Heat Press vs Dry Mount Press

Hello everyone,

 

maybe someone can help me.

 

I would like to know more in depth the difference between a dry mount press and a

heat press!

 

Can someone help me out please?

 

Thank you

Ivan Ingletto

I don't know if there is a difference except maybe the contact material because Kodak's dry mount tissues uses a heat

press, Bogen in my case, to bond the print to the backing, matte or card.

The heat press is a little more involved. Not sure what everyone else is doing, but I use a GBC Titan. I do like cold/dry mounting. I use gatorboard that's prepped with the Arctic mount adhesive, then the graphic is applied afterwards, which is printed on high gloss paper using dye sub inks. Heat pressing also involves prepping the boards ahead of time, depending on what you're doing. A low-melt lamination or window adhesive or something like that. It really comes down to what venue your doing this for and what materials you are dealing with. Can you give us some more info?

Thanx Scott,

 

for what Ive been reading and researching I see that dry mount presses uses dry mount tissues to mount pictures

on to boards,but what i dont understand is if I can use the tissue also with heat press!

I dont see the difference between the 2 presses.

 

Company like magictouch, xpress, they use subliminal print then mount everything on to boards using a heat press

like this one: http://www.xpres.co.uk/heat_presses/swing_press

 

now, my doubt is, if i buy a press like this one could i use dry mount tissue?

 

which are the best press in market?

 

thanx again

Hello Rich,

 

I would like make design objects, especially for home such as placemats, coaster, but I dont really want to just

stop there, Im a travel photographer and I would like as well to mount my pictures on to some nice boards for

selling them and for exhibitions (obviously small size we talking here A3+ maximun size)...

I would like to buy a versatile press!

 

But Im very confused in all honesty..

For dye and subliminal transfer I nee an epson 1400, fine I could buy that one for subliminal, but I have a

stylus r2400, great for black n white pictures...can I use my printer with some dry mounting tissue, mount the

pics onto small boards and then laminate the result to make it heat resistant?

 

Thankx again

Ivan

Do you need to do dye sub? Probably not. I've never seen the press you linked to used for pressing material on stuff other than garments, but that's just me. Others can chime in. Most tissue activates around 170F/77C, so I guess it's possible to do this, but I've never seen it done. And you would have to experiment to find out. Theoretically, it could work. There are tissues that can be pressed hot or cold and many hot ones that can be reopened again by using a higher temperature.

Hot presses do provide a more permanent bond than cold presses......but.....there have been issues of ink stability after having been subjected to the considerable heat involved......regards, Bob

Wow, am I behind. I didn't realize my Bogen 510 dry mount press (also a clam press) is discontinued. The press you link to

should work with dry mount tissue. You need to buy the size you plan to mount prints. Kodak tissue is the most commonly

found in camera shops and has worked with prints from labs and my R2400. I also use a hand (Coverite Black Baron)

sealing iron to touch spot the tissue to the back of the print before triming and pressing. The key is as mentioned,

temperature and time. I tend to use lower temps (~200 F) and longer times (45-50 seconds) for 4x6 prints on cards. I

haven't seen fading yet over 3+ years now.

 

But with everything for this type of work, read the specifications and instructions.

I don't think there is a difference between heat presses and dry mount presses. I have a Seal dry mount press and it applies pressure and heat and heat presses seem to do the same thing. I use Seal Buffermount dry mount tissue and apply 170 degrees F for 30 to 60 seconds for matte paper only. HOWEVER, be warned that most inkjet paper CANNOT be mounted using this method. It appears that only matte papers will work with this method. All other papers it seems suffer more or less surface damage (shiny and non-shiny blotches) and may show fine dark lines in areas like clear blue skies. For those paper use a spray can and roller or have them mounted with a vacuum press.

There are two types of mounting: wet mounting and dry mounting. Wet mounting refers to the use of a liquid glue, while dry mounting refers to using a dry adhesive.

 

 

Dry mounting has two types of mounting technologies: heat mounting and cold mounting.

 

 

Obviously, heat mounting uses a heated dry mount press to melt the adhesive - usually in the form of a "tissue" placed between the print and the mounting board.

 

 

Cold mounting uses either a vacuum press or a roller press with a cold mount tissue or roll-on adhesive system.

<p>Thank you all,</p>

<p>so many informations, Im really glad.<br>

Steve, refering to your answer, do you think that this hot vacuum press http://www.hotpress.co.uk/presses.htm basically is a very good press for any mounting?</p>

<p>Frans: do you think I can use hahnemuhle paper like: http://www.hahnemuehle.com/site/en/1787/matt-fineart.html (bamboo or photo rag bright white or pearl)  for mounting using dry tissue? Do you think the reasons for such difficulty to mount inkjet paper is related on a less pouros paper (glossy in this case)?<br>

You saying that inket printer have problem on mounting, would you suggest that I should I buy a dye ink printer? Or I should just choose the paper very carefully?</p>

<p>Thanx Scott, the use of sealing iron is a very good tip..do you touch up the print to the board as well before using the heat press?</p>

<p>Thank you, I will do some more research and I appreciate any suggestions and tips, as I am new in this!</p>

<p>general question..whats the thickest dimension you can put under your press?</p>

<p>Have a good sunday<br>

Ivan</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Ivan,<br>

I'm not familiar with Hahnemuehle papers, but I think most matte papers will be fine for 170 degrees F for up to a minute. I don't know exactly what happens with semi-gloss and glossy papers but their surface area and apparently chemical make-up can't take such temperatures. I haven't noticed any difference between dye and pigment inks for Epson in this regard. Heat up to 170 degrees F seems fine for matte papers and other papers appear they need a cold mounting method.</p>