Causes of Blurry and Brown Print

[Nicola]

Guys, can someone help or give me some advice before I throw the lot in the bin. Basically when I place the mug in the press, I press Mode Button, temp 360fh then mode and set 360fh then mode and its at 180 seconds then mode till machine beeps to show it ready for the mug, then when I place the mug into the press and close tightly then heat press sometimes starts to count down or the temp drops then when it reaches back to 360fh then starts from 180 seconds, but the main thing is when I take the mug out either way the print comes out Brown not black and also looks blurry? I have wasted about 12 mugs so far with black print, now Its a hit and miss as some mugs are fine but with a tad blurry patch?

Help me please x

[RogerC]

Nicola.....I just had the same problem and wasted a dozen or more mugs. I was running Ricoh print and my mug press was set at 170c and timed for 140 seconds. Like your experience the temp dropped and then climbed to the correct indicated temp and the countdown began as it should. I dropped the temp to 150c and it still happened so after some more mugs went in the bin I got some 'proper' advice.....I now run at an indicated temp of 170c and 50 seconds, dip them immediately in a bucket of luke warm water and hey presto......perfect. There might be something not right with my mug press but while it's putting out good clear product I'm not going to mess about. Good luck
170c = 338f

[Justin]

What mug press are you using? What printer and what paper? It sounds like you're overcooking if it's going brown.

[bms]

Guys, can someone help or give me some advice before I throw the lot in the bin. Basically when I place the mug in the press, I press Mode Button, temp 360fh then mode and set 360fh then mode and its at 180 seconds then mode till machine beeps to show it ready for the mug, then when I place the mug into the press and close tightly then heat press sometimes starts to count down or the temp drops then when it reaches back to 360fh then starts from 180 seconds, but the main thing is when I take the mug out either way the print comes out Brown not black and also looks blurry? I have wasted about 12 mugs so far with black print, now Its a hit and miss as some mugs are fine but with a tad blurry patch?

Help me please x

I would say you are cooking for way too long. Waiting until the press gets back to 180 360fd and then cooking for 180 seconds sounds too long. I had one customer who did as you're doing but only cooked for 5 seconds once the temp got back to 360fh as the sublimation process was taking place whilst the press was getting hot.

As RogerC suggests, take your time right down. If you think that a press may take 20-30 seconds to get from 170C to 180C then whilst this is happening the sublimation process is working. Try being radical and go for a mere 30 seconds rather than 180 seconds from when your press returns to 360fh.

[pisquee]

I think all our presses start counting as soon as they are closed, assuming that the initial temp has been reached. Putting an item into the press which is cold and going to conduce heat away from the press is going to lower the temp, but it's not something I've had a problem with - on substrates which do this to a greater degree I tend to raise the initial temp of the press, knowing that it will drop a few degress at the start, and probably won't have recovered fully til near the end of the timer, if at all.

[logobear]

you should only need about 30 seconds at actual cook temp - about 170c or so.
browning of blacks is a sign of over cooking, as is bluring of images.
a good press will only count when it reaches cooking temperature, - it is not the time in the press, it is the time at cooking temp.
If you have a cheap press, you may have to do a lot more experimenting.....

[mrs maggot]

oh and be careful of dunking as roger suggests, i now use a fan, to cool as other members on here do, after some cracking issues, even with warm water, and only normally need to rapid cool (ie fan) when they are bigger mugs or lots of black print.

[RogerC]

oh and be careful of dunking as roger suggests, i now use a fan, to cool as other members on here do, after some cracking issues, even with warm water, and only normally need to rapid cool (ie fan) when they are bigger mugs or lots of black print.

That was the problem I had...lots of black in the print. Dunking slowly into warm water accompanied with the reduced 'cooking' time sorted it for me. I've done a dozen or more this way and I'm now 'sorted'....and no cracking. Oh and I've just remembered I also tried 'pre warming' the mug to stop the initial temperature drop and that seems to have helped a lot.

[mrs maggot]

yep always prewarm (esp if stored outside in garage or wherever) but use a £8 fan now and never dunk - always used to, but no more