Avoid Iron marks in sublimation

One of the most recurrent problems when we personalize t-shirts is the brand of our transfer plate on the fabric. This is a natural effect that occurs by applying temperature and pressure to polyester fabric that can also occur during ink cure ironing on cotton T-shirts printed with a T-shirt printer.

The brands produced by ironing go with the first wash of the garment, however it is very ugly when it comes to displaying the shirts in your business and showing them to your customers, so in today's post we are going to talk about several solutions and tips to make your shirts look perfect.




1. Reduce the ironing parameters
Too high a pressure is the main factor for this undesirable finish to occur. The very high temperature also causes the sublimation paper to yellow the garment. Reducing pressure and temperature as much as possible is the first step in reducing ironing marks and sublimation paper.



2. Use a Teflon sheet
The Teflon sheet on the bottom plate of the iron softens the effect of direct ironing on the garment, thus reducing the depth of the mark. In addition, this sheet will serve to protect the base of your transfer iron from scratching.



3. Use a heat resistant pad
Sometimes it is not enough to lower the pressure of the transfer plate and tear the sublimation paper to avoid marks on the shirt. In these cases a very good solution is to use a pad or mat made of heat resistant materials. We recommend two types:

- NOMEX pad: NOMEX is a material that was developed to resist flames and high temperatures. It is a material of great adaptability and resistance that allows the heat of the transfer plate to be distributed evenly over the product that you are going to sublimate. Thanks to its adaptability to shapes, you can also use it for sublimation of sublimable tiles and photo frames as it allows the edges to be sublimated even if they are irregular.

- FOAM pad: Using this heat resistant foam together with a Teflon sheet you can make the marks disappear from the shirts. To use this pad, we recommend cutting it 2-5cm less than your design so that when you place it on the lower plate of the transfer plate, the sublimation paper protrudes, leaving a gap between the pad and the edge of the plate of the griddle. This will prevent ironing marks from occurring.





4. Tear off the sublimation paper
Tear off the edges of the sublimation paper after your design is printed to smooth out the outline. Make sure to leave enough space on the paper when printing your design so that there is enough room around it so you can tear the paper without marring the print.





5. Use a pad smaller than the base of your iron
Using a lower pad that is smaller than the size of the plate will prevent the upper plate from being marked on the textile, as the edges of the upper plate will not come into direct contact with the shirt.



6. Stretch the shirt
Once the ironing is done, stretch the shirt a little horizontally and vertically. By stretching the fibers when the fabric is still hot, you will ensure that the plate of the iron is not so marked. This step must be done carefully so as not to deform the fabric and if you combine it with one of the previous solutions you will see how the mark will disappear or be practically imperceptible.



As you can see, there are several tricks to avoid obnoxious iron marks on shirts when sublimating. If you have any that we have not mentioned, you can share them with us in the comments. Until the next post!