Is it possible to heat mount fibre prints onto aluminium?

[DannyTreacy]

Hi,

I’ve been looking on YouTube for examples of this but can’t see any, has anyone tried heat mounting fibre based prints on aluminium as oppose to mount board?

Thanks.

[j.e.simmons]

40+ years ago I used dry mount tissue to mount a fiber print to aluminum foil. My idea was to test it for permanence. I still have the print. So, the tissue will stick to aluminum. My concern would be whether the press heats enough for thicker aluminum, and whether the mass of the aluminum would hold heat too long. I’d have to test.

[Denny]

It's certainly possible to mount paper to aluminum, do a search for Irving Penn prints mounted to aluminum, he was using relatively heavy sheets of aluminum. I routinely mount on aluminum for registering multiple exposures. I use Dry Lam Colortac dry mount tissue. I'm mounting heavy weight paper, watercolor weight, to aluminum flashing, and I'm using temperatures comparable to those used in normal drymounting.

[bob carnie]

I have mounted fiber prints to aluminum.. Flo Bond tissue is used , I hate doing it ..

[DannyTreacy]

Thanks for the replies, I'll certainly look at Penn's work on aluminum. In the past I've had large scale (215cm x 180cm) C-41 prints mounted on aluminum by professional mounters but as I'm planning on doing a series of 10" x 8" direct b&w contacts I thought I'd have a go at doing it myself and save money in the long run.

Can I ask about the procedure for doing it, is it the same setup for when mounting onto board? How are the edges of the print and the aluminum married up?

Bob, why do you hate doing it?

Thanks all!

[bob carnie]

The flow bond is very flimsy, and is tricky to work with.. Its the only material that I would recommend for hot application.... cold application will not work with silver prints.. but you are doing small prints, why the need to mount- is there a presentation method you see valuable ??

Getting the correct temp is critical, pressure and did I mention the cost of the material...

Mounting to aluminum is something I have done a lot for Pt Pd and gum prints that require many coatings and of course this means paper shrinkage for aluminum.

[Denny]

I have to agree with Bob, it isn't fun. But the Dry Lam Colortac tissue is pretty easy to work with (at least it isn't flimsy). I find I get the best results by leaving the mounted paper in the press while it cools off, so it's OK for one-at-a-time mounting, not as useful for high volume production work. I'm not particular about precise alignment of the sheet onto the aluminum, but I imagine you could use the same techniques as you would use mounting to museum board.

[DannyTreacy]

cold application will not work with silver prints.. but you are doing small prints, why the need to mount- is there a presentation method you see valuable ??

Yes I intend to float mount the images within a larger frame, which would be glazed. Does that make sense ?

[Denny]

You might think about drymounting the prints to museum board and then using archival double-sided tape to attach the museum board to aluminum. Dry mounting to museum board is a lot easier than aluminum, and using archival tape would make it easier to align the print on the aluminum.

[robshepherd]

I used to mount cotton rag paper to aluminum sheets for the purpose of registering multiple gum bichromate printings. I used Fusion 4000 mounting adhesive. It's available from Talas. The mounting process worked very well, and it was easy. However, I was not able to successfully reheat and remove a print from the aluminum. The aluminum sheet I used was recycled offset printing plates - thin enough to cut with an x-acto knife in a few passes.