Sawgrass Ink - black color looking grey/greenish & colors are not vibrant

Hi All, I'm using the sawgrass virtuoso printer with sublijet hd inks and texprint R paper to sublimate on my dog tag substrate. currently pressing at 400 degrees for 60 seconds but for some reason the black color is appearing very dull / opaque and colors are also not sublimating as vibrant, as how they look on the print page. I have sublimated before (with an epson L3110) and have used the same temperature, time and substrate with no problem, so I'm not understanding what the issue is. I even tried pressing for 90 - 120 seconds, but the same thing happened. color black is not transferring well and colors are kind of dull / no vibrancy.

If anybody know what could be the cause of this I would be so grateful. I invested a lot of money into this printer and have been searching everywhere for an answer with no luck.
hope someone on here can give me some insight or help in any way

thanks in advance!!

400 is quite high, I'd back it down to 355
Are you using Sawgrass' printer driver software RIP thing, or the correct ICC profile?

I would say that temp is a bit high and if it’s an aluminium tag it won’t need that long either.
I do the water Aluminium water bottles and they only take 45sec @195*c

yes i'm using the sawgrass print manager, as apparently they no longer have the print driver option to install. so i have to print directly from the print manager. I much rather print directly from illustrator or photoshop but have no ICC for this.

I use that temp because is what the company that supplies the substrates recommends to use at, and also have worked with this temp in the past with no issue. :frown:

Not being cheeky, but you have removed the protective film on the tags first, haven't you?

There seems to be a LOT of ink left on the paper after pressing.

Hi yes, im removing the protective film on the tag first. Been sublimating for a while, haha so not a newbie, although Im at a loss as to why the black is not sublimating as black and coming out as grey.

Have you got any kind of thermometer to check that the press is getting to the temperature that it thinks it is?

Have you definitely only got sublimation ink in the printer?

The black doesn’t look all that black on the paper either though.
Maybe try a nozzle check and head clean.