THE GIFT FACTORY DYE SUBLIMATION PRINTING

Sublimation printing has been used by commercial garment decorators and promotional product manufacturers for many years – from football shirts to mugs and from cushions to coasters everyone encounters sublimation printed articles on a regular basis within their daily life. However the process only works with very specific products – polyester (or high poly content mixes) fabrics, certain acrylics and a range of specially polyester coated products – most frequently glass, ceramics, aluminium, FRP, MDF and hardboard.

The process itself is intriguing – sublimation ink is applied to a specially coated transfer paper using a modified inkjet printer with special colour balancing software – the transfer is then applied firmly to the imprintable item and heat applied (either via a heat press or for some items in an oven) – the ink turns directly from a solid to a gas and this gas is absorbed by the polyester to give a permanent “photo quality” image which is washable (in the case of ceramics dishwasher-safe and microwaveable) and unlike many other decoration methods resistant to heat, waterproof and scratch resistant.

The process is also very economical – using Sawgrass Sublijet HD inks and TruePix paper the typical cost per A4 print is (excluding VAT) around 30 pence – and that will decorate 2 mugs, 4 coasters or 20 keyrings.

All Sawgrass VersiFlex printers come with a 36 month guarantee.