Moderator: Welcome to tonight's special event:
"Decorating Ceramics" with Cherie Derrick
Alan: Welcome back everyone
Alan: this is part two of a four part series on sublimation
Alan: Tonight we are going to talk about
Alan: Decorating on Ceramics.
Alan: Our guest is Cherie Derrick
Alan: with Encompass Technologies
Cherie: Welcome back to those of you who were with us last week and welcome to you who are joining us new this week. For the people who did not get to attend last week I hope you have had the time/opportunity to read last weeks transcript
Cherie: where we discussed what dye sublimation is, what you can print onto and the equipment you need to do the work.
http://www.dyesub.org/articles/Latte/ceramicoutline.jpg
Cherie: This week we are going to talk about ceramic products and the different types of coatings available. Specifically mugs and tiles and the equipment that can be used to do this. Hopefully this won't be as mind boggling as last week and
Cherie: should be a little shorter so we will have plenty of time for questions and answers afterwards.
Cherie: The majority of this presentation will again be talking about inkjet dye sublimation since that is the type of sublimation most people are using today.
Cherie: The basics of pressing ceramics isn't much different than pressing cloth items, you need heat, a transfer, blank paper, heat resistant tape (some people don't use this for tiles) and pressure. You tape your transfer to the ceramic, put a
Cherie: piece of blank paper over the transfer to keep the dyes off your press or wraps (for full bleed on tiles you may need a silicone rubber heat conductive pad) and
Cherie: apply heat and pressure to the item until the coating gets to Tg (glass transition) point to accept the sublimation dyes. Cherie: The main things about pressing ceramic to keep in mind are:
Cherie: -You need a lot of time in the press (or oven) because ceramic pulls a lot of heat out of your press and you need to get the coating up to Tg temperature.
Cherie: -The other major influence on pressing ceramic products is the coating on ceramic products varies. There are "soft coated" items meaning that the Tg point of the coating is low. This coating is good for non-inkjet transfer printing
Cherie: (Color Laser Copier, dry resin sublimation, thermal wax sublimation and some of the video printers and ribbon based dye sublimation printers). You can use this
Cherie: coating for inkjet sublimation but your paper will stick to the coating and your image will not be very durable (not dishwasher safe).
Cherie: For inkjet dye sublimation you need a harder coating but that isn't the only thing you need to look for, there are several different types of harder coatings too. Some are household dishwasher safe, some are commercial dishwasher safe
Cherie: and some are not dishwasher safe at all. Then you can get into UV resistant coatings and non-UV resistant coatings. There are gloss coatings, satin coatings and matte coatings.
Cherie: I know your questions are going to be, "So where can I buy which coating..." and I have to say, I am very reluctant to say who carries what because it seems as if coatings (and coating companies) are changing almost on a daily basis. So even
Cherie: though I try desperately to stay on top of what is being offered by what company, it could have changed in the last day or two and I might not have the current information.
Cherie: To the best of my knowledge on Feb. 21, 2004 the companies coating mugs and tiles for inkjet dye sub are as follows (all companies carry gloss coatings and can be found on the Industry Links page at www.dyesub.org under "Tiles" or "Mugs"):
Cherie: -Armor(TM) Coatings tiles have UV protection. They also have matte finish tiles.
Cherie: -Bison Coating and Supply tiles have UV protection and sell matte and satin finishes also.
Cherie: -Cactus Coatings "R" coated mugs are commercial dishwasher safe and have UV protection. They carry another coating for ribbon based dye sublimation (not for inkjet dye sub) that will fade over time in home dishwashers and have no UV resistance in this
Cherie: coating.
Cherie: -Laser Reproductions DuraSub (TM) coated mugs are commercial dishwasher safe and have UV protection. They also have DuraSub tiles in matte and satin finishes which also have UV protection. They carry mugs and tiles that are not
Cherie: dishwasher safe and have little (or no) UV protection, so be sure if you need dishwasher safe mugs and tiles with UV protection to ask for the "DuraSub" coating.
Cherie: -Photo USA mugs are not dishwasher safe at this time and I don't believe their tiles or mugs have UV protection in them. They have or will be changing their coating soon so this information may be incorrect.
Cherie: -Premire Finishing & Coating tiles have UV protection and sell matte and stain finishes also.
Cherie: -Xpres (Johnson Plastics recently bought out a division of Xpres so I don't know if they will change their name or not) Rhino coat mugs I would consider are home dishwasher safe but personally, I would mark these mugs "hand wash only". I
Cherie: believe they are not commercial dishwasher safe and that they may have some UV protection in them. I do not know about their tiles.
Cherie: These are the coating companies in the USA (Photo USA items are coated in China) that are selling to sublimators right now. To the best of my knowledge everyone else selling mugs and tiles in the USA are being supplied from one of
Cherie: these companies. Again, this is changing almost on a daily basis. Bison Coating just opened for business last week and I know of future plans for at least one coating company that will be importing to the USA from overseas.
Cherie: Your best bet is always ask your distributor specific questions depending on your needs and ask every time you order because some supplier switch who they get their mugs and tiles from and may not tell you.
Cherie: Mug Presses and Mug Wraps
Cherie: I used to be a big fan of heat presses for mugs but the more I do the more I'm beginning to think oven wraps are really the way to go. First, let me say, I do NOT try to do top to bottom printing. I limit
Cherie: my image area on a mug to 3" high by 8" wide which most (not all) mug presses can do. If you want more coverage than that you will need to really do your homework to find a mug press that handles that. There is a 2 part article on
Cherie: DyeSub.org (first part is in the newsletter, second part is under "reviews") written by Larry Cohn that covers the different presses but I know that some of the specifications of the presses have changed since that was written one year ago.
Cherie: I use the Cactus Coatings ORG-2 press, the Nova Chrome Mug Pro press and Cactus Coatings Mug Wraps..
http://www.dyesub.org/articles/Latte/mugpresses.jpg
Cherie: When choosing a press, keep in mind that every mug seems to be a little different. Some are a little thicker than others, some are not as straight as others, etc. so you will need something that is easily adjustable.
Cherie: Mug presses range in price from around $695 to around $895 for single mug presses. There are presses available that will press 3 to 6 mugs at once. Most (not all) brands of mugs presses will press the standard 11, 15 and 18 oz
Cherie: ceramic mugs as well as the stainless steel travel mugs. The Nova Chrome Mug Pro will do the german style beer steins as well as the standard mugs.
Cherie: I do not recommend getting the mug attachment for the Geo Knight combo press. This attachment will only do 1 side of a mug at a time. Most of my customers want both sides or a full wrap around image.
http://www.dyesub.org/articles/Latte/pressingmugs.jpg
Cherie: Using a mug press with a commercial dishwasher safe mug, it will take approximately 4.5 - 5 minutes to heat the mug for the image to penetrate deeply
Cherie: into the coating. If you are using the non-dishwasher safe mugs some presses can do them in under 2.5 minutes.
http://www.dyesub.org/articles/Latte/mugwraps.jpg
Cherie: Mug wraps range in price from $18 (in quantity) to $45. Mug wraps can handle larger images and people do top to bottom printing with the wraps, but you will also have issues with different mugs (some curve in too far at the top and/or
Cherie: bottom). You can not put the stainless steel travel mugs into an oven (the handles and pads on the bottom will melt). Mug wraps in a 400 degree oven take anywhere from 15 - 22 minutes depending on the oven, the type of coating
Cherie: on your mug and the number of mugs you do at one time. Special mug wraps can be ordered to do the German style steins or specialty items such as dog bowls, shot glasses, etc.
Cherie: Although many people do, I do not recommend you use any oven you use for preparing food for cooking your mugs. You can purchase small convection or toaster ovens to do this work. I have two small Black & Decker convection ovens
Cherie: that hold 5 mugs each. I have placed plain ceramic tiles in the bottom to help it hold a more constant temperature. Some people do use small toaster ovens but I would think the air circulation of a convection oven would be better when using
Cherie: a small oven. You need something that will allow at least a 1 to 2 inch clearance top, bottom and around the mugs and don't forget the 15 oz. mugs are taller than the 11 oz. mugs.
Cherie: I also recommend if you plan on doing larger quantities of mugs that you buy 3 sets of wraps. One for the mugs in the oven, one set cooling, one set being put on the next mugs to go into the oven. A cordless screwdriver with a torque
Cherie: adjustment is also very, very helpful when doing large quantities using mug wraps.
Cherie: Tiles
Cherie: Tiles can be done in most flat presses. It is a little difficult to do them in a standard (ridged) clam shell press but it can be done. When I first started doing tiles I used a clam shell and in order to get even pressure on the edge closest to
Cherie: me I took 6-8 pieces of paper, fanned them so they were like stair steps and placed them under the tile starting with a single layer about the middle of the tile and the thickest portion at the front edge of the tile. Other people have reported
Cherie: that they loosen their lower platens so that when the press closes the platen flattens out. Doing tiles on the floating bottom and the swinger presses you will not have to worry about this problem.
Cherie: Tiles come in many sizes from 1" square to 12" floor tiles. There are also round and oval tiles in various sizes. Some tiles have little bumps on the sides of them called "spacers". These spacers are there so that when tiles are laid together
Cherie: there is a perfect grout line. Some tiles do not have spacers and are logically called "spacerless tiles". If you want specifically spacer or spacerless tiles, make sure you ask your supplier what they have available.
Cherie: When you are marketing your tiles keep in mind that the gloss tiles scratch very easily so should not be used in areas that will require heavy cleaning. You must
Cherie: use non-sanded grout if you are going to grout around your tiles and non-abrasive cleaners.
Cherie: Pressing a tile is a little different than pressing cloth or even plastic and metal. Most wall tiles have a rounded edge. Since sublimation needs pressure to keep the dyes from floating away, you need to have a way to put pressure on those
Cherie: rounded edges to get a "full bleed" (when you want the image to cover the edges). There are two ways to accomplish this.
Cherie: Method 1, Face down: If the bottom pad of your press is not too hard, you can do your tiles face down. For example, you put a blank piece of paper down, you put your transfer on top of that face up, you put your tile face down on the
Cherie: transfer and then I use another piece of paper on top of the tiles just to keep the tile dust off of my press. You then use very heavy pressure (be careful not to crack your tile) to push the tile into your bottom pad.
Cherie: Method 2, Face up: Wrap your transfer around your tile and tape to the back of the tile. Place the tile on the press, a blank sheet of paper over the top, a heat conductive silicone pad on top of that and use heavy pressure when closing your
Cherie: press. (heat conductive silicone pads can be purchased from most tile suppliers even though they are not normally mentioned on their websites)
http://www.dyesub.org/articles/Latte/pressingtiles.jpg
Cherie: Tiles can take anywhere from about 3 minutes to about 12 minutes in your press depending on the type of press you have, the size of the press, the coating on the tile and the number/size of tiles you are pressing at once.
Cherie: There is also a tile oven press. I have not used this type of press and can't tell you much about it except it works basically like an oven wrap. It is made and
Cherie: sold by Cowtown Ceramics. I don't know of any other suppliers who has this type of oven press.
Cherie: That wraps up my presentation for this evening. Please keep in mind that you can read many articles on dye sublimation and find a very large list of suppliers at: http://www.dyesub.org
http://www.dyesub.org
Cherie: Unless someone has another suggestion, next week I will cover decorating shirts, metal (for awards) and fiberglass reinforced plastic.
Cherie: the end :)
Moderator: Audience member says: "Cherie that was a fantastic presentation, with tons and tons of information."
Cherie: thanks.
Moderator: Audience member says: "Thank you!"
Cherie: glad you enjoyed it.
Moderator: Audience member says: "wow, very informative!"
Moderator: Audience member says: "How much pressuer is needed for the mug wraps?"
Cherie: not much. If tightening byhand I usually use my fingers first and get it as tight as possible then with a pair of plyers turn it 1 1/2 turns more.
Cherie: I use setting #3 on my torque screwdriver by black and decker
Moderator: Audience member says: "Can you use common ceramic tiles from the lumber yard?"
Cherie: if you coat them you can.
Moderator: Coat them?
Cherie: dye sublimaitoin only works on poly fabrics or polymer coated items.
Cherie: I don't know of any ceramics that have a poly coating unless they are specifically being coated for dye sublimation.
Cherie: You should read the transcript from last week to understand the process.
Moderator: Audience member says: "What do you use for a coating"
Moderator: Audience member says: "how do you coat a tile with the polymers"
Cherie: I do not and I don't recommend it. It is hazardous and messy. It is very hard to get an even coat and to keep the dust out.
Cherie: Last but not least if you do get something to stick, how long will it stick?
Moderator: Audience member says: "So, you are suggesting that we should go to suppliers that have these items already coated?"
Cherie: Yes
. Moderator: Audience member says: "How many different presses do you own Cherie?"
Cherie: 7
Cherie: 4 mug presses, 1 hat press and 2 flat presses
Moderator: Audience member says: "Can you send tile to the coating companies so they would match others in your home"
Cherie: Yes.
Cherie: 3 companies that I know of will special coat products for you. Premire, Laser Reproductions and Cactus Coatings.
Cherie: Bison might too I don't know since they are sooooo new :) Moderator: Audience member says: "what do you find the biggest challenge in pressing ceramics?"
Cherie: straight mugs. Many mugs don't have straight sides and can cause problems that the image won't take where it curves in.
Moderator: Audience member says: "how do you overcome that?"
Cherie: German beer steins have been a problem for me. They seem to have a lot of moisture in them and when the moisture steams out the dyes go wtih it and causes streaks.
Cherie: all you can do is buy better mugs.
Cherie: keep the image to 3" has helped me a lot.
Moderator: Audience member says: "how often do you break a tile"
Cherie: never.
Cherie: I have chipped corners taking them off the press. When they are that hot you have to be very careful with them.
Moderator: Audience member says: "you said you like wraps better than presses, can you explain a little more why?"
Cherie: Since I switched inks and mug coatings have gotten harder, it is taking longer and longer in a mug press. I am at a point that I can do more mugs in the ovens than I can do using 3 presses at the same time. The other reason is because of the
Cherie: straightness of the mugs. the wraps are a little more forgiving than the presses and can handle some slight curves.
Moderator: Audience member says: "What is the biggest job you can handle comfortably?"
Cherie: I don't mind doing 288 mugs. If needed I would probably do up to about 500. After that it is less expensive for my customer to outsource the job.
Cherie: Tiles I can do a lot more at once and have done jobs up to 400.
Cherie: I would probably take on a 1000 tile job and not be to concerned about it.
Cherie: anyone have any questios about last weeks talk?
Cherie: Well, it has been fun gang. Thanks for coming!
Cherie: Good night.
Alan: Good night... and now let's return to Latte's

Closing Log (Feb 24, 2004 10:31:46PM)

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