What is sublimation?

Dye sublimation is the simplest and most effective technique for transferring high quality photos or images onto a wide variety of media. It is a printing technique that requires specific inks.

Using a sublimation printer, you can print your design on a transfer paper suitable for sublimation. Then, under the effect of the heat and pressure of a heat press, the ink gasifies and penetrates directly into the textile fibre. This process results in a product that is perfectly soft and even to the touch, with high quality definition. This means that the image then becomes an integral part of the textile without any extra thickness. Please note that this feature does not apply to Cotton Sublimation.

There are 2 types of sublimation: sublimation on polyester and sublimation on cotton. This article will only deal with polyester sublimation. To learn more about cotton sublimation, please consult our article by following this link.

Polyester Sublimation

Polyester sublimation is more versatile than its cotton counterpart. In fact, with polyester sublimation, you can make markings on textiles and objects. The particularity is that the textiles must be composed of at least 60% polyester and the objects must have a specific polyester coating.

Discover all our sublimable products right here.

Moreover, in sublimation you only work on white or very light textiles (pale pink, pale blue, ecru, etc.). However, there are alternatives to make markings on dark textiles with a polyester sublimation printer. To find out more, go to our article Sublimating Dark Textiles, it's possible.

What are the advantages of Polyester Sublimation?

- It is the simplest technique on the market
-
It is ideal for starting out in customisation as it does not require much budget/investment

- It is suitable for both individuals and professionals
- It is versatile because you can personalise both textiles and objects
- It provides perfect colour reproduction in terms of brightness and luminosity (provided that the temperature and pressing time are respected)
- It allows high definition images to be reproduced
- Exceptional machine resistance: 50 to 60 washes at 30°C

What are the steps in Polyester Sublimation?

  1. Print your visual on sublimation paper (Truepix) with polyester sublimation inks (Sublijet) 
  2. Cut out the visual with scissors
  3. Press your substrate according to the pressing conditions indicated on the product sheet or in our Sublimation Pressing Conditions sheet
  4. Perform hot peeling

Which products can be personalised?

One of the advantages of polyester sublimation is its versatility. You therefore have a wide choice of customisable materials at your disposal:

- Polyester textiles: T-shirts, caps, tote bags, bags...
- Metal / Aluminium: water bottles, phone cases , key rings...
- Ceramic: mugs, piggy banks, tiles
- Wood: coasters, photo frames, boxes...
- Lumenglass: photo blocks
- ...

      

Please note that each material has its own specificities. Thus, the pressing conditions may vary from one material to another. For more information, please consult our Dye-sublimation Pressing Conditions sheet.

What equipment is needed for Polyester Sublimation?

- A printer adapted to sublimation:Sawgrass SG500 (A4) orSawgrass SG1000 (A3)
- A set of 4 Sublijet ink cartridges
- Polyester sublimation paper such as Truepix
- A heat presssuch as the 38 x 38 cm Side Opening Press
- Polyester supports
- Accessories: high temperature tape, high temperature protection gloves, teflon sheet, ...

And since a video is worth more than 1,000 words...

Need more information on sublimation? We offer free online training (webinars) on this topic:

- La Sublimation
- La Sublimation : Maintenance et Astuces
- Le Logiciel Creative Studio
- Le Logiciel SPM

Find all the dates and register by clicking on this link.

Discover all our video tutorials on our Youtube channel.

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See you soon,

The Team Créadhésif