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devotid · February 1st, 2008

hello, first off ive been lurking in the background for years and want to say thanks. i finally made an account . so i will be sharing here now and then. im a screen printer/wakeskate manufacturer /fabricator with a ton of expeirience, i belong to some other good silk screening forums and need help with something in dye sublimation ink and the knowledge here is wonderful..so...long story short

im using two Epson 3000 stylus pros' bulk system sublimation printers with MIS clear cart-funnel fill cartridges style. there working flawlessly too for over a quart of ink.

i use TEXAS Original(?) GRAPHICS "Sublibrite" inks. and im using way more black than some of the others... well i have a large supply of black new artanium ink thats in bottles i recieved from an auction. are black inks mixable to extend my black ink? can you mix sublibrite with artanium? has anyone mixed inks before like what im asking? i do large format graphics for our wakeskate company and color matching exactly is not really a major issue. i guess my major concern is just compatability for clogging or making a mayonaise cocktail in my printers. (i cleaned a $600 paint gun with two wrong chems once and paid the price.) Can i pour it in and be ok?

and last could someone link me to ANY info on how much ink, EACH setting on an epson 3000 uses? paper setting type for text print xp transferpaper? type? fine,normal, economy? you get the idea. because....
i found when i use an incorrect icc cmyk profile through printing with CS2 i can make the print actually grainy or lines in it like the head is clogged. (way less ink comes out and saves me money) but when i heat press it in to the plastic it doesnt show the lines and looks better than dumping on a photo qaulity amount of ink on paper, any info or ideas what to study more would be great
thanks
kevin

i use texprint xp
380 degrees
6 min dwell on 18x 48 press

and i get these included pics.

BRC · February 1st, 2008

If you mix different sublimation inks you run the risk of clogging the print heads and possibly destroying your printer. Even changing from one to the other requires cleaning the heads so the two don't combine and form clogs.

The reason you can get by with banding ( the lines you see on the print) is that when you press the transfer , the ink will tend to spread out filling the empty space. How much it spreads depends on several things, one of them being the substrate you are pressing. If you are happy with your results then you may try setting up your ICC profile in different ways and give them each a different name. You might set one up using a lower dpi setting for doing your signs on plastic to save on ink, and another using a higher dpi for metal. Because if you get a line through little Johnny's head on a license plate you will not have a happy customer.

jberte · February 1st, 2008

i have a pair of the same printers - and use regular paper settings and print at 720 dpi. i don't know how much ink it uses but....photo quality uses WAY too much to get a good print

about mixing the inks....i wouldn't try it

i've only ever used artainium inks, but given your situation i think i'd get the refillable carts as close to empty as possible then flush them out (AND the lines!) before refilling with the artainium. if nothing else, i'd think you'd get really strange colors since the profiles are VERY different.

ps: cool setup! thanks for the pics

charles95405 · February 1st, 2008

each sublimation ink, whether artianium, sublijet or sublibrite requires a different ICC profile for each program..so I would suspect that even if the ink did mix well....which I doubt...your colors will probably not be what you want

JaeAmera · February 3rd, 2008

Four words: Never mix different inks

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can i mix Artarium ink with TOG sublibrite please hlp! thx