Q. My C86 locks
up after one print and I have to close Corel Draw or restart my computer to get the printer to work again. What
is wrong?
A. You
are using XP operating system….
1. You
have downloaded “Service Pack 2”……
2. You
must now go to www.EPSON.com and download the
latest print driver for your C86. Note: Before installing this driver, please remove
prior versions of this driver via Windows Add/Remove Programs.
3. This should solve your problem.
4. Other
operating systems are not known to create this problem.
Q. When people say sublimation,
what does that really mean?
A. The word sublimation means to turn from a solid
to a gas and then back to a solid without ever becoming a liquid. When a sublimation dye is heated, it turns into a colored
gas, penetrates the surface of the substrate it is dying and then becomes a solid particle again in material it printed and
at no time was it a liquid.
Q. Can one print cotton
material with sublimation?
A. No, cotton does not accept the dye. Sublimation
only prints polyester and polymer coated objects. The sheet metals used in the awards industry have a polymer coating
on the metal to keep it from oxidizing. We are actually printing the lacquer coating with the sublimation. The same is true
with coffee mugs. We are using a special mug with a polymer coating. The top layer on mouse pads and coasters is
a piece of fabric made of 100% polyester.
Q. Well then how about 50/50 T-shirts?.
Will they print?
A. Well sorta a.... In a 50/50 shirt, half
the fabric is cotton and half polyester. The poly part prints just fine, but the cotton does not print at all. So, what
you have is a strand of cotton and a strand of poly side be side all over the shirt. Half is printed and half is not. When
a person looks at the printed shirt, the black images will appear gray, the dark blue images will appear light blue and reds
will appear pink etc. Everything appears washed out. Personally, I think you are much better off to buy the "Softlink" shirt;
which is 100% polyester but looks and feels like a heavy weight cotton shirt. I know it is a little expensive, but it is a
great shirt .... just outstanding quality. Look into some of the new "vapor-ware" material. It is a tight weave athletic material
that is 100% polyester and accepts sublimation printing that is truly exciting.
Q. Why can't you sublimation items
that are going to be used outdoors?
A. Most to the things that you would take outside
into strong UV lighting are items that have a lacquer coating on them. The UV light from the sun will destroy
the lacquer very quickly. The dyes themselves are a lot more stable than the lacquer. For example, if you took a printed mousepad
outdoors and a sublimated plaque outside and sat them side by side the mousepad might still look good a year from now and
the plaque would begin to fade in 30 days. On UNISUB material, which is not a lacquer, the dyes hold up much better than lacquer
coated metal. However, the red dye is still too unstable in direct UV light. Nice red objects will become orange long
before black objects turn gray. Some sublimation dyes are a little more UV stable than others, but the real problem is the
material you are printing, not the dye itself.
If you have a question you would like to see answered here, please send
us the question and we will do our best to get you an answer.
