Blotches on Printed Mugs

[lucozade]

ok, this is a basic question and i hope someone can help. My son does sublimation on mugs and has been for about a year. Anyway he's been asked to do a mug as a present for someone with a design. Now a few months ago he did a mug of his own that had a red background that had the same issue, brown blotches in the print, like coffee stains. at the time my dad suggested that it maybe because the ink was too dark on the mug so we lightend the print and slightly lightened the mugpress pressure, it worked. Now this design is Orange and is doing the same thing, he's wasted 12 mugs on this and quite frankly i am at a loss to explain it. we've done what we did with the red mug design but we just can't accomplish it.

can anyone help,or explain what is happening

Ann

[purpledragon]

are the blotches in the same place everytime? this could indicate a problem with the heat press a cold spot on the heat blanket perhaps what heat press is he using , when was the heat blanket replaced last if ever ?
When you say blotches is it more like the ink has ran ? this could be a result of uneven mugs where do you get your mugs from ?
does he dunk his mugs in tepid water direct from the press, try it it may work
Brett

[Justin]

Could you post a picture Ann?

[lucozade]

sorry i have thrown them away because my son gets dreadfully upset. I can only describe them as coffee stains. I thought it maybe that the ink was contaminated/or mug blanket but this cannot be the case because it would be the same for every mug. they are not in the same place in every mug. I have suggested we change the orange but he will have none of it and says the orange colour is the most important partof the design

god knows what i'm going to do, pulling my hair out. i dare not try and waste more mugs

[purpledragon]

it sounds to me like the mugs maybe at fault where are the mugs from ?

[Justin]

Is it possible the markings could be scorches? I've seen this before on mugs and it does look a little like a coffee stain.

[lucozade]

ok time for an update, this afternoon we nearly got it except for one large stain and my son says it's unacceptable because it's a gift,fair enough. it's definately not the mugs, so i can only assume it was too much heat, so we reduced the heat and got patches where ink hadn't quite gone onto the mug, next i though, ahh i know increase mug pressure, wrong, same thing just more stains.

so we are back to square one,i think it's the mug machine, a friend of ours has one, an old one in his garage he says, but he's not sure if it'll stand being turned on. so he's leaving it in his house for a few days in the airing cupboard to try and get it warm, poor thing...lol

so basically another 3 mugs wasted, am at a loss, i will try and take a piccy but on first try didn't get very good exposure, just imagine your drank a cup of coffee and theres afew sippy stains on the side and you'll be near to whats happening to us

my mate suggested as it's happened to red and orange and that the stains look brown that the ink maybe to blame,he said not enough yellow, but i pointed out we've already lightened the image so much at one point it was cream, he said thats ok it'll go well with your coffee stains

[Justin]

If it helps you out of a fix I could print you this mug and send it. I know this doesn't solve the problem but at least you'd get it out with no more pressure. We can then continue to look at your problem in more detail.

Just a thought, the offer's there

[Andrew]

What is the paper like after printing? Are there any scorch marks on the outside? It does sund a bit like scorching but you would be able to notice this on the paper as well.

[bms]

I think we would need to see a picture of the problem and the corresponding image on the paper as Andrew suggests. Difficult to know whether it is a problem of the ink coming off the paper or a problem with the heat blanket not making perfect contact with the mug face during pressing.

I realise there have been a lot of questions here so far, but if possible could you please let us know what temp and time you are using for the mugs? Pics of a mug and paper would be good also.