DSF

HI Folks, quick question..

I have recently come across this issue where i'm getting a blank spot on the printed t shirt after sublimating. I have recently swapped out the old heat platen for a new one that I had stored (chinese press)

You can see the white 3/4 of the way down on the E, I can also see the ink still on the paper.
I did a previous test print to this one and it was much worse as the pressure was crap really so i raised the base plate of the press to compensate, the images here are not as bad as the first but this was printed at pretty firm pressure.
I checked the platen yesterday as i had swapped it out and the temp in the middle of the platen was bang on (within a few degrees)

I'm using sublisure inks printed on the trusty Ricoh 3110, 60 seconds press time, firm pressure at 374 f (190 c) Chinese press (old platen swapped out for a hardly used one)
I'm gonna test again later with the old platen to see if i get the same

Anybody else had this?

It is most likely to do with uneven pressure.

Dye Sub is all about getting even pressure across the area you are printing.

I would take a look at the base plate to see if there are any imperfections in that or the top platen or teflon sheet (if using one)

thanks for the response, I have a base of silicon rubber on the base plate , the heat plate has a teflon sheet attached, dosent seem to bad, slight ripple right in the center which is on the old plate which I swapped out, the new plate which also has a teflon sheet has no ripples and it was worse, old plate seemed better strangely enough. I may do another print tonight with yet more pressure to see how that goes.

well a few prints later and same problem but only on some shirts, very slight but I know its there and can be seen.

Later prints were done at a higher pressure, everything prints ok apart from the center of the print, base plate and rubber mat are fine so im thinking its a heat problem but I find this a bit hard to fathom as i've used 2 different plates, one is brand new.

The only thing I can see is on the heat platen where the teflon sheet is attached, slight ripples but would have thought the high pressure would have dealt with that issue.

Try removing the teflon sheet from the heat platen and using a loose teflon sheet instead.