Toner Floats Off In The Water Bath
Whenever toner floats away in the water bath shortly after or at the same time as the paper releases, it simply means that the toner never fused properly to the copper. This directly relates back to one (or more) of the four basic principles were not poperly controlled:
- Time
- Pressure
- Heat
- Toner Density
If using the TIA device, you're pretty much assured you have TIME, PRESSURE & HEAT under control, leaving only TONER DENSITY to be reexamimed. If however, you are using an iron, did you "calibrate" it? If not, click on "Return To Directory below and select #1 "Using An Iron?"
Another area to look at is, did you change printer's from the last time you calibrated the iron? Toner Density is the number one issue that causes problems getting an image to transfer properly.
NOTE: There is also one brand of printer that you can't use... BROTHER. They changed their toner formulation to the point that it will not fuse properly with the temperature range of all other toners on the market by all other manufacturers! They use an epoxy-based formulation requiring twice the temperature of all other brands on the market.
If you get stuck and would like us to send you some sample circuit images from a known-good printer, just email us and we'll one out to you at no charge. By using our samples, you can more easily compare our output to yours.
Regardless of the method you are using (household iron or our TIA fuser device), you must get the board into the water bath while it is still hot. Don't let it cool down. This can cause the fibers of the paper to contract as it cools faster than the copper surface thus pulling on the toner image. We want the paper and the board to cool rapidly at the same time.