Sub Standard Mugs

[Themugbox]

Hi guys. New to the world of sublimation but really like it, so I would really appreciate any advice.

I bought a start up kit from bestsublimation.de and when it arrived it was really easy to set up and the mugs were coming out with sharp clear print. So much so that I sold the 20 I bought with the press in the first day of operation.

I then reordered another batch of 144 mugs (of the same grade of the first lot); however when these arrived my first press was a disaster. The print came out faded and in places the ink has ran.

The parameters I used for the first batch was 230F - 330F with a timer of 40 secs. I have upped the parameters to 330F - 360F with a timer of 65 secs and am now getting better results but nowhere near where they were when I was using the first batch of mug. There is still a little fading at the bottom of the mug.

I think I have established it is the mugs as they are the only variable that has been changed and also I had an old mug which had only been printed on 1 sided and that came out fine.

So my questions are...

Is there anything I can do to make the print quality better?

Should I just give up and order some from somewhere else? I noticed BMS deliver to Germany (where I live). They seem to get good reviews. Anyone know what there postage time to mainland Europe usually is?

Thanks in advance

Dave

[Paul]

You may want to try poligrafia-szczecin in Poland. may be cheaper postage. Or if you fancy 5h drive you can pop in and have a coffee with lads from there while picking up your stock.
They are official BestSub in Poland so worth to drop them an email.
http://translate.google.com/translate?s ... czecin.pl/

Paul

[Justin]

360f is probably a better temp but you need to be cooking for nearer 180 secs, possibly slightly less.

[Themugbox]

Hi Paul and Justin. Thanks for taking the time to reply.

Paul, I checked out the website you linked and I am pretty sure that is where these mugs came from looking at the delivery note.

Justin, you mentioned to cook for nearer to 180 secs. This is what is confusing me. I watched a youtube video and followed their instructions of:

Set min temp to 230f
Set max temp to 330f
Set time to 40 secs
Place mug on press when min temps is reached
Press start on press
Press the heats to max temp and then counts down 40 secs
Remove mug.

For the new batch of mugs I changed the parameters to 300f min, 360f max and 60 secs. (Read somewhere to try that).

Like I said I did start to get better results but still nowhere near the quality of my original prints.

So when you say I should cook for around 180 secs. I assume this is not 180 secs at max temp but the combined time from me placing the mug on the press when it reaches its minimum time?

This has confused me a lot when I have been looking at supplier websites as they only tend to give a temp and a time.

Sorry for the dull questions... and thanks again for taking time to respond.

[Justin]

Which mug press are you using?

[Themugbox]

It came from bestsublimation.de. It is their JTSB03 model and it has JTrans written on the front.

I mean what is confusing me is how good it was for the first 20 mugs that I bought to try it out in comparison to the new batch which I have nearly 150 of.

[Themugbox]

As an update I have increased the pressure quite a bit and seem to be getting passable results. I guess my next predicament is to figure out how I discern what parameters to use when I get a new batch of mugs as the two batches (same product code) differ so dramatically.

Something worth mentioning is initially I was convinced it was a dodgy batch of mugs and happily blamed them. It seems it was all down to my inexperience. The guys at bestsublimation could have been more helpful.

Thanks for the advice though Paul and Justin!

[Scotty@BMS]

Hi Dave, ideally 338F for 120-150 seconds should be perfect everytime with that machine. Of course the variables are your mugs, your inks and your paper. What are these?