[Milsurplus] PCB - masking question. heat mailable inkjet ink ?

[Robert Nickels]

On 1/25/2013 8:47 AM, Mark J. Blair wrote:
> Black laser printer toner is a mixture of carbon and plastic dust. The last stage of laser printing is to pass the paper through a fuser, which melts the plastic dust with a pair of heated rollers so it will stick to the paper. When you iron the special paper against the PCB, you're re-melting the toner so that it will stick to the PCB as it cools.
Exactly right.   You'll often read about "crank the iron up to maximum 
heat" but if you do a bit of research, you can learn the melting point 
(MP) of your brand of toner.   HP toners for example have an MP of 
95-105 deg. C, and I get better results with an iron set on "silk" which 
produces about 120 deg C (250 deg F). Excessive heat and pressure will 
just cause the re-melted toner to smear and run, resulting in a poor 
quality image.    I'm about ready to buy a hot roll laminator to improve 
the repeatability of the transfer process.

I suggest you do your own toner transfer process development rather than 
believe all the "do this and you'll get perfect results" claims on the 
internet.

73, Bob W9RAN