Pressing Times.

[Earl Smith]

Ive finally dumped my Epson 1400 and bought a Ricoh GX2600. It uses the same carts as the 3300. Im printing onto Texprint R paper.
For mugs the paper suggests and press time of 6min and heavy pressure at 204°C. This turns the mugs brown so Ive dropped it to 4mins.
I remember reading on here that I should use a lower temp and a shorter time. But I cant find the post.

Can anyone give advice please.

[socialgiraffe]

Hi Earl

that does seem like quite a high temp and also long time. Are you using an oven or heat press clamp?


Simon

[Earl Smith]

Adkins mug press.
I have always pressed at 200ish for 4 mins with the Epson prints. I was told that when the temp reaches 200, then 20 to 30 secs is long enough to transfer the print.
Ive not experimented with that.

Earl

[socialgiraffe]

Okey doke

The "norm" temp and times are about 180 degrees @ 180 seconds with a good mug and a very good coating. Some will recommend 240 seconds. My personal settings are 190 degrees for 320 seconds which is very much right on the edge of over cooking.

It is suggested that if you are using Sawgrass inks through a Ricoh that you can knock the temperature down to 170 degrees and the time by 10-20 seconds which would mean a guide of 170 @ 150 seconds

20 to 30 seconds will not be enough time so I would ignore that little gem of a tip!

My suggestion to you would be to print something and then heat press it for 180 @ 180 and see what result it produces.

Every environment is different so once this has printed you will probably need to adjust time and possibly temperature to get the best possible result, but that depends on your personal preference and also what you deem acceptable.

Hope the above helps.

Kind regards

Simon

[WorthDoingRight]

I use 180 deg @ 180 sec and the results are good - with the Ricoh they definately suggest 170 deg @ 150 sec - but definitely different papers affect the transfer time and quality.

[Earl Smith]

Thanks Simon, Ill have a play and see what happens.
Yesterday I printed 15 mugs with fine black writing in the print. They came out ok but the black text wasnt as sharp as I like it to be. The text size was about the size you are reading here on this forum.
Ive always wondered how long the press must be at the right temp for the transfer process to happen. I put a mug in and the temp drops to 140ish. Then it takes around 90secs to come back to 200. When you say try 180@180 is that including the warm up time or the entire time the mug must be at 180C. So roughly 280 secs. Am I right or talking gobbledegook?

[socialgiraffe]

Times do not include the warm up time so 280 could be about right.

Although I have never used an Adkins press (too posh for me :-)) I am sure it is just like any other.

Basically, if you are only doing 1 mug then I have often put the mug in from cold, set the temperature and time, then leave it to warm up. Mine beeps when it reaches temperature at which point I push a button and it starts to countdown. I always leave it for my settings which in your case would be 180 @ 180.

Likewise if I am doing a run, like I am right now, then, as soon as the mug has finished counting down, I take that one out, put a new one in and push the button, there is always a large drop in temperature because the heat press was at 180 degrees, you then place something inside that is room temp which obviously immediately cools the wrap down to about 120-140 degrees. The press will starts to heat up again and once it reaches the desired temperature it will start to countdown the 180 seconds again.

As a side issue, it seems like you are doing small (ish) fonts. You may want to drop your mug in cold water as soon as you take it out of the press. All mugs will continue to cook/print after taking out of the press. If you are finding that there is a slight blur on the fonts then cold water should solve it. Also and as Worthdoingright mentions, different papers do affect the quality. If you want one of the best for mugs then BMS (among others) sell TRUPIX paper which is pretty darn good for Ricoh's and mugs

Keep going, the finish line is in sight!

[Paul]

for RICOH 180C is to high. I would try 170C for 200sec first. and then go from there...

[socialgiraffe]

Although I do not agree entirely with Pauls comment it does actually illustrate a very good point and something to bear in mind.

Paul says that 180 degrees is too high, where as I press mine at 190 using a Ricoh with Sawgrass Inks. A quick calculation says that 35,000 mugs so far this year and no complaints means that 190 degrees is fine for a Ricoh.... However, it could well be that the temperature guage on my presses are a mile away from what the actual temperature is, likewise it could be his.

Each press, make of mug, type of coating, inks used, printer used and even temperature of mug before pressing makes a difference to the final result. Some minimal others not so. Whether you start at 170 @ 200 or 180 @ 180 will not make that much difference to the final result and hopefully will get you close to your ideal temp and time settings.

[WorthDoingRight]

I used to wait for my mug press to reach 180 c before pressing for 180 secs, now I set the timer and once it hits 170c so by the time it hits 180c there is usually 155 secs left. Frankly I have never overcooked an item or undercooked one so there must be some leeway. I think it is the temperature that is more critical than the time for colour changes. For instance I press tiles face down on the same transfer paper at 180C for 480 secs and they dont brown so probably temperature is the key factor in browning.

[Earl Smith]

The Aadkins press is not so sophisticated, It only beeps when the time is up and not when required temp is reached. It also doesnt have a handle to handle heat blanket. Max I can print is 175mm wide.
What press do you use? Maybe I should get one.
As for the water bucket. I used to do that but about two years ago I had some "help" from my wife. I have a dry area and a wet area and she dumped all my prints for about 150 mugs onto the wet area. So from that point on Ive not used the bucket. (or my wives help).

[gorgall2]

Warm water for dunking, not cold!!!!!!!

[socialgiraffe]

I must admit, I am really surprised that an Adkins can only print to 175mm. It might be a good idea to start a topic specifically about this point as I would have thought you could get a larger print area from what are considered one of the best heat press manufacturers around.

I use "five at a time" presses from heatpressUK.

If you want a single unit I do have a DF1 here that I have been really impressed with. Good build quality etc etc. and would recommend.

Beeping when it gets to temperature is really annoying. I would much rather put them in and only need to return to the machine when the are finished. I am currently in the middle of a run of 1008 mugs. Becuase I have to get up twice per run it really interupts my online backgammon games :wink: