Ricoh - Power Driver "print primary" results?

Thanks for the reply -

I only use Conde's ICC profiles, but have the PowerDriver installed. Nozzle checks are fine. We've replaced ink cartridges and used over 50% of the ink performing flushes. David has helped me all day (awesome support being it's a holiday) and we still don't know the exact cause of the color issue or how to fix it. This print test potentially points to an issue, but David's not familiar with the expected results of this test. I've emailed Sawgrass as well. I was using the PowerDriver last year (when I first started), then in December I had a job where I was printing about 50 pages of the same color. At half way through the print job the colors changed for no reason. (On about page 25 of 50.) At that time David helped me and we got it printing correctly again with his ICC profiles, I never reran this test (I avoided the PowerDriver all together). It's been printing great since that time until recently. I've got left over logo's I printed on 5/10 which print correctly, but the one's I print today do not. (I've attached an example. The top logo was printed on 5/10, the bottom logo printed this weekend. Both were transferred to the mug this weekend. The top color is correct, the bottom is not.)

Last week I got some new products and was having color issues, which I thought were specific to the product. Then yesterday I went back to do more mugs for an existing customer and the colors were no longer the same. We've done everything and cannot get the colors right. I'm preparing to buy a new printer.

This is the only "real" indication of a potential printer issue. It printed this way in December and it's printing this way now. I did not run this test while my colors were printing correctly, so I don't know if this is expected results or not.

Thanks!
Randy

Randy, did you finally figure out what the issue was? I am having trouble with my ICC profile and Power Driver.

I used the ICC profile to print out the same design the last two months without any problems until last week. I reprinted the same design last week and the colors were off. I experienced some overspraying. I contacted the technical support team; they tried to help but couldn't figure it out either and referred me to Sawgrass. Sawgrass had me install their Power Driver, which solved the problem with my first design.

Today, I tried to print a new design I created in Illustrator using the same settings as the first design (same RGB values, same vector design, print using Power Driver) and this time, the graphics printed with a slight overspray and when pressed, had yellow marks around the text and images. When I printed the artfile using the ICC profile, it came out fine, even when pressed.

All my equipment, inks, sublimation paper, heat press and shirts are fairly new (2 months at the most). I've done the nozzle check and head cleaning and all is fine with the printer but I still haven't found a solution.

I'm just a bit frustrated because I worry that I will have to test each new design to determine if I print using the power driver or the ICC profile. If you have info. that can help shed light on this issue, I would really appreciate.

Thanks in advance and sorry for the long message.

Ynguyen,
First of all, I'll say that David Gross at Conde is always a great resource and a lot of help. Specific to my problem though, he was stumped and referred me to Sawgrass & Ricoh.

Here's what I found:
1) The "Print Primary" issue noted above was an issue with the Sawgrass Powerdriver. Updating the driver resolved the issue.
2) I believe my Ricoh 3300 had a print head/nozzle issue with Yellow, resulting in a weak yellow color and thus some colors were ok while others were not. I also believe it was this way since the day I purchased it but varied overtime. I was new to sublimation, so I didn't have anything to compare to.

What I did and how I determined this:
1) After spending a ton of money and time running tests for everyone, I gave up and bought a new 7700. This gave me something to compare against. Immediately, after installing the 7700 not only was I getting much better results, but I was getting better results that were much closer to the original desired colors than I ever got with the 3300. Additionally, the yellow on the nozzle check for the 3300 was hard to see. You almost had to hold the paper at an angle in the right light to see it. Not having a baseline to compare to, I assumed this was normal. Once I printed a nozzle check on the 7700 it was obvious that the 3300 was printing a weak yellow.

2) Ultimately, after a lot of testing and frustration. Sawgrass sent me 2 new ink cartridges (per a warranty agreement with Conde) and Ricoh replaced the printer under warranty. I then sold them as I now had the 7700 which was much much better.

3) I recently acquired inventory and assets from someone which included a 3300 with inks which are 4+ months past the expiration date. I ran some tests and the colors with expired inks on this printer are still much better than my old 3300 was producing. Note: There is a slight color variance between the 3300 and 7700, which I understand is expected. Also, the color that I was testing with that gave me the most trouble was Pantone 485 (an Orange/Red (lots of yellow)), while other colors which required less yellow were "ok". The 3300 with ICC drivers seems to be a little off when printing this Pantone color.

Lastly, all I use are Conde's ICC profiles. Mainly because David Gross and Conde support have been so helpful and I do get better quality results using their profiles. I've not tested the PowerDriver enough to give it a fair judgement. There's enough variables involved in sublimation already.

I feel your pain. Good luck and let me know if I you have more questions.
Randy

Randy, thanks for the quick response. Sorry I took so long to reply...I was busy running tests. =)

Unfortunately I just purchased the 3300 and do not want to spend add'l dollars to upgrade just yet but if I this problem persists, I may have to try my options right? Anyhow, after running several different tests to try and troubleshoot this thing, I discovered that the overspray is more present when I print my design using red colors. When I changed the vector to blue or black, they do not print with the shadow/overspray. As recommended by Sawgrass, I had to take the print head out of alignment just to realign it again. This appears to have resolved the issue but I'll continue to monitor it and see how it goes. Hopefully this really did the trick.

Sublimation, my friend, really does have a lot of variables, as I'm starting to find out. =)

Again, thank you for sharing. The info has been very helpful.