Printers, Inks, and Substrates

[Hoffman Fisher]

Hi All,

I've just recently joined the forum and have several questions that I would like to try and have addressed by all of ye in the know. I already have a small design business and I'm looking to expand into sublimation with designs for T-Shirts and Mugs, what I would like to know is:

1. I have an Epson Stylus DX3850 an Epson Photo R285 and an Epson stylus pro9800, which one if any can be used for sublimation purposes.

2. If Any of the printers listed above can be used for sub purposes, what is the best type of ink to use and where can such ink be purchased.

3. If the ink that gets used is pigment or dye which transfer paper is best suited for the job.

4. Also, ICC profiles would probably be need, if recommendations could also be forth coming.

5. As this is new to me any advise in laymans terms would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

H. Fisher

[RogerC]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

Given your range of questions and that you have already got a couple of printer possibilities might I suggest you call Martin at BMS. The web page is www.printerowners.co.uk/ and their phone numbers are on there. I can highly recommend Martin and his team for help and information, they helped me on my starting out immensely.

Good luck.

[Hoffman Fisher]

Thanks very much Roger C, I shall make contact with Martin.

Cheers

H. Fisher

[Justin]

Hi there and welcome along The R285 was always a decent printer for sublimation I believe. You should be able to get the profile already made for this if you buy supported inks. You might be able to use the other printers, is the 9800 wide format? If so you could convert it to sublimation and use bulk inks which are far cheaper.

Xpres paper is excellent and one of the cheapest, you'll see a couple of other more expensive papers which are again very good.

You'll find much of this information already on the forum but feel free to start another thread and get asking those questions

Justin
DSF Admin

[bms]

Hi All,

I've just recently joined the forum and have several questions that I would like to try and have addressed by all of ye in the know. I already have a small design business and I'm looking to expand into sublimation with designs for T-Shirts and Mugs, what I would like to know is:

1. I have an Epson Stylus DX3850 an Epson Photo R285 and an Epson stylus pro9800, which one if any can be used for sublimation purposes.

2. If Any of the printers listed above can be used for sub purposes, what is the best type of ink to use and where can such ink be purchased.

3. If the ink that gets used is pigment or dye which transfer paper is best suited for the job.

4. Also, ICC profiles would probably be need, if recommendations could also be forth coming.

5. As this is new to me any advise in laymans terms would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

H. Fisher

Thanks for the recommendation RogerC - you'll be asking for your fiver as often as PurpleDragon does For some reason the post always gets lost - you just can't trust the postal service these days...

Anyway back OT - the R285 and the 9800 are seriously different pieces of equipment. Do you really want to convert a 9800 to sublimation with the costs of buying litre quantities of ink, bulk feed systems etc etc? The R285 would be a much lower cost to set up but when using second user equipment, please make sure the system prints perfectly before investing in sublimation inks. The R285 will require 6x bottles of ink and for the same money you could go down the route of the Ricoh GXe3300/ SG3110. One of the major considerations here is how much are you intending to us it initially? A 9800 would be overkill for printing a couple of mugs a day, but equally if you were printing 500 mugs a day then it would be more suited.

[Hoffman Fisher]

OK, Thanks very much Justin and Martin, the R285 is the one I'll use then, is there a particular type of ink or is it the Artainium AU, having looked on some sites I see Jetec etc are they refillable or perhaps somewhere on the sites it states everything I need to know, but if either of ye can spell it out for me as to what type cartridge with what type ink is suitable to fit the compartments of the R285 it would be greatly appreciated and save me an awful amount of time searching when you yourselves and others on this site have the knowledge and expertise and have no doubt covered this subject more times than the hot dinner type statement. So if its not to rude of me to ask, and if neither of ye mind and do have the time.

Many thanks

H. Fisher

Thanks for the recommendation RogerC - you'll be asking for your fiver as often as PurpleDragon does For some reason the post always gets lost - you just can't trust the postal service these days...

Anyway back OT - the R285 and the 9800 are seriously different pieces of equipment. Do you really want to convert a 9800 to sublimation with the costs of buying litre quantities of ink, bulk feed systems etc etc? The R285 would be a much lower cost to set up but when using second user equipment, please make sure the system prints perfectly before investing in sublimation inks. The R285 will require 6x bottles of ink and for the same money you could go down the route of the Ricoh GXe3300/ SG3110. One of the major considerations here is how much are you intending to us it initially? A 9800 would be overkill for printing a couple of mugs a day, but equally if you were printing 500 mugs a day then it would be more suited.

[bms]

OK, Thanks very much Justin and Martin, the R285 is the one I'll use then, is there a particular type of ink or is it the Artainium AU, having looked on some sites I see Jetec etc are they refillable or perhaps somewhere on the sites it states everything I need to know, but if either of ye can spell it out for me as to what type cartridge with what type ink is suitable to fit the compartments of the R285 it would be greatly appreciated and save me an awful amount of time searching when you yourselves and others on this site have the knowledge and expertise and have no doubt covered this subject more times than the hot dinner type statement. So if its not to rude of me to ask, and if neither of ye mind and do have the time.

Many thanks

H. Fisher

JetTec isn't sublimation ink so don't go anywhere near that! You will need Artainium sublimation ink and I'll see if the EasyFlow system is still available for that printer which comes pre-filled with sublimation inks. If not then you'll need to get refillable cartridges or an empty CISS and buy inks separately - each colour is going to cost about £60 for 125ml and you'll need 6 of them.

[Justin]

As we've mentioned before, 6 x £60 puts you into the ball park of buying a Ricoh printer with inks, possibly a better start up printer.

If you do decide to go CIS rather than refil carts (and personally I only use refil carts) check out City Ink Express. Their units are the same quality as the ones you get with Artainium systems, not the cheapest but very well made.
http://www.cityinkexpress.co.uk/ciss/ep ... 5/r-series

[Hoffman Fisher]

Incredibly fast response, thank you, I'll ponder the points that have been made and then deliberate somemore, again thanks, I'll be in touch

[Hoffman Fisher]

Hi all, I've been looking and the Artainium inks and as they are Dye inks as opposed to pigment, although some sites state that pigment is indeed better but I guess dye sublimation would not be dye sublimation if pigment ink was the one to use. I've also checked out the active link to Cityink Express and their CISS System for the R285 is coming either empty or with choice of Dye, Pigment or Lyson Dye ink with pricing that vary's, the CISS with Dye ink comes in at 40 quid although I didn't see how much ml was in the bottles, so can someone explain the pricing of artainium and the pricing of a full 6 ink CISS system?