Banging my head against a brick wall

[gazfocus]

Hi all,

I am new to dye sublimation and am feeling completely lost, so I'm sincerely hoping someone can help.

Our setup is as follows:

Printer: Ricoh SG2100N
Paper: Subright Sublimation Paper
Ink: a good quality Sublmiation Ink (unsure of brand)
Mugs: Premium ORCA Coated
Mug Press: Blue Wave MP160 Mug Heat Press

The company where I purchased the ink from have provided me with a custom ICC profile for our printer/paper/ink combination.

The issue I'm having is that when sublimating on to the mugs (a photo for example), the image looks a lot darker than it should be (almost as if it's got a brown tint to it). I then tried to sublimate my companies logo which has bright blues/greens/pinks, and it just dulled down every colour, and the green appears to have seperated slightly so there's a yellow 'glow' to the one side of the green.

We have wasted about 10 mugs trying different heat/time settings, but not getting anywhere fast.

The heat settings we've settled on are 200 degrees for 180 seconds, but other than that, I'm now a bit lost.

Thanks in advance

[mrs maggot]

180 and 180 so you maybe going far too hot - but please post some pictures of the mugs you have done so far, as it will help us

[Brixhamboy]

I had to investigate major problems with uneven heat coverage on a brand new Blue Wave MP160 very recently.

Pictures of your mugs would be helpful.

[gazfocus]

Thanks for the replies. I did try at 180 degrees for 180 seconds but it didn't improve the result.

Here are the original images and the finished mugs.

[Brixhamboy]

Hmmm! See what you mean.

Have you printed any test images prior to this using your current setup? Something with basic colours?

I use a series of colour and tone wedges containing RGBCMYK and Black 10%, 20%, 30% etc together with industry standard reference images. It provides a more objective approach to how the colours reproduce.

The other thing I have noticed is that suppliers/manufacturers often seem to give different (reduced) time and temp recommendations for the Ricoh printers. I'm not sure that would apply here - depending on your ink.

[gazfocus]

Hmmm! See what you mean.

Have you printed any test images prior to this using your current setup? Something with basic colours?

I use a series of colour and tone wedges containing RGBCMYK and Black 10%, 20%, 30% etc together with industry standard reference images. It provides a more objective approach to how the colours reproduce.

The other thing I have noticed is that suppliers/manufacturers often seem to give different (reduced) time and temp recommendations for the Ricoh printers. I'm not sure that would apply here - depending on your ink.

I have tried printing our company logo which does a similar thing. I think it might be a combination of the printer and the sublimation process. The colours look a little off when printing (a bright cyan looking a little dark), but look much worse when on the mug (a bright cyan looking more like a teal colour).

I don't particularly like the Ricoh printer and wanted to use my Epson printer isntead, but got sent the wrong refillable cartridges so decided to persist with the Ricoh as I bought it for this purpose.

[logobear]

might be your 'good quality sublimation ink' - even with a profile, is it the right one for your printer?
look at very fine detail on image and then mug (hair round eye etc) - is it 'soft' on the mug - maybe sign of over cooking as is blacks going brown.
We mug at about 160c for 90secs

[gazfocus]

might be your 'good quality sublimation ink' - even with a profile, is it the right one for your printer?
look at very fine detail on image and then mug (hair round eye etc) - is it 'soft' on the mug - maybe sign of over cooking as is blacks going brown.
We mug at about 160c for 90secs

Thanks - the ink is intended for the Ricoh printers. I'm not at home at the moment so will look at the mugs when I get back and will have another go at reducing the temperature.

[Justin]

Quick question.....if you are unsure as to the brand of your cheap ink, how will you be able to purchase the same next time to ensure consistency?

[gazfocus]

Quick question.....if you are unsure as to the brand of your cheap ink, how will you be able to purchase the same next time to ensure consistency?

for a start, it wasn't 'Cheap Ink' in my opinion. I know the seller I bought it from (CityInkExpress) but I don't know if they make the ink or resell it from another manufacturer. The ink was purchased from here: http://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/272020810242