"A true Printing revolution"
General |
Instructions |
Troubleshooting
The PowerPrint Sublimation Ribbon is a wonderful product. It allows you to make easy, full color, customized permanent transfers in just minutes. Generate profitable sales by imprinting on ceramic mugs,
baseball caps, T-shirts, mouse pads, trophies, awards, almost anything. Simple, one pass, full color printing with no screens, no
color separations, no registration problems, and no mess.
The PowerPrint Ribbon is compatible with the latest color management technology
allowing for transfer colors to match original art and display. Start up cost is low. You're in business with just a PC, graphic
software package, Fargo® printer, and the PowerPrint ribbon.
This new sublimation ribbon will transfer images from both
the Fargo® Primera and PrimeraPro Printers.
This new product is not regular thermal printer ribbon or dye diffusion ribbon.
It's a non-activated sublimation ribbon that lets you produce high quality, vibrant colored heat transfers in small or large
quantities.
PowerPrint is a merging of wax thermal and dye sublimation technology. It is called hybrid sublimation or true sublimation.
Sublimation dyes are suspended in a wax carrier. The low temperatures of the wax thermal process
serve only to transfer the sublimation dyes to the paper but not to sublimate them. When you heat the image on a press, the dyes sublimate and the wax stays on the paper, keeping the sublimation dyes from being absorbed into the paper. They are absorbed, instead, by the transfer surface. No specially treated paper is necessary. Because hybrid sublimation is printed using wax thermal mode, you will see some of the dither patterns but, you will also enjoy the speed of wax thermal printing and the ability to transfer powerful, vibrant colors onto many more surfaces than are available with the other methods.
Any polymer coated surface is a candidate for a PowerPrint heat transfer.
The following will explain how to configure your computer and printer to use PowerPrint sublimation ribbon.
Paper
You can print using letter size (8.5 in. x 11 in.) or legal size paper (8.5 in. x 14 in.). Legal size allows you to utilize a larger print area on your PowerPrint ribbon.
You will get the best results by using uncoated, smoothly polished (calendered) paper.
Do not use copy paper or coated papers. Copy paper is not smooth enough and the ink will print splotchy. Coated papers will not absorb the waxes during heat transfer and will cause your image to be blurry and may result in wash out problems. We highly recommend our CH481 paper.
Printer Driver Settings
The printer driver is software that allows your graphics design software to communicate with your printer.
You must install this software for your printer to operate. You must also select the printer from within Microsoft Windows. See your Windows or printer User's Guide for details on how to install and print to your printer. After you have installed your Fargo printer driver, you can choose from several options on how you want your printer to behave. The procedure for displaying printer driver settings varies from Windows 3.1 to Windows 95. Once you have the printer driver settings displayed, you can change them.
NOTE: Fargo has released several different versions of their printer drivers. The wording of some of the options varies and some new options have been added to later versions. Choose the settings that most closely resemble the options described below. Below are sample setup dialogs for Primera and PrimeraPro printer drivers:
This is a sample box for the PrimeraPro setup dialog.
1. Choose 300 DPI. 600x300 prints slower and is not nearly as reliable as 300.
2. Choose the correct paper size. If you use legal size paper, be sure to choose the legal paper size. If you do not, your printout might be clipped off at the bottom.
If you are running earlier versions of the printer driver, you may not have a legal setting. Choose A-long or Letter 8.5 x 11 for legal size paper. You will still get the 8.5x11 print area. Read the instructions for your printer to determine the optimal setting.
1. Choose 3 color or 3 color wax, depending on your driver. Do NOT choose 4 color or dye sublimation modes.
2. Slide the Intensity slider all the way to the right. This is the darkest or highest setting.
3. If you have the Fargo color match option, turn it off.
Panel Skipping (PrimeraPro)
The PrimeraPro printer will sometimes skip panels while printing.
This can cause one or more of the color panels to be missed or you may see the printer print across half of one color panel and half of another. Often, the printer error light will flash rapidly. This problem is caused by the sensitivity of an electric eye in the printer that detects the different panels. The electric eye is an amber or green colored light under the printer hood. Fortunately, there is an easy, although unusual, solution to this problem.
Place a single piece of Scotch magic tape over the sensor eye. This reduces the intensity of the light and correctsthe problem. Before printing, remember to wind the ribbon forward so that you see only the cyan panel. This is the ribbon starting point.
Ribbon Rewinding Caution
Sometimes you may not use all of the surface area of a print and you may wish to rewind the ribbon to reclaim the lost panel. Due to the sensor's difficulty in differentiating between the starting point of the next color panel and a partially used panel, rolling back panels to reuse them may result in the printer skipping panels or generating an error condition. Therefore, we recommend that you do not rewind the ribbon in a Fargo printer.
Moisture and Humidity
The addition of any moisture to the sublimation process, no matter how slight, can cause disturbing effects. Under normal circumstances, the small amount of moisture that can accumulate in the paper or ribbon is absorbed directly into the fabric and, thus, is unnoticeable. However, larger amounts of moisture, such as very high humidity, operating near a steam tunnel, etc., can cause major problems.
Some of these problems include color shifting (colors lose accuracy), color drop-out on the printer (all color does not transfer to the paper), bleeding of the image, a blue line along the edge of the paper (known as the percolator effect). To avoid these problems, Keep your paper in a dry place. If you suspect moisture, set the paper on your press for a few seconds. Do not press it. Just expose it to the warmth. The heat radiating from the press should help evaporate the moisture. To eliminate moisture in your garment, press the garment for 10 seconds before doing the heat transfer. Use a fresh paper towel on top of the transfer sheet to absorb the moisture.
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In the USA
call Toll Free 1-800-781-8002
sales@kobis.com
