The heat press conditions of DTF.

[Johnson]

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.

[johnson4]

4 hours ago, Johnson said:

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.

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. 

[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 :).

[AMartinez]

On 10/24/2022 at 6:42 AM, 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. 

So I'm glad I found this post, I've been curious about this because I've been seeing 320° for 15 to 20 seconds, after extensive testing, I've been curing my powder at 350° for 3 minutes and pressing at 350° for 15 seconds with a second press using Teflon or parchment paper for 10 seconds, and all of my prints have come out solid. None of them peel, or crack. Longevity after multiple washes and wearing is great, but now I'm just curious if there's any benefit going down to 320?!  

I guess the easy way to find out would be more testing lol and going down to 320, but I also noticed that they say to cure at like 200 and something degrees I've been curing it 350 and like I said no negative effects as far as I can tell all of my final prints are solid no issues at all.

 

I'm using Andy's ink powder and film roll.

[AMartinez]

Oh and I'm curing using the heat press method not oven, if that makes a difference.

[johnson4]

10 hours ago, AMartinez said:

Oh and I'm curing using the heat press method not oven, if that makes a difference.

it does make a difference, my suggestions imply they are properly cured with a shaker.   The 300-320F pressing temperature is just my preference. It doesn’t alter the colors and allows me to peel immediately. I also use blends and don’t want to scorch the garment. 
 

it’s all preference and testing based, so wherever works for you works for you. 
 

the powder/ink doesn’t start to cure until around 350F, shakers set to 200-220F can easily reach 800F every few seconds to maintain that “ 220F” setting. 
 

I have made my own shaker with a curing portion heated from the bottom and from a consistent heat instead of the bulbs typically used. The printer runs at 510 inches an hour or 8.5” a minute. With a 28” curing portion the transfers are in there a little over 3 minutes at that speed. Similar to your heat press settings. I run it at 360F and it cures perfectly. 340-350 and I get about an 80 percent cure. 
 

the film is also in direct contact with the 360F heat for the 2 out of 3 minutes it is in there, instead of radiant or “hovering”. 
 

id say somewhere around February I’ll have the kits up for sale in various forms for easy DIY shakers that will ship UPS ground. 
13”/17”/24” full cure width shakers that run on a standard 120V 15A outlet. 

 

anyway, If it works it works ;). Good luck! 

 

[AMartinez]

3 hours ago, johnson4 said:

it does make a difference, my suggestions imply they are properly cured with a shaker.   The 300-320F pressing temperature is just my preference. It doesn’t alter the colors and allows me to peel immediately. I also use blends and don’t want to scorch the garment. 
 

it’s all preference and testing based, so wherever works for you works for you. 
 

the powder/ink doesn’t start to cure until around 350F, shakers set to 200-220F can easily reach 800F every few seconds to maintain that “ 220F” setting. 
 

I have made my own shaker with a curing portion heated from the bottom and from a consistent heat instead of the bulbs typically used. The printer runs at 510 inches an hour or 8.5” a minute. With a 28” curing portion the transfers are in there a little over 3 minutes at that speed. Similar to your heat press settings. I run it at 360F and it cures perfectly. 340-350 and I get about an 80 percent cure. 
 

the film is also in direct contact with the 360F heat for the 2 out of 3 minutes it is in there, instead of radiant or “hovering”. 
 

id say somewhere around February I’ll have the kits up for sale in various forms for easy DIY shakers that will ship UPS ground. 
13”/17”/24” full cure width shakers that run on a standard 120V 15A outlet. 

 

anyway, If it works it works ;). Good luck! 

 

So I did do some testing last night, and as you said, the powder would not cure at anything under 350, and that's that I always heat the bottom tray with the press before laying the film on it and hovering the heat press.

As far as pressing, I tried pressing at 325, and you're right about that too!  The film peeled off so much easier, and the resulting image on the shirt felt softer and smoother, well done you, thanks again!

[johnson4]

3 hours ago, AMartinez said:

So I did do some testing last night, and as you said, the powder would not cure at anything under 350, and that's that I always heat the bottom tray with the press before laying the film on it and hovering the heat press.

As far as pressing, I tried pressing at 325, and you're right about that too!  The film peeled off so much easier, and the resulting image on the shirt felt softer and smoother, well done you, thanks again!

Not a problem at all, Glad it helped some.