Ski Builders Forum

has anyone noticed that their printed topsheets are warped?

i was making some alignment marks the other day and things weren't quite lining up, so I pulled out a 4' straightedge, and touched each end to the edge of the printed area:





Kind of hard to see, all I had was my phone. There center of the topsheet was bowed about 3/16-1/4 inch, while the plastic itself was lying perfectly flat. This makes me think it was something during printing, opposed to dimensional instability of the material in my shop.

Oh, and this is what I was working on:


I was able to cheat the really bad side and keep most of the graphic on the ski. It would have been better had my customer left space around the edges, from now on I am making my graphic masks that I send out 2cm smaller then the actual ski dims.

I won't say who printed it, but there are only 2 companies I know of who do this on a small scale basis. And the last topsheet I had printed by the other one didn't line up too well either, but I did not confirm the warping.

judging by the "protective layer" on top, I'm going to assume we're getting our graphics done same place? possibly, or maybe lots of people cover them with masking tape? I dont know.

So what warped? I'm not following you.

So far our graphics have been great. The bases are kinda dull but i think that's just the limitations of sublimation. Going forward we have to do base graphics knowing they're gonna come out a pinch blurry so not gonna throw too much fine detail into them.

We've had bubbles in the masking layer, but when pressed the heat flattens it out completely, i guess the tape shrinks a little.

And the prints have been skewed to one side or another, but we've always been able to line them up right, so far.

And I think there might actually be three people who will do this for the small guy, but we end up paying a premium for one off or custom graphics.

ah not same supplier, mine come already with alignment guides on them

knightsofnii wrote:
So what warped? I'm not following you.

excuse the mad MS paint skills,



The black is a nice rectangle with straight lines. The red is what the sides of my image looked like.

ahh, its probably a result of how they heat press the graphic to the material, and the material being used.

First off, I think you have to make sure the entire topsheet is within the confines of the area being heated and pressed, I got samples from someone who only sub pressed onto PART of a sample piece, and there was this big warp line where the material was nice and flat then got rippley where you could see where it was heated.

Secondly, the material will shrink, even a couple cm, after it cools. We "over build" our graphic by a couple cm to try to compensate.
With this in mind, I wonder if their heat press was not getting uniform heat throughout? From what you're saying it sounds like it curved or twisted a little, right? So one side of the press was hotter than the other.

Hope you can figure it out! I'd love to get into doing this graphic thing on my own.

knightsofnii wrote: Secondly, the material will shrink, even a couple cm, after it cools. We "over build" our graphic by a couple cm to try to compensate.
With this in mind, I wonder if their heat press was not getting uniform heat throughout? From what you're saying it sounds like it curved or twisted a little, right? So one side of the press was hotter than the other.

I think that is exactly it. My customers generally do there own designs, and I supply them with an oversize photoshop template plus a mask layer specific to their ski shape. I wouldn't catch the warping, except the designer placed the text too close to the edge of the ski. I marked the center line of each ski based on the photoshop file, then threw a template on top and trace the outline of the ski. One had the design dead center, but the top ski had the text running of the side.



Once I am set up a bit more I want to look inot purchasing the equipment to do this myself.

Yea I have pdf templates from the graphic guy of the exact sheet dimensions with the alignment guides right on them, and i take my exact board shape, with insert holes, everything, gridlines, the whole 9, and lay it on as a temporary layer, to make sure all graphic parts are where they need to be.

I know my limitations, so I wouldn't try to do something like make a graphic that had like "pin lines" or something where there was maybe an inner outline of the board shape a few cm near the edge, cuz i'd be bound to misalign that. Any text always goes center or way within the confines of the board. I always design to allow for slight error My graphics are also ridiculously simple because I suck at it, I'm only learning because the guys I had doing my graphics both went AWOL. But good thing, I learned a ton.

knightsofnii wrote: I know my limitations,

My too, now i just need to idiot proof things based on my customer's limitations!

Things have become progressively more complex:

1st (successful) pair I made



Done by me for a customer



And done by a customer





I need to get out the real camera and take a pic of this latest one, that green REALLY pops

i was gonna say, for the trouble you had, they look amazing

I have seen this on every piece of UHMW base or topsheet I have used. Standard!

knightsofnii wrote: I know my limitations, so I wouldn't try to do something like make a graphic that had like "pin lines" or something where there was maybe an inner outline of the board shape a few cm near the edge

Not really your limitations as much as limitations of sublimation. Shrinkage of the graphic is not consistent. All of the graphics you see with bullet holes on the inserts, etc... are screenprinted.

right on, but i meant like having something outlining the perimeter of the board or something, i'd be bound to misalign that by a mm or two this way or that. I'm already afraid i'm gonna do that and my graphics are so generic as it is. I'd like to come up with graphics where alignment doesnt matter but I dont want it to make me lazy . But I hear what you're saying. Though I've never seen bullet hole inserts, sounds kinda neat.