I've been messing today with some colour change mugs I bought from signzworld. They work but the quality was not what I thought it might be. The image below the colour fade is pretty visible when the mug is cold. I tried them at 180c for 180sec (worked but I thought poor quality), 165c for 150 secs (also worked but again I thought poor quality. Not sure why a longer setting is important in this case so if anyone could explain that would be great) and as suggested on a youtube vid 160c for 50 secs (far too quick for my press). I've checked the sublimation guide in the downloads section and it suggests 180c for 180 secs but thats on xpress mugs.
Does anyone have a decent setting or do you think it's just that the mugs I'm using are probably crap. Its no big deal I just had half a dozen to try so wanted to see what the results would be. Mind the image of the xpress mug (shown below) does show the image outline below which is pretty much what I (just about) see but on a black mug so am I being too fussy? I haven't got an image of the ones I produced. I'm using an ST-210 double mug press which I have to say that although dirt cheap has been great so far and is more than good enough for the white mugs I've done (so far).
I did the same with mugs from another supplier, 2 black, 2 red, 2 blue and the black mug you can just about get away with but the other 2 you can see the image quite easily before they get hot. I'm not a fan of these as they don't unveil a 'surprise' as you can see the image anyway.
It is standard with these mugs that image will show through. There are options where the coating is solid but for some reason they rarely offer them in the UK. It is more of a matt coating and whilst it looks thicker, it does clear to reveal the image that was fully hidden.
As above, the underlying image can be seen through coating. Some clients don't mind but certainly not the same kind of coating as seen in more gift shop sold colour changing mugs Printed in China.
Thanks for the replies. I'm happy that it's not something I've done. I might be getting the hang of things. Very much in thanks to this forum. I've managed to get one design looking half decent but it's not worth the effort for me. I think for me I'll stay away from these for now until they get a bit better. Just pleased I didn't buy loads to play with.
Andrew;122667 wrote:It is standard with these mugs that image will show through. There are options where the coating is solid but for some reason they rarely offer them in the UK. It is more of a matt coating and whilst it looks thicker, it does clear to reveal the image that was fully hidden.
The darker coating isn't available (strictly) in the UK. There is a UK supplier who has the EU rights on these and will clamp down on UK suppliers selling the darker colour change mugs or similar from overseas manufacturers. I've seen very black colour change mugs which do obscure much more - probably what you've come across Andrew.
I have had the matt option a while back which totally obscured the print. I know it gets a little tetchy on these products as there are claims that what we see as standard heat mugs can only be ones from a certain manufacturer.
