Sublimation ink is a coloring liquid intended for the printing process of the same name. With their help, you can transfer images to various materials: glass, ceramics, stone, metal, textiles.
What is the difference between such inks from all others (pigment and water)? First of all, by the fact that they dry out much faster. They are perfectly fixed on the material used for printing, creating a bright pigment layer on the surface. Due to this, they are more convenient to use, save time, significantly accelerating print speed. With them, you can increase the volume of circulations without increasing the cost of output products.
Sublimation ink is fixed on the surface of the material and also penetrates into the fibers, so the image is sharper and brighter than when printing with other inks. Moreover, it has a very high abrasion resistance and is not afraid of getting wet and even washing (when printing on fabric). These inks allow for optimal color reproduction. Such an effect is difficult to obtain using other technologies.
Sublimation ink is available in a fairly wide range of colors. Their quality helps to avoid clogging of the print head of the printer. They are the cleanest from an environmental point of view.
The application technology is as follows. The image is printed on an inkjet printer. Then it is transferred to other media and baked in a thermal press. For direct printing onto fabrics, additional infrared drying or calendaring is required.
When heated to about 200 degrees, sublimation ink from a liquid state passes into a gaseous state, easily penetrates into the fibers of the material, being fixed in them and forming strong chemical bonds.
Such inks stain even the deeper layers of the material, which gives them amazing resistance to sunlight, mechanical stress and abrasion. They have a finely divided structure. Their dyes cannot be dissolved in water.
To work with them, you need a printer for photographs (inkjet),
transfer paper, thermal press and the material on which you plan to transfer (fabric, plates, etc.). You can use plain paper (matte for offset printing), but this will reduce the quality of prints.
Ink for printing is applied first to the intermediate medium. It is a special paper. Then from it (using a thermal press) the picture is transferred to the final material and held for 30-60 seconds. In the printing process, 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 disadvantage of ink is that they can be used to apply to a rather limited color range of materials (they must be white or light). Such paint has a weak but unpleasant odor, so the room in which work is going on must be constantly ventilated.