sublimation colours came out in washing!

[outercross]

Hi all. just started using our sawgrass sg800 and have a very odd problem. Our colours looked a bit washed out/faded but something even odder happened when i did a quick test hand wash of one of our socks. There was colour loss from the wash and it's visibly more faded than the non-washed sock (tried to take a photo but my camera wont pick it up).

Our setup is as follows...

• BMS printerowners sublimation socks
• RGB colour space
• printed from a pdf in acrobat using powerdriver
• paper: dyesub magic (magic touch)
• temp: 200 degrees C (392 degrees F)
• pressure: high
• press time: 70 seconds

screenshots as follows showing our power driver settings:

vB_ID:3931

setup b.jpg (24.46 KiB) Viewed 21 times

vB_ID:3931

setup b.jpg (24.46 KiB) Viewed 21 times

thanks in advance,
Paul

[ArferMo]

I presume you DID NOT load the normal inks that came with the printer and it was a new unused printer that you loaded with proper sublimation ink and then charged it.

[gazfocus]

Also need to make sure the sock was polyester, not cotton.

[Andrew]

Sounds like the sock doesn't have the required polyester content to retain enough ink. Where are the socks from?

[ArferMo]

OP says

• BMS printerowners sublimation socks

[Andrew]

My fault for scanning info and not reading every bit. Doesn't state if it is a poly cotton mix on BMS so could still be colour loss through that. Would assume they are 100% polyester but a 70/30 blend would mean a 30% loss in colour vibrancy if it were a mix. Also, not having used the socks for printing myself I can imagine they are fairly ribbed with the usual material so could be an issue. Would be interested to see a before and after from the actual sock which would help.

[Andrew]

I presume you DID NOT load the normal inks that came with the printer and it was a new unused printer that you loaded with proper sublimation ink and then charged it.

Normal ink wouldn't transfer at all.

[outercross]

forgot to say we are using sublijet HD ink from sawgrass. It came as a package with the printer.

I've attached as good a photo as i can get of the washing out. Its more noticeable in real life...

vB_ID:3932

IMG_3750.jpg (57.94 KiB) Viewed 21 times

[outercross]

Just emailed the sock supplier (BMS printer owners) and they confirm they are polyester.

socks are not especially ribbed when compared to nike elites or similar.

any idea where I can go from here????

[pisquee]

Lots of people doing socks in USA, where the "t-shirt forums" is more the go-to place - there are a LOT of posts about sock printing on there from the l;ast 12-24 months, with people explaining how they do it, troubleshooting etc, so may be worth a look there for advice