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Help!
Sublimation Technical Help Topics
Nozzle Check/Head Cleaning Difficulties
Problem: You cant get a clean head check
There are many reasons for this occurance. First and most common, your machine has been idle or off
for a week or more. In this case you would need to remove the sublimation ink from your printer and
install the original .Epson ink cartridges in your machine. Then do a series of cleanings and nozzle checks with these cartridges. You should do a cleaning then nozzle check combination about three times. The reason this helps is the original cartridges have a detergent within the cartridge itself which helps remove the build up blocking the print head. The sublimation ink does not have the detergent in it and is also a little thicker causing build up to occur much easier. When your sublimation machine has been sitting idle for a while the ink tends to harden in the print head and get caked in, not allowing the ink to flow through correctly.
Color Issues (ICC Profile Installation)
Problem:I can't load my ICC Profile
For Mac OSX and higher, there is no installation, you put the disk in and view the profile, then go to your hardrive, click on system, then Library, then ColorSync, then Profiles and drop the corresponding printer profile in that folder. Your Photoshop and CorelDraw will recognize the profile if it is in the folder. There is no loading necessary. Just be sure when you print from one of these programs that you are using the ArTainium color profile. It will always print using a default color profile unless you tell it otherwise. Currently, ICC profiles cannot be managed in other programs.
For PC Windows you simply install the disk and a prompt will come up with three options. Click "run and install", and then the set up wizard will walk you through the rest.
Red light on Printer Problem
Cause: The printer does not recognize the ink cartridge chip. First make sure that all the chips are on the cartridges and that none have fallen off. Then snap them back in to place and make sure it wasn't a placement issue. Sometimes the printers can be picky about the chip or the cartridge may be slightly out of position, or not locked down all of the way. Just removing the cartridge and putting it back in a couple of times should help. If you are using a bulk ink system the trouble shooting is similar. The piece that holds the chips may not be locked down properly. The plastic bar that goes on top of the chips, under the cartridges, may not be secured either. Check that these pieces both click into place. If the printer light still does not go off, turn your printer off for a couple of minutes, then turn it back on. This tricks the printer and chips into thinking that you have installed new cartridges. Sometimes the printer will assume that it should be out of ink after so many prints, but it doesn't realize you have a bulk ink system in. This should do the trick. In the event that this does not help, you could have deffective chips. Then they need to be replaced. Contact us to order more.
Heat Transfer Paper Help Topics
Peeling Problems
Check that the paper is HOT or COLD peel.
Hot peel must be peeled immediately. Cold peel must cool for at least 10 minutes before peeling.
If you have waited too long to peel a hot peel transfer you can press it for about 5 more seconds and quickly peel it off.
Check the temperature of the press. Too much heat will bond the paper to the substrate, not enough heat will cause the image not to be released from the transfer.
Check the pressure of the press. Too much pressure will cause the transfer and paper to stick together, not enough pressure will not allow the image to be pressed correctly.
Bleeding, cracking or washing problems
Bleeding
Bleeding images when washing, occurs when, too much ink is layed down on the transfer by the printer. When you print, the print quality should be between medium to medium-high. The higher setting you put, the more ink is put on the paper. Printing at the highest quality for a transfer, doesn't always mean it will look better. The colors will pop once the heat is applied. So on the transfer paper it will look dull. When you press the the transfer to the shirt or other textile it will only absorb the ink it needs. The rest will bleed off in the wash.
Instructions suggest waiting 15 minutes after printing it to press it, and wait 24 hours after pressing to wash it.
Cracking
Cracking can occur for a couple of reasons. One is the type of transfer paper you are using. Most transfer papers dont stretch very well. Then when worn on a tight shirt may break the image up so the material can stretch. If you are doing transfers on worn material it is suggested that you choose a transfer that is better known for its ability to stretch.
Another thing that could happen is that there wasn't enough heat or pressure applied when pressed. Be sure to always check the time and temperatures on each different type of transfer that you use to be sure you are using the correct instructions.
Opaque Transfer Problems
The color of my shirt is showing through
Reason: Your pressure on the press is to hard. Eventually when pressed hard enough the opaque paper will melt away and your colors will not show. Opaque paper works in the fashion that you are actually printing on a white backing. When you peel the paper off of the back of the transfer, what you have left is still white. Regular transfers have a clear polymer that sticks to the shirt. So if you use a regular transfer on a black shirt, anything on the image that is white will be the black shirt showing through the clear polymer. On an opaque transfer, the part that sticks to the shirt is white, which allows you to put it on a black or dark substrate.
My transfer is backwards
On opaque paper, there is no need to mirror image before you print. You print the image the correct direction, then you peel off the backing and lay the transfer down on the shirt image facing up. Then you cover with a silicone or teflon sheet and press.
My colors aren't exact on the transfer
Remember that the transfer will never show the exact color untill it is pressed. The heat of the press is what makes the colors pop. Transfer papers are made to work this way. You also have to keep in mind that you always loose some quality in the transfer process. Essentially, a transfer is a copy of a copy, of a copy. Broken down, this means that the image on your computer is copy 1. When printed to the transfer it will loose some of its quality, color and detail. The printed transfer is copy 2. Then when pressed, still more detail and quality can be lost. The pressed transfer will be copy 3. The only way to keep as much detail as possible would be to purchase high end printers, and even they aren't always exact. Also, you must consider the colors you are using. Some colors are very hard to achieve using CMYK inks. Especially Pantone colors. When printing transfers it is recommended that you work in an RGB document mode and only use CMYK colors. Don't try neons or metallics, these will never print correctly and always end up muddy.
EverLast Continuous Ink Systems (non-sublimation ink)
My colors are not right, either too light or too dark.
First have in mind, what you are printing on, transfers usually look faded until you press it. If you have pressed the item and it still looks very light, you may not be getting enough ink coming through your printheads. Most of the time this would not be a likely problem because, if you do not have enough ink comming out of your cartridges, it would be very streaky, causing the light color. If the color is just light, you may have an ink issue. To first address the problem we need to consider the printer you are printing from. If you are using a 6, 7, or 8 color printer, there is a possibility that you may have the ink bottles switched. Check to make sure the correct bottle goes to the correct cartridge.
I am not getting a good nozzle check
If your printer has been sitting idle without use for a week or more, it will be very hard to restore it to print correctly. A series of cleanings and nozzle checks must be done. We recommend doing at least three of each, preferably more. After doing the series of nozzle checks adn head cleanings let the printer sit overnight and try printing again the next day. In the event that this does not work, put the original Epson ink cartridges in and do your head cleanings and nozzle checks then. Each time you do another cleaning the printer will step up the cleaning process a notch.
Vital Tip!!!!!
Epson printers have 3 durations of cleaning; short, medium and long. The short cleaning cycle occurs on the first and 4th cleaning cycle and on every one after that, until a print is made. This short cleaning cycle can knock out all the nozzles. In otherwords, if you do a bunch (8 or 10) cleaning cycles with out making a print, you may destroy your printer.
After 3 cleaning cycles, print a test pattern. Print it using 360 dpi, plain paper settings. Make at least one print. It may not be perfect, but this will reset the firmware in the printer so you can get the short, medium and long cleaning cycles again. It is the medium and long cleaning cycles that will get your printer back up and running again.
If you have done 6 cleaning cycles (two groups of 3) and your nozzles are not getting any better, you may need to give the printer a rest for overnight. Allowing the printer to take a break will give the airbubbles time to work themselves out.
Foam Build up in the ink Cartridge
Symptoms:
My printer has been working fine, and now all of a sudden it's not.
My nozzle checks aren't printing right
I have to run quite a few cleaning cycles every day.
I start with a good nozzle pattern, but print breaks up on first or second page.
I have lost one of my colors (usually black).
I lifted up the cartridges and now I can't get it going again.
Solution:
Foamy ink inside the cartridge is the cause of all of the above symptoms. It gradually builds up and needs to be flushed out about every 6 months. The flushing procedure is not difficult. After the ink foam is flushed out the system returns to normal.
Lifting the cartridges will also create ink foam inside the cartridge. Even on systems built with original Epson cartridges, it still happens.
You will need to....
1.Remove the cartridges from the printer and keep level, do not turn upside down! If you used MIS Rivets in your initial install, then put a rivet in each of the exit ports in the bottom of the cartridge. If your CFS was purchased after June 2001 then it has internal poppet valves and the rivets are not needed. Keep the tubes in the bottles and set the whole assembly aside for now.
Install a brand new set of Epson cartridges. The Epson Cartridges have to be un-punctured, new ones. They can not be a refill of the originals. Brand new Epson cartridges work the best. This step is very important, do not skip this step.
2. Use the new cartridges to bring your printer nozzles back. Run cleaning cycles in groups of 3. Check nozzles before and after each cleaning. Stop if you get a perfect nozzle pattern. After 3 cleanings, print a purge test. Then, you can do 3 more if needed. If after 9 or 12 cleaning cycles, and your printer is still not working properly, give it an overnight rest. Many times, the nozzles will recover on their own after an overnight waiting period.
3. Now that you know your printer is working fine, it is time to work on the CFS unit.
Obtain a syringe (60 cc, 30 cc, or 10 cc) and a MIS Bottom Fill Adapter. Attach the bottom fill adapter to the syringe. Insert the bottom fill adapter into the bottom of the cartridge, and pull back slowly. This will draw ink from the bottle, through the tubes, into the cartridge and then into the syringe. Make sure you have more than enough ink to fill the syringe. You do not want to pull air into the cartridge.
The ink that appears in the syringe will have foam or air bubbles in it. This is what is causing the problem with the CFS. The printer will not print foamy ink or ink that has air bubbles in it. You have to get the foamy ink out of the cartridge.
Take the top off the ink bottle and dump the ink from the syringe back into the reservoir bottle from where it came. There should be no loss of ink doing this procedure. The foamy part of the ink will break down into liquid in about 2 hours. Put the top back on.
Then draw another syringe full of ink from the cartridge (same color). Dump it into the reservoir bottle. Keep doing this until the ink that comes out is free of any foam or air bubbles. It takes at least 100 cc of ink to achieve this. In other words, 10 syringes full using the 10 cc syringe or about 2 syringes full using the 60 cc syringe. As you approach 100 cc, you should see less and less foam in your syringe. You will always get a little foam, especially if you pull hard and fast on the syringe. Do it slow.
Repeat the process for all chambers or colors in the cartridge. Be sure to wash out the syringe and bottom fill adapter with warm water before going to a different color. If you are using rivets, only open one chamber at a time, keep the others blocked so you don't get cross port contamination.
Remove the rivets and reinstall the cartridge in the printer. Run cleaning cycles in groups of 3 until you get a good nozzle check. Print a few copies of our purge4 or purge6 diagrams after 3 cleaning cycles. This should correct the problem. If it doesn't, then let it rest over night, and try again in the morning.
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