| Problem |
Cause |
Solution |
| Flattened characters when tipping raised letters or beads. |
Die too hot, too
much pressure on die or excessive dwell
time. |
Lower heater setting or head
pressure. Reduce dwell timer setting. |
| Distorted imprint on plastic
part. |
Skidding of die on contact with
foil due to fixture deflection. |
Realign die on head slide so
that it is directly under the press ram. Modify or redesign fixture. |
| Blurred image or imprint. |
Excessive die heat. |
Reduce heater temperature. |
| Weak impression or no imprint. |
Insufficient air pressure. |
Check for obstruction in air
line or replace with larger air line. |
| Inconsistent transfer of decoration to the parts. |
Variation in parts (thickness,
sink marks, warpage). |
Modify heat, pressure, dwell
time settings to optimize for parts from all mold cavities. |
| |
Heat variation at die face. |
Check that heat control is holding
to pre-set tolerances. Look for air gaps between heater
block and die dove-tail due to die shim, or heat loss due to riser
block. |
| Decoration fails to adhere to
plastic. |
Insufficient cure time. |
Allow for longer cure time procedure. |
| |
Strip delay. |
Manually lay a section of foil
on the part, cycle the press and peel the foil off. If the imprint
is good, stripping must be adjusted, either by reducing head up-stroke speed
or adjusting stripper bar springs. |
| |
Air trapped under foil. |
Check foil feed & die contact
with foil to determine cause |
| |
Contamination on part. |
Determine contaminant, its source
and eliminate. |
| |
Wrong foil used. |
Check compatibility of foil,
replace with correct foil. |
| |
Special coating on plastic. |
Determine coating and change
to a foil that is properly formulated. |
| Imprint deeper on one end of
part. |
Machine not level. |
Level machine and mount die
directly under arm. |
| Flaking in decoration, feathery edges or fill in. |
Dwell time is too long. |
Shorten dwell time by adjusting
air flow control valves. |
| Loss of gloss in foil. |
Dwell time is too long. |
Shorten dwell time by adjusting
air flow control valves. |
| Inconsistent imprints in multiple part set-ups. |
Part irregularities (sinks,
thickness variations). |
Shim the fixtures to compensate
for part irregularities. |
| Inconsistent transfer of decoration to the parts |
Die temperature is too low or
there is inadequate pressure. |
If die impresses the plastic,
increase die temperature. If imprint does not impress plastic, boost
pressure on the die. |
| |
Dwell time is too short. |
Lengthen dwell time by adjusting
air flow control valves. |
| |
Off-spec foil. |
Manually place a section of
foil from a roll that has run well on a part and cycle the press. If it prints
well, replace the roll on the machine. |
| Uneven imprint. |
Unevenly heated
die. Die head is off-center, fixture may have
shifted. |
Check die temperature,
look for cartridge heater outage. Determine why die head shifted.
Reset & realign as needed. |
| Repeated void in
decoration at same location. |
Molded-in feature
is unsupported by fixture (rib or boss). |
Shim or modify fixture. |
