# Screen printing to Plastisol Transfers for Brand



## cdaidaho (Aug 11, 2016)

Hello!

Thanks for having us! We have a t-shirt brand called CDA IDAHO Clothing Company. You can see our clothing styles and designs at cdaidaho.com. We are looking into moving some of our clothing from screen printed to plastisol transfers. The reason being is that we don't screen print in-house and we need the ability to have faster turnaround times, and do smaller runs on demand to satisfy our wholesale customers.

We have a Geo Knight DK20S heat press.

Currently all of our garments are cotton/poly or tri blend shirts (25 Cotton, 50 Poly, 25 Rayon).

I purchased some SEMO Imprints transfers and I noticed pretty quick that I was scorching shirts. Not only that but their prints felt more like a high quality heat transfer vinyl rather than a screen print. We didn't like it.

I got a sample pack from TransferExpress and it was a night/day difference. All of their transfers felt like screen prints. We did of course like the Hot Split from Transfer Express the best, but with the temperatures, I'm sure we will burn our tri-blend shirts.

I've been doing a lot of reading and I realize that there's still a ton out there that I don't know so I thought I would ask a few of our specific questions:

1. Is there a fine transfer out there like Transfer Express's Hot Split that will apply at a a lower temperature? I know Transfer Express says 365, but could I get away with applying at a lesser temp?

2. What's the highest temp I can go on a tri-blend with 25% rayon?

3. Do the thicker tri-blends from District Made do better than the thinner ones we've been using from Bella(3413)?

4. Seeing our brand and the designs and fine lines that are in some of our designs(though most lines I would say are 2pt and higher), is it possible to replicate the same quality with plastisol transfers?

5. Is there a higher quality product out there than TransferExpress?

Thanks for all of your help!


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## wormil (Jan 7, 2008)

The lowest temperature transfer I know off the top of my head is F&M athletic, 7 seconds @ 325F, but they are probably too thick for what you want. It's been awhile since I've done polyester and I've forgotten the max temp, want to say 330F but I'm not 100% certain. I don't know if sublimation will work with those shirts, I don't do it, but it's something to look into.


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## timbov1 (Jul 5, 2011)

Looking at your website I can't imagine many of your retail customers being satisfied with anything but good quality soft-hand screen printing. I would suggest moving your screen printing in house or finding a contract screen printer that will do fulfillment for you. You can dropship your goods and have them print and ship out. We handle fulfillment for a lot of Etsy shops that grew tired of transfers. As long as they maintain a certain volume we keep their screens catalogued so no set-ups fees and ship all orders out within 48 hours.


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## splathead (Dec 4, 2005)

Versatranz has a new polyester hot-split transfer at 320 degrees. Called EPT Plus.


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## splathead (Dec 4, 2005)

splathead said:


> Versatranz has a new polyester hot-split transfer at 320 degrees. Called EPT Plus.


Correction - 310 degrees.


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## cdaidaho (Aug 11, 2016)

splathead said:


> Correction - 310 degrees.


Thank you! We are getting some samples this week it looks like


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## cdaidaho (Aug 11, 2016)

If those don't work, I'm wondering if I just need to learn to start screen printing myself.


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