Has Orca Coatings changed?

[JSR]

It's always good to get feedback so if there are problems with glaze then please let me know. I can only get to hear of this is you guys let me know and send a picture of the offending issues to our normal email address. The white spotting was caused by air in the line and the B Grade mugs were earmarked for exactly that purpose, but the normal European mugs have been, dare I say it, spot on (no pun intended). If there are spots occuring on mugs then we need to know to give our suppliers an ear bashing! Drop us an email with pics please if this is widespread.

You and I did have several PMs on the subject, both at the time of getting in a box of the "better" European mugs which were the same as before and, a couple of weeks later, when the same thing occurred with the Sparta mugs.

As with the European mugs of the time, you told me that "we don't sell huge quantities of the Sparta mugs, but this is the first I've heard of this problem on these mugs" - so I put it down to just being a problem with me and the way I was pressing rather than with the mugs, as I did with the European mugs previously, in the belief that no one else had the problem except me.

That was some months ago now, of course, but I'm sure you can appreciate that I can't just drop two lots of £40-£50 for a box of each on the off-chance that they're okay now and risk ending up with even more mugs in my shed that I can't use. I already have enough of those.

[JSR]

i had those on my:

Paul, it's my experience that you can't tell if there is going to be a problem with the mug until you print/press - that's why it's impossible for the quality control at the coating factory to catch it.

Almost all mugs at present have indentations in them but, with Orca-coated mugs the coating goes into the indentation - so when you print/press, ink is drawn into the dent and you can't see it after printing. There is no unprinted white spot, ergo there is no problem.

With the RN-coated mugs, however, the ink does not get drawn into the dent - and this leaves the finished print with these white spots (you see a corresponding dark spot on the transfer paper where ink hasn't moved). I can only think that the coating doesn't go into the indentations in the way that it does with Orca and so the lack of coating results in lack of print - ergo there is a problem with white spot(s) after printing.

This is why I question the "air/water in the spray lines" solution - because if that was the issue, the white spot would appear randomly over the mug and not just in those tiny indentations.

But I know nothing about how the coating is done, so I have no solution to offer. I just know that the white spots seemed to coincide with the an indentation in the mug with RN-coated mugs, but that there are no white spots where there are indentations in the mugs with Orca-coating.

I haven't printed any of these mugs since Christmas. I have offered them on my website as "B-Grade mugs" with a description of the issue - I've put them at half price (£2.50 for a 10oz mug, £3 for a Sparta). Do you know how many I've sold? None! If nothing else, this confirms for me that I don't want to touch another RN-coated mug until I'm absolutely sure I won't get lumbered with more boxes of mugs I can't sell.

[AdamB]

It's always good to get feedback so if there are problems with glaze then please let me know. I can only get to hear of this is you guys let me know and send a picture of the offending issues to our normal email address. The white spotting was caused by air in the line and the B Grade mugs were earmarked for exactly that purpose, but the normal European mugs have been, dare I say it, spot on (no pun intended). If there are spots occuring on mugs then we need to know to give our suppliers an ear bashing! Drop us an email with pics please if this is widespread.

I have just caught up on this thread and thought I would add to it as I too have experienced the pinhole problem Martin and I only order mugs from BMS.

To be honest, I thought that it was an 'acceptable' loss with approx 3-6 in a box of 36 having either an obvious flaw when took out of the bubble wrap and examined, or the pinhole problem appearing when the image is cooked. In the last couple of months I have started putting any flawed ones that I see in a seperate box and using them as demo mugs - although not happy I have convinced myself that I would have to do 'demo mugs' anyway so accepted the problem and also 'bit the bullet'.

Like others have said though - it's great to get this out for discussion as with anything a few mugs may only seem like a couple of quid down the drain, but the reality is that if this mugs were good to sell then that amount would increase significantly once sold to a customer.

[smitch6]

maybe this would be a good thing in the tips etc for Justin
i'm actually at the stage where i need to buy a couple of boxes of mugs and tbh was going to get some from BMS but (no offence to martin or BMS)
i'm now thinking maybe i should go with the orca.

this is a really informative thread and i've been watching it closely.
i have used 3 suppliers so far(usually go for the cheapest, but fed up with cheap and want decent quality) for my mugs and every one has had had at least 1/2 the box with tiny pin holes or smashed mugs, which is why i thought i'd give BMS a try but i'm now still in the same position where i really don't know what to do :~

[Kaz]

I got my Orca mugs from the magic touch

http://www.themagictouch.co.uk/ceramics/mugs_sub.htm

[mastercueman]

I purchased 7 boxes of Orca Mugs from Revolution for a job a few months ago and didn't have one mug that had a flaw. First time i had used Orca's but was very impressed with how straight and flawless they were. Was a bit annoyed with their stamp at the bottom, especially as the sample i received from them only had a pull off Orca sticker and not the stamp BUT this was more than made up for by their quality. My mug of choice at the moment but haven't tried the RN mugs from BMS yet.

[bms]

So what would the preference be: Orca stamp or no Orca stamp?

[smitch6]

i'd say NO stamp pls

[mastercueman]

So long as they were exactly the same minus the stamp then i'd prefer without the stamp but not overly bothered now that i'm used to the stamp.

[JSR]

Notwithstanding Listawood's false claims against Orca, I'd say yes to the stamp, for one very crucial reason - consistency. When a customer returns for a further order, the only way to ensure they get the same mug is to be sure what mug they got the last time around. Without the stamp you (i) don't know what you gave the customer last time around, and (ii) you can't be sure that what you're buying from the supplier actually *is* the same mug. The stamp eliminates confusion.

I had a returning customer recently who last ordered in 2009, and I had no idea who's mug I printed for them - Orca, Duraglaze, or RN. With the current hassle of getting quality mugs in, I'm forever trying new suppliers and so there was no way of knowing which mugs I'd used for their order.

Fortunately, I had one of their mugs on my shelf and I could work out which I'd used by standing it next to three mugs - one Orca, one Duraglaze, and one RN. Standing the mugs next to each other highlights a clear difference between them. Orca is the most brightest and whitest of the mugs. Listawood Duraglaze is less white but slightly whiter than RN. And BMS RN is the least white/most grey.

This was okay for that customer, because I could work out from the leftover mug that I'd used Listawood's Duraglaze mugs and I was good to go - but I don't keep leftover mugs from all orders.

If the mugs are stamped, I know I'm always getting the same mug from the supplier and my customer knows they're always getting the same mug from me. Problem solved.

I also have this little voice that tells me that only a manufacturer who's confident in his coating will stamp his mug - because if the mugs are flawed/bad, then their reputation goes down the toilet. A manufacturer who isn't confident won't stamp his mug - because no one will know that the mugs came from them when/if they turn out to be bad ones. Maybe that's not the right way to think of it but I know I'd only want my name on a product that I have faith in, so I figure that's what the manufacturers would think too.