Di-sub printing

[flying scotsman]

Hi guys,

I have a problem that is probably more relevant to production heads than you creatives out there. Does anyone run a di-sublimation printer out there as mine is not functioning as i would like i.e. shrinkage and material wastage.....

[Danger_Mouse]

What kind of material are you sublimating on? That might have alot to do with it.
Explain more why its not functioning, and type of printer.

[flying scotsman]

Hi Danger Mouse.

We have a Be Digital machine namely a "Textbejet". Its not that its not working its just not working commercially plus the afore mentioned shrinkage. The shrinkage varies from material to material but is worst on the polyester "artists canvas" and murphy's law dictates that that is the most popular. We are also finding that there is a lot of waste purely through the material passing through the di- sublimation heater roughly 2-3m per print is this indicative of di-sub printing or is it as i suspect our dodgy machine. any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[PrintDriver]

I'm not familiar with a Textbejet.

Are you following the specific heat settings for the specific media you are using. Not all materials are suitable for Dye-sub (correct term spelling) printing. High heat will cause high shrinkage.
However, 2-3mm is NOTHING. I get creep of up to 1" over 20 feet all the time. You need to account for it in pre-production.
Printing is NOT an exact science. The bigger the print is, the less exact it is.

[flying scotsman]

Hi print driver,
We have experimented with heat settings and the best setting gives us about 25mm(1") shrinkage as you were saying. that is good to know. The problem we are facing is that it is not constant making pre production solutions more difficult.I was refering to the amount of material that passes through the Dye-sublimation(thanks) after printing 2-3m(not mm)is this normal? I have checked the material and seemingly our supplier says it is suitable.

[Danger_Mouse]

Never heard of it either (printer brand)

yeah it could be many things...


1. The type of ink you are using. Explore your options and do research, there are lots of different brands of inks. I know in Canada we have dealt with suppliers overseas in Italy and Ireland for best results. *I use to work in sublimation in the art dept, but we had about seventeen 52" die sublimation printers...they ran through a separate heat press. Big production. Some inks are thinner than others, use less, still get rich colors.
Also check your printheads...they all should be adjustable on print flow. Lots of color testing to fine tune it.

2. Your Heater as PD suggested.....no reason why polys should be shrinking, sublimation preferred medium is any poly surface....my guess is your heat is cranked too high....but once you adjust that for the shrinking, you may have ink problems.

3. Brand of printer....your printer might suck. How many do you have? Is this the run from your garage printer, or something made to handle more production? Contact your supplier and talk to them. Talk to other suppliers to find out yourself if you made the right purchase.

That's where i would start...it could be opening a can of worms.

[PrintDriver]

2 or 3 METERS???!!!
:eek:

[flying scotsman]

Thought i had posted reply but it does not seem to have arrived on the forum if i am repeating myself i am sorry.

Danger Mouse: Our DYE-SUB is basically a Roland SJ-1045 EX which has been adapted to sit on an ATP Color Dye-sub heater. We also run 2 Scitex ultra wide inkjets, Durst Lambda 130, Roland XC-540 and a Grapo Manta direct to substrate printer. All these we have bought from the same Hardware supplier that we bought the Dye-sub from and these have all ran wonderfully some for nearly 10 years. Thank you for the advice on the inks and you were on the money with the heat issue but unfortunately you were also right about heat reduction effecting the ink lay down quality.

Print driver: Your reaction to the 2-3m was the same as mine but as the printer and heater are one unit that is how much material is used from the print entering the heater and ending up on the take up roll we are under the impression that you cannot put material through the heater twice is this true in your experience.

[PrintDriver]

I've never used a combo unit.
Printer and heat setter have always been separate.
You should NOT be losing 1-2 meters to heat shrink.

[flying scotsman]

Hi Print Driver

we are not losing 2-3m through shrink. we are losing it because the material is laced through the printer and has to stay laced as it goes through the heater and unprinted material is exposed to the heater as the print reach's the take up roll. Do you know if you can reprint on to material that has been put through a printer.:confused:

[Danger_Mouse]

as long as it hasnt already been printed on going through the heater again shouldn't matter. We would put things through our heater sometimes just to give fabric an "ironing".

You also need to reevaulated your process....if you are losing that much material, maybe its in your file set up. Bunching jobs together to maximize material use. I don't know what exactly it is you are printing...we printed custom jerseys that were printed as pattern and sewn together after sublimation...we had to gang patterns to maximize space used and reducing waste.

[flying scotsman]

Thanks your info has been helpful

[PrintDriver]

Aaha! He's talking about what it takes to 'web' the machine. This type of waste is normal, believe it or not. Welcome to Wide Format! You want a dumpster with that?

Seriously though, yes, the web is normal waste. It accounts for why proofs cost so much in this process. This is also why you try to schedule multiple jobs to run on one material while it is loaded in the machine.

[flying scotsman]

Thank you Print Driver. Although already well versed in wide format this wastage is unreal. What area of the industry do you work in are you production only or do you dabble in design?