Patrick Kelleher

Screen printer, sales coach & marketing expert

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Check out this Rhinestone Hat we decorated last week with our CAMS Machine. #rhinestone #bling #decoration #hats #cams #coldesi (at Headfirst Printing)

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Rhinestone & Silver shimmer shirt design. #bling #rhinestone #screenprinting #glitter #sgia (at Headfirst Printing)

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Water based reflective HSA inks go from black to reflective silver under bright light. #contractprinting #bling #printshoplife #sgia (at Headfirst Printing)

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In case you were wondering, this is what 1.5 million rhinestones look like #contractprinting #printshoplife #rhinestones #bling (at Headfirst Printing)

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Busy day at the Headfirst Printing dock. In case you are wondering this is what 10,000 t-shirts looks like@ #screenprinting #printshoplife #sgia #contractprinting #asi #ppai

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Bryan rocking a safety pink shirt with a ReflectX logo print. If you're looking for ReflectX reflective printing were the source in Michigan [phone] #printshoplife #screenprinting (at Headfirst Printing)

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Spring is in the air and the tshirt are flying off of our presses. #screenprinting #SGIA #printshoplife #printshop (at Headfirst Printing)

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This is the glitter shirt design we were printing on location at the LMCCOA scholarship meet on Saturday. We have a couple of openings for on-location printing at select events. Call us at 734-418-9038 to discuss your event and see if a no-risk profit share is a good fit for your event shirts. #competitivecheer #cheer #cheerleading (at Headfirst Printing)

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Our onsite printing event at the LMCCOA scholarship invitational was a huge success. We're happy to have had this opportunity to help LMCCOA raise funds for the $11,000 in scholarships they have out on Saturday. #cheerleading #cheer #competitivecheer (at East Kentwood High School)

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Competition banner for Muskegon Cheer #cheer #cheerleading #muskegoncheer #gobigreds (at Headfirst Printing)

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Red glitter warm ups for the Oak Park JV Knights #printshop #cheerleading #cheer (at Headfirst Printing)

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Obligatory tie selfie. Jim Rein from Ultra Marketing took a picture of me this morning as he needed photo evidence of me in a coat and tie. No one seems to believe that this how I used to dress before I became self employed and grew out my beard. #NewProductShowcase #printshop #screenprinting #printshoplife (at Headfirst Printing)

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Flat stock rack. #printshoplife #screenprinting #printshop (at Headfirst Printing)

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Our Workhorse six color #screenprinting #printshoplife #printshop (at Headfirst Printing)

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Wednesday was a busy day with 11 skids of product going out. #screenprinting #printshop #printshoplife (at Headfirst Printing)

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Top secret project #2 for 2016. We're now producing a USA made custom printed slipmat. These are printed at our Plymouth, MI facility using solar power (at Headfirst Printing)

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Just a simple question

Leo20: I have read some of your post and I think you would be able to help me out. My name is Leo and I am new to the sublimation world.

Leo20:I am having some trouble doing sublimation for phone cases. I got a pair of freesub 2030, but they did not work, therefore I got a bigger machine, one of these www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XkwSZRS4PA but after all I am still not able to transfer my design to a case.

Leo20:Currently I am using two different film, a white one and a silver one. (I think they both are from Korea)

Also, I am using Dye Sublimation ink (Sublinova Rapid). Everything seems right, but I haven't been able to get any results. I guess my question would be if I am using the right ink. And what kind and brand of ink do you use?

Best Regards,

Leo

Patrick: If you're sure that your inks are dye sublimation inks than the problem must be with the time and temperature settings of your press.

How hot are you getting your press and for how long are you pressing the substrate.

Start using the manufacturers guidelines but if that doesn't work look at 400F/200C for 300 seconds using preheated dies.

The dies (the milled metal pieces) hold the shape of the case while printing and also retain heat which stabilizes the heating of the phone case.

On the Sun-Fly machine I used to use for phone cases I would preheat the dies for three 300 second cycles before starting a print run.

Try that and let me know how it works and send back some pictures of the results you are getting. The pictures will help troubleshoot the problem.