Reds appear pink on Mugs on Rich GX7700 with sawgrass ink & powerdriver

tibgdm1 · Post by **tibgdm1** » 02 Apr 2017, 12:36

I have been lucky enough to not encounter any block colour related issued sublimating photographic images onto mugs. However, I have been given a job that has blocks of red in the vector image. I have gone through 10 plus mugs using different tweaks in the image, driver settings, etc, but constantly produce a variety of pinks

and I'm now run out of options as well as mugs. I've exhausted forums, manufacturer/vendor settings and guidance without success

My configuration:

All drivers are the latest to the OS, Sawgrass & Ricoh.

OS: WINDOWS 7
SCREEN CALIBRATED: YES
SOFTWARE: PHOTOSHOP CS5INKS: SAWGRASS SUBLIJET-R (LESS THAN 3 MONTHS OLD)
PAPER: SAWGRASS TRUEPIX
MUG: LONGFORTE ULTRA WHITE
PRINTER: GELSPRINTER GX e7700N

COLOUR HANDLING: PRINTER MANAGES COLOUR
RENDERING INTENT: PERCEPTUAL
IMAGES: SRGB
DRIVERS: POWERDRIVER R GXE7700N V3.7.1.2814 WITH UNDERLYING OEM RPCS V4.51

I am using the standard sawgrass procedure for image creation and powerdriver printing. I have also used the PHOTO & VECTOR ICC print process from sawgrass which gives the same results. All other colours appear fine, its just the reds.

I have included an image of my mug, created using the Wikipedia RGB RED values () with a variety of core reds that I wanted to reproduce alongside a colour calibration chart and a listawood mug from this years printwear & promotion 2017 show which has the red I desire.

: vB_ID:4551; red-sample.jpg (88.79 KiB) Viewed 16 times

Thanks for any input

webtrekker · Post by **webtrekker** » 02 Apr 2017, 13:34

Have you been in contact with Sawgrass? That would be my first port of call if I was paying hundreds of pounds for their ink.

Justin · Post by **Justin** » 02 Apr 2017, 14:05

Sawgrass will dial in and check all of your settings in driver, software, profile etc.

tibgdm1 · Post by **tibgdm1** » 02 Apr 2017, 20:00

I'll give them a try and report back on any findings. Cheers.

Listawood · Post by **Listawood** » 03 Apr 2017, 11:43

Hi

Have you tried playing around with your mug press / oven settings? Reds can wash out like this if you're overcooking the product - ie, too hot - or too long - or both!

If you're still struggling, feel free to send us some printed papers, a printed mug showing the problem plus the artwork file and we can get our tech team to look into it in more detail for you.

tibgdm1 · Post by **tibgdm1** » 17 Apr 2017, 21:20

Thanks for the advice to date. As it stands I reached out to novachrome for some additional advice which was to print a set of primary CYMK charts using the powerdriver utility and submit them back to novachrome for analysis.

During the dialogue it was suggested to test if the problem was repeated on FRP items, e.g. keyrings. I tested and the pink/orange result was the same

. The technology setup was also validated as correct. These tests where performed using the ICC photo profiles/Device driver (not powerdriver as I'd previously used). Basically, powerdriver or ICC gave the same pink/orange result.

As a contingency measure I also purchased a brand new set of inks which arrived the next day.

The plan here was to swap out an individual ink, flush the line using the sawgrass FileSpooler and specific PRN file to print that sole ink (up to 20 full pages). Then to press my test file on FRP (cheaper than mugs) and observe the result per ink change (see images). Black was not changed.

: vB_ID:4590; YMC.jpg (85.58 KiB) Viewed 16 times

: vB_ID:4590; YMC.jpg (85.58 KiB) Viewed 16 times

: vB_ID:4590; YMC.jpg (85.58 KiB) Viewed 16 times

: vB_ID:4590; YMC.jpg (85.58 KiB) Viewed 16 times

Each result still produced a pink variant (no red).

Out of frustration I reprinted back with powerdriver (my original set-up) and bingo red! (see images showing first 3 FRP's with each ink changed using ICC and the bottom with powerdriver).

: vB_ID:4590; YMC.jpg (85.58 KiB) Viewed 16 times

: vB_ID:4590; YMC.jpg (85.58 KiB) Viewed 16 times

I shared this with novachrome and our collective thought was that although the original yellow had 1 month left on the "use by" it must have affected the result. Although that did not explain why the ICC profile process did not produce correct results. I have opened a case with sawgrass and will share this issue. However, as powerdriver is now working, it's likely to be put down as an aged ink as the root cause (although I'd like to resolve the ICC method of printing with brand new ink!).