The Gaseous Truth About Sublimation

The topics in this area should deal with sublimation. You may post about the papers, printers, inks and/or systems for sublimating textiles or other novelty items a screen printer might sell.

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The Gaseous Truth About Sublimation

Post by Catspit Productions »

Many people often confuse sublimation with standard digital self weeding heat transfer processes. But the truth is that sublimation is quite different in the way it works and the inks it uses. In reality the process uses dyes rather than inks and the image is sublimated as opposed to transferred. Well it is transferred but not the same way other heat transfer papers do it. Instead of the use of polymer adhesives we have a dye that is released into the receiving fabric in a gaseous form when heated. So the inkjet printer you would use for sublimation will have sublimation “inks” and can only be used for printing sublimation heat transfers.

The other draw back to sublimation is that it only works with polymer coated or synthetic fabrics like polyester. You can sublimate 50/50 poly cotton blends but it is known to produce a fuzzier image. Using 100% polyester white tee shirts is recommended for best results.

You can learn some more about sublimating tee shirts here:

http://catspitproductionsllc.com/screen ... icles.html

Do you have a sublimation printer? If so what kind? Did you convert you inkjet printer to sublimation yourself or did you buy a kit? What is your opinion of the final results of this process?
Jonathan Monaco
Catspit Productions, LLC
Learn how to screen print tee shirts!

http://catspitscreenprintsupply.com/
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