yellow bloom appearing, help

[richgrafix]

just recently we have noticed we sometimes get what looks like a yellow bloom appearing around our images, any idea's what could be causing this,

we have been using the same ink and printer and papers for quite sometime without issue,

printer Epson D88 (now 3 years old done many 1000s of prints test prints and nozzle check spot on)
Ink Rotech (ready for a refill)
Paper signal or textprint (occurs with both)
Mugs, coralgraph and lovecut, (occurs with both)
cooking time 3 mins temperature 180c

any pointers or suggestions would be gratefully apreciated

[Justin]

When you say a yellow bloom.....could it be a kind of burning colour? Does the paper look burnt at all? I sometimes get this using Tru-pix paper, if I don't get the paper to the mug edges the remaining area can go a very slight brown/yellow. Never happens with my Xpres stock of paper though. I guess the former perhaps needs less heat.

If you can get a pic please post, appreciate that may not be easy though.

[richgrafix]

strangly when this happens the mugs seem to shatter into a thousand pieces when they hit the wall at great velocity foolowed by a few expletives but I should be able to replicate this in the morning and will photo and post both the mug and the paper! cheers Dave

[Justin]

Lol, I know where you're coming from Dave

[Paul]

i had that when print the t-shirts /from xpress/ had yellow halo around images. it was cozed by not enough preasure or to slow press closing. when you close your press to slow then gass is spreding around the image. but why yellow?? dont aks me lol. let us know if incresing preasure helpd. thx. paul.

[bms]

You may find this is caused by a poor alignment in the printhead and a yellow colour is being printed (but very difficult to see). Check your print alignment (in the maintenance part of the printer on your computer) and try removing 'high speed' print in the same section.

[DREAMGLASS]

Looking at their eBay feedback, I know that Lovecut had some problems with the mugs they were selling. When they used to trade as Tek Press their mugs were an unreliable quality but the ones from Coralgraph were actually very good and I never had any problems with them, so I'd be inclined to rule out the mugs themselves.

It may be that your heat blanket is starting to deteriorate. A lot of them start to de-laminate which affects performance. I invested in one of those little infra red thermometers and found a temperature difference where the laminate was starting to separate.

[JSR]

Someone else had this issue just recently: http://www.dyesubforum.co.uk/forum/view ... low#p10737 They used the same description that you have - "bloom".

If your D88 is three years old and has done 1000s of prints, I think you'd be better off looking at replacing it. My 1400, which hasn't exactly killed itself in the last two years, is showing a similar kind of thing.

It's strange how it's always the yellow colour. My 1400 has trouble with the black but the nozzle-check and alignment for the other colours is fine - yet it's the yellow that blooms out from the design.

It's interesting that three people have reported issues with this effect. It's not so noticeable if you cut your paper right up to the design, or printing an item right to the edge (like a mousemat or coaster).

If it's the same effect that I get, then it's not a heat blanket issue because it occurs regardless of whether I'm printing flat items in the flatbed or mugs in the mug oven (I haven't used the mug press for a while). Also, if it's the same effect that I get it's not the paper burning. I know exactly what that looks like, and this ain't it.

Unfortunately I have no solution to offer. I'm working on getting a new printer set up instead. I'm beginning to feel that, since the days of the 1290, Epson printers are just not intended to last long. Once I have my new printer running, I'm going to do some work on my 1400 (starting with removing the CISS and popping in some refills) to see if I can track down the issue, but that won't be for awhile yet.

[richgrafix]

update on the yellow bloom!, it apears the printer is spraying a fine mist of yellow ink,, why or where from is unclear, I have changed my image format to PSD and removed the background, still appears, I have added a background and left some "white" spots and the yellow still appears, I have cleaned the printhead, re-aligned the printhead, problem still persists so new printer ordered see if that cures it, will update once its arrived and installed.

[JSR]

Same solution here. I've been trying to get a B40W running as temporary replacement while I sort out the 1400 (which is three years old, not two as I said before), but the B40W is just not playing ball when it comes to its green colour cast (seems okay on high-saturation designs and clipart/logos, just not photos).

So I've had to fork out for another 1400. I wish someone sold "starter kit Artanium CISS". I have enough ink here of most colours and I'm not in the position to fork out for another full CISS right now, so I'll be using refills in one until I know if the original 1400 can't be salvaged for sure.