Dye Sublimation – A Brief Guide about the Process

The sublimation printing process involves printing of dye on a paper, known commonly as dye sublimation transfer paper or sublimation transfer paper. It is then transferred to polyester fabrics, mouse pads, coasters and mugs through the use of pressure and heat. These are used in advertising banners, displays, clothing and lots of other things. You can even get dye sublimated swimwear.


custom sublimated swimwear

Basics of Dye sublimation

A two-step process, dye sublimation requires the use of additional equipment. It also needs electrostatic printer, a special kind of paper for the purpose of heating at a heat press. This is also referred to as sublimation transfer printing. Dyes or inks are printed onto paper from a silkscreen process. These can also be printed from printers which are attached with sublimation inks with ribbons. The images are then transmitted from papers to fabrics.

Use of Reactive and Acids
These days, most fabric manufacturers or printers make use of reactive & acids in a wide variety of colors, pigments, finishing inks and dispersed inks. Kimberly Clark, ECS, Brookline, Lyson, CHT, Dystar ( BASF), DuPont, Ciba Specialty Chemicals and various other ink specialists have developed pigment, disperse, acids and reactive among other digital types of conventional dyes. These types of inks allow printers to prepare prints on particular fabric types.

Advantages of Dye sublimation
Dye sub printing proves to be highly advantageous in the sense that the colors can be more vibrant due to the use of continuous tones which make sublimation printing look more photographic. You may also print these images all the way to the fabric edges. With dye sublimation, you can make dye sublimated swimwear with vibrant images that do not fade or peel.