Poor Quality Print

[chez]

Hi

Can anybody help, I have recently brought a case of blank white mugs and was printing an order of identical designs and out of 21 mugs 4 came out very pale, it wasn't for the first 4 or last 4, i would print 3/4 and they would be fine then get a pale one then get 2 good followed by another pale etc. I had the press heated to 180 celisus and have pressed the mugs for 3 minutes. I did notice that the mugs that printed pale were making a strange crackling noise whilst in the press. Has anybody else experienced this or have any idea why this might off happened. Can't see anything I am doing wrong and thought maybe some of the mugs might have a faulty coating??

Any advice would be appreciated

Thanks

Cheryl

[Justin]

Hi Cheryl and welcome to the forum. Can I ask which mugs you're using? Who supplied them? Also, what printer, paper and inks are you using?

[chez]

Hi Justin

The mugs are 11oz from Coralgraph, not sure of the make of paper (there was no name on it when i brought it), Epson SX218 printer. The mugs were just a one sided design so I printed several onto 1 sheet of paper so can't see it being the paper or ink, but I'm still quite new at this.

[John G]

Sounds like the problem mugs have a thicker base and if cool or cold this would effect the print outcome. The base takes longer to get to temp so in theory your timings would be out and the rest of the mug wouldn't get the required time to sublimate properly causing a fainter print.

Just a suggestion - maybe correct, but could be a load of crap :rolleyes:

[Paul]

Sounds like mugs faulty. Sometimes this happen in transit.

[chez]

When the first one happened I wondered if it was to do with temp/time, so when I heard the 2nd one crackling i didn't fully remove the transfer and put it back in the press for another 30 secs and that made no difference

[John G]

If its crackling in the press, its knackered - or too much pressure.

[chez]

The mug itself is not cracking, its just a noise that didn't happen on the succesful ones but because it was a bulk order I did not adjust the pressure at all between the first and the last mug. The mugs had all been stored indoors together so they were all room temp when I pressed them.

[mrs maggot]

chez - be careful about "room temperature" if they were on the bottom layer of the box, they can still be quite cool, i always now put my oven on to its lowest temperature and pop mugs in on a sheet of paper (incase there is any grease on the oven) i take warm mugs from the oven to press, if the heating is on i have them lined up on the radiator base down.