Placemats faded in middle

[liannef]

Hi
I'm trying to do the hardback placemats. I did a sample a while ago and it was fine, but now i'm getting orders and the middle seems to be faded. This design has darker colours, so is more noticeable I guess, compared to the design that I thought was a success a few weeks ago. I'm doing them at 185 degrees for 60 secs. I'm using really high pressure. I tried pressing the back first for 10 secs but it still did it. Any ideas? are they warping in the press? would putting it on top of another one do anything?
Thanks
Lianne

[webtrekker]

I don't do placemats but, until someone with more experience comes along, I was just thinking it may be worthwhile trying to preheat your bottom platen by closing the press for a while before putting the placemat in.

[Justin]

Couple of recent threads about place-mats. Check the 'Similar Threads' box at the top of this thread.

You don't need a great deal of pressure as long as the platen is contacting well with the surface, you can't 'push' the image any further in :-) Depending on temperatures in your room you might need a quick pre-heat to get rid of moisture but just sitting them on or under the press for a few seconds should suffice.

I only find they warp when they come out although I have seen fading in the middle.

[GoonerGary]

If your design is darker or has more ink than your original test prints, you'll need to press for longer to get those big solid colours right.

Don't use really heavy pressure on Unisub type hardboard. I discovered that the coating can crack and the colours slowly bleed weeks later!

[socialgiraffe]

I don't do place mats either but coming from a different angle...

It could be that your platen bed is warped. The thick base does eventually wear down and needs replacing. It could be that and likewise (although fingers crossed it isn't) it could be the top plate is warped (although this very unlikely given the problem). You can normally run your hand over the base and feel the warp, you could also try placing a ruler on its side on the base to see if there are any gaps.

There are a couple of options to try and solve the issue for place mats "IF" it is the bottom platen.

Try putting a silicon pad in between the base platen and the mat. This will give you a marginally flatter surface. You can also add a sheet of foam or a soft pad on top of the mat and increase the pressure and time slightly.

Both the suggestions above are if your base is warped. The recommendations I am giving are to combat that problem by giving a little bit of flexibility when pressing.

Hope you get it sorted.