new to sublimation need advice on right equipment

[aaronJREgraphics]

Hey everyone i run a large format printing company in kansas city ks. We recently have had a lot of orders coming in that need to be photo quality heat transfer I did some research and think that sublimation heat transfer printing is my best option. The prints need to go onto materials such as canvas and boxing gloves. If anyone has any suggestions as to equipment and processes to get this done i would greatly appreciate it, again i am totally green to sublimation so any advice is good advice!! thanks

 

[NSchlee]

Sublimation may not be your best choice for those specific materials. Items that are sublimated must have a high polyester content or coated with polyester for the ink to "Sublimate". Check with Sawgrass to see if they can offer a solution for you.

Neal

 

[WildWestDesigns]

Hey everyone i run a large format printing company in kansas city ks. We recently have had a lot of orders coming in that need to be photo quality heat transfer I did some research and think that sublimation heat transfer printing is my best option. The prints need to go onto materials such as canvas and boxing gloves. If anyone has any suggestions as to equipment and processes to get this done i would greatly appreciate it, again i am totally green to sublimation so any advice is good advice!! thanks

Canvas is usually cotton based (at least the type of canvas I deal with) and that wouldn't work with sublimation. Boxing gloves, I don't know the fabric type on that, never had a need to deal with the bittersweet science at all. Typically though, I do see dark red and/or black gloves, so that also would make it more difficult to work with unless there is a white (or light color) patch to sublimate.

Items that are sublimated must have a high polyester content or coated with polyester for the ink to "Sublimate".

Actually it has to be 100% synthetic material, polyester is just the most well known, and it has to be light colored.

 

[aaronJREgraphics]

Thanks for the replies guys, The canvas is a thick cotton based canvas and its what the use for the floor of there fighting rings so it has to be durable what they have used in the past was some type of heat transfer...we are just trying to research other avenues because we have never had great luck with heat transfer material threw our eco solv machines.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

Thanks for the replies guys, The canvas is a thick cotton based canvas and its what the use for the floor of there fighting rings so it has to be durable

Sublimation would be more durable compared to other heat transfers, it just won't bond with the cotton fibers well enough to be durable as it could be. Has to be synthetic. People have tried sublimation on 50/50 shirts and they look good until they go through the wash that first time, then not so much.

 

[aaronJREgraphics]

i will post a few pics when i get a second of the gloves we have that have already been done and may b you guys can point me into the right direction I also have a decal that the company who did the gloves makes but they are out to europe somewhere and i cant reach them. It looks like some type of heat transfer with a transfer paper over the image and an almost silver metallic backer behind the image, Ill get pics up when i can thanks for the help guys

 

[Masseria]

i will post a few pics when i get a second of the gloves we have that have already been done and may b you guys can point me into the right direction I also have a decal that the company who did the gloves makes but they are out to europe somewhere and i cant reach them. It looks like some type of heat transfer with a transfer paper over the image and an almost silver metallic backer behind the image, Ill get pics up when i can thanks for the help guys

sounds like a transfer.. Sublimation is different...

 

[WildWestDesigns]

sounds like a transfer.. Sublimation is different...

Sublimation is a transfer process. It's different from the process that the OP is talking about though.

 

[Masseria]

I know that sublimation is transfer proccess but "Transfer" only, for textile ussually means:

Stamp on a paper with Plastisol Paint maybe and then you can add some adhesive to it to sticky to the garment...

 

[WildWestDesigns]

I know that sublimation is transfer proccess but "Transfer" only, for textile ussually means:

Stamp on a paper with Plastisol Paint maybe and then you can add some adhesive to it to sticky to the garment...

Never heard of it being defined that way. That sounds like a specific type of transfer process, but I've never heard of just plain "transfer" being defined as such.

But then again, I could have been hearing it wrong all these years, who knows. I know there are embroiderers (and vendors) get terminology wrong and have done so for so long that it's now accepted even though it irritates me to no end. But I guess it's all in what you were first exposed to.

 

[Masseria]

we do embrodery too...

I dont know the english term... but we use screen printing machines to do transfer like... MyR Company, Shenk,etc... thats a transfer... screen print..

anyway we are not competition.... we are in buenos aires, you are safe....for now....

 

[WildWestDesigns]

we do embrodery too...

I dont know the english term... but we use screen printing machines to do transfer like... MyR Company, Shenk,etc... thats a transfer... screen print..

I'm beginning to see were it all went wrong.

anyway we are not competition.... we are in buenos aires, you are safe....for now....

I have competition all over. Ironically, I'm getting emails from those people as well. Internet makes the world a very small place.

 

[Masseria]

Have a nice day.