Why do I need sublimation ink

Sublimation ink is a coloring liquid intended for a printing process of the same name. With their help, you can transfer images to various materials: glass, ceramics, stone, metal, textiles.

What distinguishes such ink from all the others (pigment and water)? First of all, by the fact that they dry up much faster. They are perfectly fixed on the material, which is used for printing, creating a bright pigment layer on the surface. Due to this they are more convenient to use, save time, significantly speeding up the printing speed. With them, you can increase the volume of runs without increasing the cost of products at the output.

Sublimation ink is fixed on the surface of the material, and also penetrate into the fibers, so the image is more clear and bright than when printed with other colors. Moreover, it has a very high abrasion resistance and is not afraid of wetting and even washing (when printing on fabrics). These inks allow you to achieve optimal color reproduction. Such an effect is difficult to obtain with the help of other technologies.

Sublimation ink is produced in a fairly wide range of colors. Their quality helps to avoid clogging the print head of the printer. They are the cleanest from an ecological point of view.

The application technology is as follows. The image is printed on an inkjet printer. Then it is transferred to other carriers and baked in a thermo-press. When directly printed on fabric, additional IR drying or fixing in the calender is required.

When heated to about 200 degrees, sublimation ink from the liquid state passes into the gaseous state, easily penetrates into the fibers of the material, being fixed in them and forming strong chemical bonds.

Such ink stains even deep layers of material, which gives them amazing resistance to sunlight, mechanical influences and abrasion. They have a finely dispersed structure. Their dyes can not be dissolved in water.

To work with them you need a printer for photos (inkjet), transfer paper, thermo-press and the material to be transferred (cloth, plates, etc.). You can use plain paper (matte for offset printing), but this will reduce the quality of the prints.

The ink is first applied to the intermediate carrier. They are special paper. Then with it (with the help of a thermopress) the picture is transferred to the final material and aged for 30-60 seconds. In the process of printing, ink changes its state several times: from liquid to solid, then to gaseous, and again to solid. With their help, you can print not only on paper, but also on fabric (polyester), specially prepared mugs, puzzles, ceramic tiles, etc.

The main drawback of ink is that with their help it is possible to apply on a rather limited range of materials (they must be white or light). This paint has a weak but unpleasant smell, so the room in which the work is going on needs to be constantly ventilated.