Light patches at the bottom and top corners

[scrappydoo]

I am finally ready with my new Mug Printing Setup, I am printing on a Ricoh SG3110 Printer with SawGrass inks onto Visi-Jet sublimation Printer. I am using the 11Oz mugs from Coralgraph.

After much trial and error (12 mugs and counting!) I am finally at a point where I can't seem to improve the transfer much. My issue is that along the bottom and slightly in the top left and right corners I am getting light spots. I have attatched an image below of the mug itself and what is left on the transfer paper.

Can somebody please advise on what could be causing it? I am pressing for 220 seconds at 185 degrees.

[derek]

Hi

are you preheating your mug prior to pressing them?

[scrappydoo]

Nope, I have a dummy mug in the press whilst it heats up to temperature then I take the dummy out and put my mug in and start the countdown. Do you think pre-heating would solve the issue?

[aardvark]

Try standing the mugs on a radiator so bottom heats a bit before pressing and check your pressure is not too tight.

[RogerC]

Pre warm and maybe a little more clamp pressure?

[aardvark]

Pre warm the bottom of the mug and try that first, then look at pressure, we had this when we had too much pressure.

[scrappydoo]

Ok, i've just adjusted the pressure slightly to give me a little more. Now the edge of the heat blanket really conforms to the top and bottom of the mug.

I am still experiencing the same issue though, maybe very slightly less but that could just be the variation between the mug surfaces. I am going to try pre-heating the mug next to see if that makes any difference. I am seeing the issue in the top left and right corners as well.

[aardvark]

Try the pre heating but then you need to use less pressure not more, if you have it too tight the inks don't gas out correctly.

[scrappydoo]

Pre-heating the mugs seemed to make my problem worse for some reason, it also made it a bit of a pain getting the transfer on as the mug was hot!

I have adjusted the pressure slightly so it 'just' grips the mug, my temp is still at 185 degrees but I have adjusted the time to 270 seconds.

Although still visible, the problem has almost gone with these settings, the time seems really long to me, does anyone else press for this long?

[derek]

add the design to the mug before you heat the mug and then cook for 180 seconds at 180 degrees once the mug is upto temperature in the closed mug press