DSF

Hi all. just started using our sawgrass sg800 and have a very odd problem. Our colours looked a bit washed out/faded but something even odder happened when i did a quick test hand wash of one of our socks. There was colour loss from the wash and it's visibly more faded than the non-washed sock (tried to take a photo but my camera wont pick it up).

Our setup is as follows...

• BMS printerowners sublimation socks
• RGB colour space
• printed from a pdf in acrobat using powerdriver
• paper: dyesub magic (magic touch)
• temp: 200 degrees C (392 degrees F)
• pressure: high
• press time: 70 seconds

screenshots as follows showing our power driver settings:
thanks in advance,
Paul

I presume you DID NOT load the normal inks that came with the printer and it was a new unused printer that you loaded with proper sublimation ink and then charged it.

Also need to make sure the sock was polyester, not cotton.

Sounds like the sock doesn't have the required polyester content to retain enough ink. Where are the socks from?

OP says

• BMS printerowners sublimation socks

My fault for scanning info and not reading every bit. Doesn't state if it is a poly cotton mix on BMS so could still be colour loss through that. Would assume they are 100% polyester but a 70/30 blend would mean a 30% loss in colour vibrancy if it were a mix. Also, not having used the socks for printing myself I can imagine they are fairly ribbed with the usual material so could be an issue. Would be interested to see a before and after from the actual sock which would help.

ArferMo;110507 wrote:I presume you DID NOT load the normal inks that came with the printer and it was a new unused printer that you loaded with proper sublimation ink and then charged it.

Normal ink wouldn't transfer at all.

forgot to say we are using sublijet HD ink from sawgrass. It came as a package with the printer.

I've attached as good a photo as i can get of the washing out. Its more noticeable in real life...

Just emailed the sock supplier (BMS printer owners) and they confirm they are polyester.

socks are not especially ribbed when compared to nike elites or similar.

any idea where I can go from here????

Lots of people doing socks in USA, where the "t-shirt forums" is more the go-to place - there are a LOT of posts about sock printing on there from the l;ast 12-24 months, with people explaining how they do it, troubleshooting etc, so may be worth a look there for advice