up, but texture in print is there either way.

i have notices the texture is more obvious with 8x12 than 4x6. is there a chance that when the ink gasifies it can go anywhere because i am trying low-medium pressure. heavy is what i would call about the pressure that broke some ceramic tiles.

[brinked]

you want to do light light pressure.  The least amount of pressure possible.  The only aluminum that requires heavy pressure is unisub line.  If you are going heavy pressure or even medium pressure you will always get orange peel effect (which is the paper fibers embedded into the coating) or other crazy stuff.

I cant really tell you for this particular product, but I am willing to bet it has a soft coating like all the others that are not unisub.  You are not going to find a solution from someone because your specific setup needs to find its own specific formula to get the right result.  I know its not what you want to hear, but you need to keep doing trial and error until you see something starting to work, then tweak that.  But focus on light pressure, around 380- 385 degrees for about 45 seconds.  That should be your starting point, then you can play with time.

[bgphoto]

I think Will had the correct answer in that each situation seems to be different and at a certain point you are stuck finding your own way to find out what works for you.

I was in somewhat the same boat trying different things that people had suggested, but in the end I had to find my own things that worked and a lot was counter to what I was being told. I think a lot of that has to do with using alternative inks and RIPs or printer drivers. The bulk of this niche is built around Sawgrass inks and the Ergosoft or Wasatch RIP. When you step out of that box you seem to be a lone wolf.

Ben