Fades Images - Not Sure of Cause - Perhaps someone can help?

Hi There

I am using Windows 7 64 bit OS, Ricoh SG3110DN printer with Sublijet-R 3110 ink, Trupix A4 sublimation paper and a Coralgraph Flat T shirt Press 23x30cm Swing Digital Version heat press.
All was working ok as I was learning to use the equipment but suddenly my transfers are producing very faded poor quality results. I have printed onto several tee shirts for teddy's and I originally got great results on these but now you can barely make out the image on the finished product and could not possibly use them.

I have checked that the Powerdriver is set up correctly within Photoshop Elements and that I am printing onto the correct side of the paper.

I am running low on black and cyan ink. This is the only explanation that I can come up with. However, the problem occurred before the ink level got as low as it is now. I will be replacing the ink at the end of the week so should I hold off on printing anything else until then? I did do a mug which I did on a Schulze Mug Press and it worked out ok although the background was a little more faded that what I thought it should be but the photos came out perfect. This is making me think that it may be a problem with the heat press.

I am pressing for 40 seconds at 200c onto the Teddy Tee shirts, which as I've already mentioned, worked fine a few weeks ago but no longer produces the good results. Does anyone have any ideas? any or all advice would be appreciated

kind regards:confused:

Even though your carts are showing almost empty there is still plenty of ink within the long tubes inside your Ricoh so this shouldn't be causing an issue.

Have you done a nozzle check to make sure everything's ok? I do wonder if this is a software setting, Powerdriver etc. though.

1. Are t-shirts polyester or have you change the t-shirt supplier?
2. Have you an infrared thermometer to test the temp of the press?
3. Inks don't need replacing until the printer tells you they are out of ink.
4. Try upping the time to 60-70 seconds (to overcook) to see if this helps (assuming the t-shirts are polyster - if they are cotton then the image will be faded).

Thanks Justin and Martin

Good to know that it's not the ink problem so. I am assuming the Tee shirts are the same as the ones I used previously as they are from the same supplier. However, the teddys are an end of stock item that they gave me so perhaps the tee shirts that were on them are not the same quality as the ones I bought from them previously. I was previously using a trial version of the photoshop elements software and i am waiting for delivery of the disc for the full version so I will revise settings when installing that during the week (but I did double check this previously on the trial version). I will also purchase new tee shirts for the Teddys and see if that is it. I will also try printing another product in the meantime to determine if that is it.

Thanks for your help and I will update once it is resolved.

Kind regards



I will update this once I have tried the above and hope that the tee shirts

Just a long shot but have you had to put more paper in the printer and maybe put it wrong way up etc.

Have you got anything apart from the t-shirts that you could test?

Did your nozzle check produce a perfect result?