DSF

I am new to this process and I am experiencing very faded bottoms of my mug, see pic any idea what the cause may be? I'm using a 3D sublimation mahine with richoh printer [ATTACH=CONFIG]4242[/ATTACH]

Try putting a ruler running down your mug to see if the sides are perfectly straight

Are you using a mug wrap or just heat tape?

I'm using heat tape and the silicone clamps, I saw I thread on here before I posted saying that the bottom takes longer to heat up so I left the mug in the machine while it was heating up then put the paper round it while hot but I had same result. I thought I would try and put the mug upside down and the bottom of the mug was perfect and top was faded so I'm assuming it's the machine. bottom of the enclosure not getting hot enough I'm assuming short of buying a better machine my only option is to turn the mug around half way through?

Have you done like I said with the ruler?

what are you times and temperature and what make of machine?

It's a pixmax 3D sublimation machine. I tried 185 degrees I stared at 3 minutes and kept raising it until I got to for 14 minutes. I did one by turning it around halfway and that seams to have worked fine.

Mugshots: yeah I tried that and it seams all level.

14 minutes? Jeez. I do 180 for 180. But yours is a 3d so Im useless now.....

OK, I think you are using the same machine as me so try the following:

Turn machine on and set time to 7 minutes and temp to 180
Turn on heating for BOTH top and bottom ovens by hitting the button twice, both icon should be flashing
Wait about 20 minutes for oven to get to full temp, put wrapped mug in oven and hit the timer, no need for vacuum
I suspect you will now have a superbly printed mug

Things to note
You may have to adjust time to suit your individual set up
You will need to increase time depending on the number of mugs you put in, for example 12 mugs will take about 15 minutes approx

Give that a go and let us know how you get on.

P.S. I have hi-lighted in red and bold where I think you may be going wrong