carlathebluegeckoprinting.

Yes, we use STS inks. Our climate control was not working, finally fixed it today - so now can maintain a constant 72 degrees. It was dropping to the low 60's at night - and I know that is not good for the white inks. Humidity is now 15% which is about the best we can get in the AZ desert other than during monsoon. A water distillation system is going to run around $1000 if we wanted to install a humidifier - simply no way to use our water in a humidifier out of the faucet or with a cheap filter - coats everything with a white mineral deposit. Anyway - with the temp control fixed, on Monday I will run some tests to see if the machine prints any better.

I had a film issue previously - uneven blacks with or without white under. It turned out to be that my printer does not like hot peel film, tried different rolls with same result. Went back to the economy cold peel and everything was perfect. The print I am doing now is onw we have done quite a few of. It printed perfectly on beginning of roll of cold peel earlier this month. Then today, it began with the splotchiness again. It was the end of the roll so I assumed maybe film issue. But new roll, different lot, and different brand and issue is exactly the same, so I am ruling out the film for now. RIP settings are the same. Only difference is we have had a rare cold spell here in AZ, and it is all we can do to get the shop up to 70 degrees, and I am thinking this has something to do with it.

Yes. I did several tests prints with large areas of solid color and the splotchiness runs over from one color to the next making me believe that is has something to do with the white under. The white looks solid and even to the eye.

STS Mutoh VJ628D - 90% white under CMY, 50% under K. Dark colors inconsistent, see pics I uploaded. I switch rolls of cold peel film to new roll different lot, to rule out bad film. Problem is consistent over different films. Nozzle tests come out perfect. Temperature in the shop is 69 degrees F. The issue is the way the dark blue on the letter A fades to a magenta on the bottom of the legs. But on the light box and on the film everything looks good. I have grown to absolutely hate this STS printer. Any ideas?

Do you have a humidity gauge hydrometer? Ideally you should have humidity somewhere between 35-45% where the machine is located. I am in Arizona, and let me tell you getting humidity that high here is a chore. In other areas of the world with winter kicking in, humidity tends to drop. So that is the first thing I would look at.

I am sure this issue has been resolved since it is a few months old, but adding my experience. I am using the large table top oven from DTF Superstore and was suing their recommended settings - 245C and 120 seconds. Lots of oily residue on glue. Opened the vent all the way, and increased drying time to 130 seconds, and problem solved. The tech also said to make sure to wipe the inside top of the lid as the oil will build up there.

I can only speak from my own experience, which is not much. But I have had good luck with single, cold peel film. I have had bad luck with hot peel, but nobody has really seen the issue I saw - so maybe a bad lot? On ink absorption, I will leave that to someone more knowledgeable than I.

Problem solved. Bought as roll of economy cold peel and all the blacks came out solid. The Ecofreen Premium Plus hot peel apparently does not like our machine. I got my new film from DTF Superstore, $60 less a roll, right around the corner from me, and the people there are knowledgeable!

I checked our supplies, and somehow we got the hot peel, not the cold peel film. Any ideas on that? And the first set of prints we did at various percents of K, next will be composite black. Since no other color does this, and solid white lays on beautifully, I suspect it has to do with the blacks.

Thank you for your reply. I am getting all my supplies from All American Print since they supplied our equipment. Inks are STS 1 litre bulk packs. None are expired. I get the film from All American, they were out of our regular brand so I upgraded to the Ecofreen. I am suspecting this might be the issue. This morning I reduced the white under from 80% to 65% - the crackling remained. But I had my designer check out the file and the black areas are 100% K. I am now running tests with less black to see if that helps. The slight banding is because we printed on medium quality mode - 720X720 bidirectional for speed. If I go higher quality the banding leaves.

I am printing on a Mutoh STS 628D printer. Printed this job last week, and it came out perfect. This week, the blacks and dark colors are not laying down solid. You can see the cracking appearance before the film goes through the dryer. The only thing that is different to my recollection is a new roll of film. Has anyone ever seen this before?

I played around with the tolerance and decreasing white coverage % but even if there is only 1% of any color in an area, it is going to apply white which overpowers the color. I am just going to say no, we really can't do the fade to black because I can't imagine having to explain to preflight that he has to create masks with spot color that only print under solids, not gradients...

Full color DTF with white under - I reduced the white quite a bit. We are trying to get the gradients to fade to black but the white shows through the very lightest gradients. Does anybody hack a trick or a hack to make the white fade out at the edges? Using Flexi DTF Pro 22. Trying to not get the white glow halo effect.