water residue look on phone cases

[Sornio]

Ok so after much messing about and numerous blanks wasted i finally found the reason!!

No matter what temp or pressure, i dont think it matters but timing is critical.

i put mine in for 60secs on the heat press and went ok, ink transferred nicely only the marking was still there:( then i remember when i first started printing on the inserts i either burnt them or all ink didnt transfer, so you have to play about with the time. There is a fine line to get the timing right. Too short ink wont tranfer or too long either burnt or marked.

what you best bet is instead of wasting inserts, use one and make sure you stick it on all 4 sides with heat tape, making sure image will never move. Put it in your machine for a certain short time, once finished dont remove tape, just peel back a corner to see if ink has transfered, if not, stick it in again for another wee while. Keep doing this intil ink has just transferred. Add up the time, then try the full time on your next one.

hope this helps. It should work:)

[magda]

I have this problem too with metal inserts. I assume it is the same thing you are talking about, the surface has a pattern of tiny wrinkles after pressing. It's most visible on dark designs and can be seen at certain angles as light reflects off the surface.

Just out of interest what time and temp were you using to get it right? (Although I know it will work differently on different setups..) In my trials I was getting the surface mottling/wrinkling at any time/temp combo that transferred the ink properly. The only times the surface came out good without mottling was when time/temp was too low to fully transfer the ink. So it seems like I will have to choose between a slightly paler transfer or wrinkled surface I've only tried one type of insert so far, will order some different ones from a different supplier and see if the same thing happens.

[Sornio]

Hi there,
to be honest it is still happening to me but i have come to live with it and havent had any compliants (yet) from my customers.

firstly, i believe you are correct in saying that the markings do not occur just before all the ink is transferred, which i dont think you should do.

secondly, i definately think its something to do with what you place your insert on to press, because the pattern of the markings change.

for example, im assuming you press with the insert facing down, so when i just place it onto the heat presses silicone mat, the markings come out just like the mat. I then placed it onto a piece of green mug wrap silicone and the markings are still there, only a different pattern.

it is annoying, the only insert that is less visible is the glittery ones, but dont really wana use that.

hope that helps and hope you can think of any other ideas and get back to me

[FutureProject]

Too much pressure can cause a similar effect on alu cases, I find it best to use very little pressure

[Renniwano]

I have had this issue with a whole batch of metal inserts only this week.. came on here and tried everything mentioned even down to the lowest pressure I could.. still the same.

I only ever find it's the glitter effect metal though.. and as I can't find anywhere that's inserts fit the already purchased cases.. it's looking like a whole new batch of phone cases :/ because I just can't sort it.

[magda]

I think this specific issue with the wrinkling of the surface of the metal inserts has to do with bad quality or defective inserts. I've now purchased a few insert cases from a different company just to test and they came out perfectly smooth with a good transfer using the same time and temp I used with the inserts that had the surface issue.

I had ordered both glitter and plain white inserts from the company that sent me the "bad" inserts and found the wrinkling effect worse on the glitter ones but it happens on the plain white ones too. The odd thing is that the type of rubber case I ordered for testing from the company with the good inserts is exactly the same as the cases I got from the company with bad inserts but the inserts must be different somehow.

Here are a couple of photos showing the surface wrinkling effect of the inserts:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]2882[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]2883[/ATTACH]

I think this is probably a different thing from the mottling effect people are talking about with the 3d sublimated cases. I've tried printing some 3d cases too (with paper) and get a very slight effect visible when light hits the surface from a certain angle, it looks a little bit like the surface is greasy but it is hardly visible so i've decided to ignore it.

[ArferMo]

Are they ripply like that before printing or only after.

[magda]

Are they ripply like that before printing or only after.

Before printing the insets from the bad batch are pretty much smooth, they only have a hardly noticeable slight ripple (it's so slight that I would ignore it and use them if the surface stayed the same after printing). The ripples/wrinkles become a lot more pronounced after printing (as you can see from the photos) and it gets worse the higher the temp and longer the time. I think it's so bad that I don't want to sell any cases using these inserts. Especially now that I tried inserts that stay perfectly smooth. Shame I have 200 of the bad ones! Will try to contact the company I bought them from and ask if they are aware of the issue but might be problematic as they are in China. Fortunately the UK company I got the good inserts from had exactly the same model of case so I can order spare inserts from them and still use the cases I got from China.

[magda]

Hi there,
to be honest it is still happening to me but i have come to live with it and havent had any compliants (yet) from my customers.

firstly, i believe you are correct in saying that the markings do not occur just before all the ink is transferred, which i dont think you should do.

secondly, i definately think its something to do with what you place your insert on to press, because the pattern of the markings change.

for example, im assuming you press with the insert facing down, so when i just place it onto the heat presses silicone mat, the markings come out just like the mat. I then placed it onto a piece of green mug wrap silicone and the markings are still there, only a different pattern.

it is annoying, the only insert that is less visible is the glittery ones, but dont really wana use that.

hope that helps and hope you can think of any other ideas and get back to me

I don't know if your issue is exactly the same as mine, I have posted a couple of photos of the ripple/wrinkle effect I'm getting. I've come to the conclusion it was due to a bad batch of inserts as I have now tried inserts from a different company that came out perfectly smooth. I tried the "bad" inserts both facing upwards and downwards and it made no difference to the wrinkle pattern I was getting. The "good" inserts I only tried facing upwards without anything between the paper and the heat platen and the surface came out completely smooth. (Saying this I've only tried 3 of the good ones so far, I really hope the rest will be good too.)

[Davalos]

it could possibly just have to do with bad cases? Or the paper? Has the OP tried several diff papers?