September 01, 2009
By Dan and Kevin Corcoran

Editor’s note: In the following pages, the authors take you step-by-step through the process of adding foil to your T-shirt artwork. First, they detail how to incorporate foil into the workflow of an automatic press. The process differs significantly for printers using a manual press, so the authors also detail how to apply foil when printing with a manual screen printing press.

For a comprehensive overview of using foil — the advantages, challenges, pricing, design philosophy, etc. — read the authors’ article “Foil Adds Sparkle and Margin,” beginning on p. 32.

Using Foil On An Automatic Press

STEP 1 — Whenever adding foil to a shirt design, print with water-based inks. Foil does not stick to water-based inks like it does to plastisol. If you want to use plastisol — or have to for any reason — it will work if you add foil release to the ink (per the manufacturer’s spec sheet).

STEP 2 — If you are using white water-based ink in your design, try to drive it down into the garment and use the highest mesh that you can get away with. White discharge has a higher pigment load than other water-based colors, so foil is more likely stick to it if it has a heavy hand.

STEP 3 — When you apply foil adhesive, use a thick stencil on a high-tension screen so you can shear a heavy deposit for the foil to stick on (two-thirds coat on a 110 mesh screen). You don’t want to drive most of the adhesive into the garment or the foil will turn out patchy-looking since it does not have enough surface to bind to.

STEP 4 — The adhesive print will just look like a wet patch on the garment. This may make registration difficult, so use a registration system if you have one, and make sure you have ample light at the press.

STEP 5 — Cure the inks in your dryer, place the garment on your heat press, and place a sheet of foil over the adhesive area.

STEP 6 — Set your heat press to 350°F with a dwell time of 15 seconds and medium-to-heavy pressure. When you lift up the hot platen, the foil will curl up at the edges. If you are not careful, the foil may “hot peel” on the edges and not adhere to the corners of your design. You can prevent this by placing parchment paper or a Teflon sheet on top of the foil. This will hold down the edges when you pop the heat press open.

STEP 7 — Rub the foil with a piece of cloth or a chalkboard eraser to help dissipate the heat quickly.

STEP 8 — Once cool, peel the foil away in one motion.

STEP 9 — Foil is a fragile decoration process compared to printing only with plastisol or water-based inks. To prevent the foil from flaking off after washing, run the finished shirts through the dryer a second time for a final cure. This will tarnish the foil, but will increase its durability. It’s better to present a finished garment with foil that is slightly less shiny than to give your customer a shirt with a foil a accent that falls off after the first wash.

Manual Press Foil Technique

STEP 1 — Essentially, you have to apply the ink to the back of foil and then heat-apply it like a transfer to your garment. To start, place a cut sheet of foil, shiny side down, on a lightly tacked platen.

STEP 2 — Burn your screen with the film reversed horizontally so that the transfer reads right when applied to the garment.

STEP 3 — Use a very healthy bead of foil adhesive, clear plastisol or plastisol tinted close to the color of your foil (to hide any imperfections). Use a slow, angled stroke to put down a good amount of ink/ adhesive, but avoid smearing, since you are printing on a very smooth, non-porous surface.

STEP 4 — Gel cure your transfer either under a flash unit or through a conveyor dryer with the temperature turned down. You do not want to fully cure the transfer since you want to re-melt the adhesive when you apply it to the garment.

STEP 5 — Lay the transfers out to cool on a clean surface. Do not stack until they have fully cooled, otherwise they will stick to each other.

STEP 6 — If you ganged up multiple transfers on a single sheet of foil, then trim the individual transfers. We weigh them down with small pieces of wood, otherwise they will curl up, making them hard to handle.

STEP 7 — Heat press onto the garment at 350°F with a dwell time of 15 seconds and medium-to-heavy pressure. Let the garment and transfer fully cool, then peel the foil off in one motion.

STEP 8 — Voila! You now have a perfect foil print.

Article provided by Impressions Magazine.