Anyone using dye sublimation?

[plexer]

Just wondering if anyone else has ventrued into the world of dye sublimation printing?

 

Our DT dept has just bought an Epson R265 with Dy Sub CIS setup and a mug oven to just produce dye subbed bugs at the moment.

 

Ben

[m25man]

Dye Sub used to be the only way to get a decent contone print for thermal transfer processes but as long ago as 8 yrs a m8 of mine ran a copyshop in Athens and adapted a Canon CLC 500 to use a specially adapted Ceramic based toner to that sort of stuff (Crazy Greek he's dead now thro smoking 100 fags a day!).

 

But as there are all sorts of low cost transfer papers to do this with using Ink Jets/Copiers/Photoprinters I would have thought you would need to do a lot of this to warrant buying a dedicated printer.

 

Don't get me wrong, the QMS and Xerox Dye Subs I used to have to compete with in the Copier world, used to turn out pages that looked like magazine covers but they were just beaten by cheaper alternatives all the time.

 

http://www.proworldinc.com/transfer_papers.aspx

This was my first google!

[plexer]

We're making mugs not t-shirts allthough the tech lends itself to that as well with a flat press of course.

 

I just wondered if anyone else was doing this.

 

I think the dye sub process will give a much better finish on items than those iron on jobbies.

 

Ben

[kingswood]

Our design department started using this process before the summer. I haven't had a chance to look at what they are doing with it, but I seem to remember them saying something about mugs and t-shirts. Could find out for you if you like?

 

Paul

[bossman]

We looked at it but it seemed a very expensive way of trying to personalise items which the kids produce. This is not very cost effective when there are firms out there who can produce a better product for less cost and hassle.

[plexer]

I think it works out to be approx £1.33 per mug plus labour to do the pressing, we have a mug oven which will do 4 mugs at a time.

 

This will produce just as good results as anyone else using a dye sub setup.

 

Edugeek mugs anyone?

[K.C.Leblanc]

I think it works out to be approx £1.33 per mug plus labour to do the pressing, we have a mug oven which will do 4 mugs at a time.

 

This will produce just as good results as anyone else using a dye sub setup.

 

Edugeek mugs anyone?

 

Sounds good, can they be personalised with our names?

[PEO]

having problems with ours at the moment. the special paper is well expensive.

[plexer]

If I can sort out the details of paying for the materials etc... and can arrange the time to do it then yes I could do edugeek mugs with names on.

 

I would have to charge for the materials, packing, postage and then a small amount to include a donation to edugeek.

 

After spending time experimenting yesterday after 4 mugs the 5th one worked and came out awesome.

 

MrHappy: £14 for 100 sheets, 2 mugs from each sheet it isn't that expensive really.

 

The inks are £50 for 125ml

 

The printer uses 6 colours.

 

Ben

[contink]

Talked to my friendly ink and CIS parts supplier in Holland about this stuff and got a few useful facts for anyone interested in some tech knowledge.

 

The ink has to be "printed" using a cold process (eg: Piezo electric) because the actual bonding/activation phase uses heat. As a result forget about using anything other than an Epson inkjet for the actual printing process.

 

Dye Sublimation is also patented by a company who guard their IP zealously with hefty legal bills for anyone who ever tried. Net result you can only produce it under license and it costs a fortune for the ink.

 

Beyond that ebay is a good place to find dyesub tools and machines if you want to go with printing mugs, t-shirts, etc... but it does cost a ruddy ton...

[m25man]

The ink has to be "printed" using a cold process (eg: Piezo electric) because the actual bonding/activation phase uses heat. As a result forget about using anything other than an Epson inkjet for the actual printing process.

 

Most of the processes I have seen simply require you to print (in reverse or mirror) onto the heat sensitive tranfer material.

 

This is taped to the mug using heat resistant tape, then clamped to the mug using a special clamp. The "Ink" is trapped between the Mug and the transfer material and becomes baked into the transfer material.

It can be reglazed if required to make a quality job of it.

 

The Dye Sub printing process purely gives a "better" image than most other output devices.

 

Watch the video:- http://www.themagictouch.co.uk/video/mugs.htm

[contink]

The ink has to be "printed" using a cold process (eg: Piezo electric) because the actual bonding/activation phase uses heat. As a result forget about using anything other than an Epson inkjet for the actual printing process.

 

Most of the processes I have seen simply require you to print (in reverse or mirror) onto the heat sensitive tranfer material.

Should have been more specific...

 

If you use a bubblejet printer like Canon or HP inkjets you will get a clogged printhead in short order because the jet process involved boiling the ink.. This is what I mean't about the printer needing to use a cold process to jet the ink.

[plexer]

Epsons are the printers to use due to their pieze heads and the cis systems available for dye sub are for epsons.

 

Ours is a R265.

 

The paper is just a transfer medium it is the ink that is the magic part of the process.

 

Dye sublimation blanks are coated, this coating when heated to 220c opens up the pores in the coating, at this temperature the ink turns from a solid to a gas with no liquid stage in between, as the blank cools the pores close again and the image is now part of the surface of the item.

 

We had 7 or 8 families in on saturday and spent half a day with them taking some pictures and showing them how to play with them in photoshop before we put them on mugs.

 

Sawgrass are the patent holders and as I said £50 for 125ml of ink.

 

Ben