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View Full Version : Mugs or ink the problem.?



Dave271069
17-05-2012, 09:54 AM
Another question I know but still learning.
ive noticed a few of the mugs I've done for work colleges etc have started to smudge and fade after a week. Will this be the ink or mugs. They have been in dishwasher etc but after a week I'm a bit worried. I do understand that when I started the other week it was on a budget and I looked for mugs that came with boxes at a bargain price and the ink was the stuff that came with my printer. Yes it was sublimation ink. But if it's the ink that's the problem then I need to source my ink as well as mugs else where'

smitch6
17-05-2012, 10:24 AM
where did you get the mugs from?
it's obviously either the wrong mugs ie not sub mugs or the ink isn't the right type?

are you 100% sure it was sub ink that came with it
not 99%

it shouldn't smudge or anything even after a longgggg time
i had a test mug in a dishwasher for months constantly every time they did the wash this mug was in there and it stayed the same no fading smudging nothing

Dave271069
17-05-2012, 10:32 AM
The inks were eBay. But with a Epson sx130. Advertised as printer and sublimation ink cartridges. The mugs were also eBay and advertised as sublimation mugs. I know I shouldn't buy off eBay and will be buying from now on off the bigger companies. The mugs I printed came out OK but aint lasting.

smitch6
17-05-2012, 11:06 AM
i think the best thing to do is get some mugs from a good supplier as these are cheaper than the inks.
print 1 up and run it thru a dishwasher for a few weeks then you can rule out either the mugs or the ink.
you'll always use mugs anyway so for the sack of £30 a box it's a lot cheaper than a couple of hundred for ink......

Listawood
17-05-2012, 02:17 PM
Hi

If it looked good after printing but faded this quickly in a dishwasher it was almost certainly coated with the kind of materials that were really developed for toner transfer printing back in the day. These are softer to make it possible for the copier or laser toners to be bonded to the surface of the product when heat pressed.

They also work beautifully with sublimation - ie, they are soft so take the dyes very easily. Unfortunately their softness results in very rapid fading in the abrasive dishwasher environment.

You need to make sure you get one of the mug products coated with the harder sublimation coatings. These will endure anything from 50 to over 1000 cycles depending upon the product you go with.

Alex.

JSR
18-05-2012, 12:10 AM
The inks were eBay. But with a Epson sx130. Advertised as printer and sublimation ink cartridges. The mugs were also eBay and advertised as sublimation mugs. I know I shouldn't buy off eBay and will be buying from now on off the bigger companies. The mugs I printed came out OK but aint lasting.
A standard dishwasher test should tell you how good the mugs are. We do this with any new supplier of mugs, and this page shows the results from our first set of tests years ago: http://mugsandgifts.co.uk/dishwashing-mugs

Alternatively, you can try a torture test, re: http://mugsandgifts.co.uk/mugtorturetest, which should give you full piece of mind. This is the test we use these days for any new supplier of mugs, and every few months in case batches change in the meantime. It's a much quicker and more immediate test.

You can't necessarily rely on what the supplier says because suppliers don't generally offer up documentation to show what tests have been performed to guarantee their dishwasher-safe claims (and, even if they did, mugs are typically unmarked so you can't match documentation to your mugs anyway). When I first started out, I bought a box of "dishwasher safe" mugs from a supplier only to have the coating "flake off" even when washed by hand. That would have been hugely embarrassing if I hadn't found out before sending them out to my customers. Yes, that supplier is around today; and no, they don't sell those mugs any more.

The only way you can be sure that your mugs are dishwasher safe is to test them out for yourself. Don't risk your own reputation on the word of someone who might say anything to make a sale.

pisquee
18-05-2012, 08:23 AM
Part of the learning process of setting up is finding the suppliers/supplies you want to use and rely on, and deciding which items you want to get cheaply, and what you don't mind paying a bit more for. You can get cheap mugs which aren't advertised as being dishwasher proof, and cheap ones that are - you can also get slightly more expensive ones which offer some sort of guarantee.
Searching sublimation ink on UK Ebay, there are a selection of branded quality inks in bottles and cartridges available (that are new) - certainly at the moment there are no unbranded/cheap inks on there, although they do pop up from time to time before Sawgrass ask the seller to remove them, or get Ebay to do it for them.