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Can I Print T-Shirts Using Dye Sublimation Printing?

Can I Print T-Shirts Using Dye Sublimation Printing?

Query: For T-shirts, is it mandatory to make use of polyester T-shirts/cloth with dye sublimation printing?

Reply: There was a number of experimentation with numerous natural fibers and blended pure fibers (like the 50/50 cotton tee), and for essentially the most part, it's best, when utilizing true dye sublimation t-shirt printer sublimation printing on material, to make use of polyester fabrics.

Some have reported success with the 50/50 cotton tees, however most want to use available digital printers that have the correct inks for adhering to cotton, or screen-print inks that are additionally formulated for cotton or 50/50 t-shirts.

You will need to understand how dye sublimation printing works to be able to justify the above statements, though.

The sublimation printing process consists of a dye ink that is commonly notated as a CMYO ink (cyan-magenta-yellow-overprint) as opposed to normal inkjet printing ink which is the standard CMYK (cyan-magenta-yellow-black). The dye is printed to a paper, commonly known as sublimation switch paper or dye sublimation switch paper, then transferred via warmth and pressure to mugs, coasters, mouse pads, polyester materials which are utilized in clothes and advertising displays and banners, and lots of other items.

Because of the chemistry involved with these dyes, with warmth and pressure remodeling the dye to a fuel, it truly turns into a part of the substrate which it is fused to. The warmth not solely transforms the dye to a gasoline, it also expands the pores of polyester or polymers (such because the polymeric coatings on varied substrates or supplies) and allows the gasoline to be drawn into the pores. As soon as the substrate cools once more, the pores close and permit the dye to develop into solid, completely embedded within the cloth or polymeric material. This dye is also fade resistant and more likely to final for a lot of, many years.

Because the pores of the substrate must hold the dye when the pores close, different materials or substrates won't hold the dye. Hence, should you had been to print a one hundred% cotton t-shirt using the dye sublimation printing process, the cotton wouldn't have the chemistry needed for the pores to shut solidly around the dye to be able to hold on to the material or substrate. Even objects like coffee mugs must be pre-handled with a polymeric coating or the dye sub print will not work. Observe that sublimation additionally doesn't work on dark substrates, and that white or a slightly off-white material will always work best.

There is a sort of warmth switch printing that may work well with cotton or pure fibers that will truly chemically cross-link the ink with cotton. This technique, which I can't name as a result of constraints with a few of the websites I post my articles on, provides cotton the soft feel of a dye sub print, vibrant colors and superior washability, related additionally to actual dye sublimation printing on polyester fabrics. The resulting print utilizing this process is essentially the most enticing printing on cotton t-shirts available available on the market today.

Compared to screen-printing inks which also can be used on cotton t-shirts, this heat switch dye does not sit on prime of the fibers like screen printed ink does, and is very helpful the place a photograph or full color image is desired. And, not like screen printed inks, warmth sublimation printing on cotton tees leaves a breathable material, not plugged up with ink particles which are glued to the cotton fiber. And the fiber stays soft as well.

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