Gas fading with Dye Inks

[Fingers]

I'm experiencing a problem with an HP No81 equiv dye ink. Printing on a Pop Up material with MicroPorous coating. Had a job rejected 2 weeks after delivery when neutral background turned "green". Swore blind it was neutral when it left the shop! File was still buffered in RIP queue, so grabbed it and reran to find a decent neutral grey that was still neutral when laminated. reran the job, only to watch it change colour!

Have measured samples of the background grey with eyeone. Difference between colour 30mins after printing and 120hrs after printing is dE 4.5 and it's still changing. Difference between new print and returned product is dE11.5.

Supplier of inks/media suggests it must be an environmental issue in my shop - ignoring the fact that the problem occurred whilst product was in a dark transit case 10 miles from my shop for the bulk of the time before it was rejected.

Tested same inks on different product and found similar, though less dramatic colour shift.
Have reverted to OEM inks to run same image on same products and test for colour shift there.

Has anyone any thoughts, experience or ideas to offer?

[jens]

i have the same problem printing on photoglossy paper. Grey tints are fading to green and black tints are fading to green also.
It seems the ink wil not dry out normal. I have waited for days to read my icc path but it still turns out to green. The pigment inks have no problem printing on that paper.
My paper is also microporous and i have tested with original ink and bulk ink. Same problem.

the combination off microporous paper and dye inks , Did you have the time to print on original HP fotopaper ?

[Fingers]

Hi Jens,

I switched back to HP's inks (double the price of the 3rd Party ones!) and the same job held it's colour without a problem. Fault was definitely with the inks not environmental or substrate related. So I'm currently back on HP's inks, and holding out £2K on the ink supplier for losses caused. Luckily the customers affected were very understanding.

Haven't had any technical explanation, just had to move on with alternative. If anyone can suggest a 3rd Party ink they've tried and tested I'd be keen to hear about it.

Thanks
Craig

[jens]

witch paper do you use ? HP paper or 3rd party ones ?

[Fingers]

The problem happened initially on a Pop Up media supplied by Papergraphics. The same problem then occured on a roller banner media, also supplied by Papergraphics.

However, the same two media, printed with HP No81 original inks do NOT have the problem. The problem was definitely the ink racting with the Microporous coating.