What Is Sublimation Printing?

Every substance goes through the three natural states of matter i. e. solid, liquid & gaseous. To understand the phenomenon of sublimation, consider an ice cube. Before it was ice (solid form) it was just simple liquid form. At freezing temperature it becomes ice & reverse process is not visible. The sublimation process is a unique process in which a substance changes from solid state to gaseous state directly. It is the chemical process in which a solid phase is converted into gaseous form with application of predefined temperature & time.

A typical dye sublimation transfer printing process involves four unique constituents. Sublimation Ink, Sublimation Paper, Target Substrate & Transfer Machine. Image from computer is printed with Sublimation inks on Sublimation paper. The printed paper is kept in contact with the target substrate at constant pressure and temperature by the Transfer machine. This helps color vapors of sublimated dyes to be absorbed by the target substrate resulting into print of same image on the paper.

Sublimation ink is manufactured from disperse dyes which have ability to sublimate. Solid particles of dye are dispersed in liquid to enable the jetting of ink through micro nozzles of inkjet print-head. It is to be noted that only piezo-electric print-heads can be used to jet the sublimation inks on paper. Popular printers where dye sublimation ink can be used are Epson, Ricoh & Brother.

In sublimation process desktop 4 or 6 color printers models such as Epson L130, Epson L805 are popular amongst other models available.

Things You Should Know About Dye-Sublimation

The sublimation paper is also unique type of paper. On sublimation paper, there is a special layer or coating called as absorbing layer, which keeps the sublimation inks on the surface of the paper. There is a barrier coat on the paper which prevents the penetration of ink inside the paper. 

The role of sublimation paper is of a carrier. It only accepts image from printer and assists the transfer of image to the target substrate. So high release paper is important characteristic of sublimation paper. Once the paper is transferred it is of no use i.e. it is one time use only. Mostly sublimation paper are available from 70 to 130 GSM.

Sublimation process works only for typical substrates mainly on white polyesters. In application point of view, only polyester fabrics or the material with poly-coated is used & more specifically white in color. Polyester fabric respond very good in sublimation process as it loose its pores and the ink will deposited into the pores of fabrics on application of heat.

In small scale industrial application, different types of heat press machines are used. Broadly, flat type or all-in one heat press machines are used. In all-in-one machine you can print T-shirts, mug, keychains, cap etc.

Some of heat press machines are operated on temperature degree Celsius variant & some on Fahrenheit. Normally the temperature range is about 180 to 200 Deg.C for Deg.C operated machines and 360Deg.F for Fahrenheit machines and time will vary from 40 Sec to 120 Sec. Sublimation is new trend for and price of complete setup of sublimation is quiet affordable for small scale application.

The affecting cause of sublimation paper is humidity, which bends the paper due to variation in humidity. Similarly, ink also get affected due to poor storage environmental conditions. Hence the storage capability should be good.

There are some limitations in sublimation, such as it only response to polyesters or poly-coated material hence it limited to polyesters or poly-coated.

• Pure cotton fabrics generally does not respond to sublimation.
• To get more color enhanced, preferred fabrics would be in white color.