Sublimation vs Digital Printing By Sukhvir Sabharwal

Sublimation Vs Digital Printing
By:-Sukhvir Sabharwal
Triburg ///
1 sukhvir.sabharwal.tit07@gmail.com

Sublimation Printing
 The sublimation name is applied because the dye transitions between
the solid and gas states without going through a liquid stage.
Many consumer and professional dye-sublimation printers are
designed and used for producing photographic prints.
 Sublimation printing process is that process which uses heat to
transfer dye on to medium materials such as a piece of special paper
and use heat to transfer the picture from the paper to the fabric
 The dye sublimation inks are a pigment suspended in a liquid solvent,
like water. The images are initially printed on coated heat-resistant
transfer paper as a reverse image of the final design, which is then
transferred onto polyester fabric in a heat press operating at a
temperature around 180 to 210 C (375 F). Under high temperature and
pressure, the dye turns into a gas and permeates the fabric and then
solidifies into its fibers.

Sublimation Sampling Process
 Sublimation sampling can be done on Digital
printing machine. But digital is not production
friendly due to more lead time and cost per meter
is high.
 We can do production using Roller printing
machine only for bigger run.

Sublimation Production Process
 Process-the required design is 1st printed on paper on a roller printing machine for bulk
production and then this paper along with the fabric sandwich together and passed thru
heated continues paper press to transfer the print from paper to fabric.
 Roller printing machine is a machine where copper rolls are used for printing and any
design with multiple color merging, ombray effect can be achieved for bulk production,
since the copper roll are very- very expensive so this printing machine is no longer used
in Indian textile industry but frequently used in china and Korea to achieve excellent print
result in heat transfer/sublimation print. Any print that digital printing machine produced
and rotary can’t do, can be achieved using roller printing machine thru sublimation
process.
 The combination of heat and pressure cause the sublimation ink to convert into a gas,
which is received simultaneously by the substrate’s opened polymers. (This is an over-
simplified explanation of the process, but it works for our purposes.) After the heat
application is completed (about a minute), the transfer paper is removed and discarded.
When the product cools down, the sublimation dye is encapsulated within the surface
(instead of on top). The result is a high-resolution, permanent coloration that won’t peel
or crack. And in the case of apparel, sublimation will not fade, even after multiple
washings.

Cost for production
 So for the print where we can’t achieve desired result on rotary
printing machine we have option of going for sublimation print
thru roller printing machine (true for only polyester fabric), but
because of the cost of the rolls, sampling is problem (cost of
one copper roll appx 50000 to 60000 rupees ),
 We take the route of printing of paper by digital printing machine
using low sublimation disperse dyes and transfer on to the fabric
using hot paper press for sampling only.
 Cost-sublimation/heat transfer in the bulk is cheaper than the
normal rotary print but the quantity per print should be more
than 20000 meter otherwise the cost of printing will be high
because of copper roll cost.

Advantage of sublimation
 Any image can be printed all over the fabric
 The result of heat transfer printing and digital printing using
low sublimation disperse dyes would be the same.
 Colors can be extraordinarily brilliant due to the bonding of the
dye to the transparent fibers of the synthetic fabric.
 Truly continuous tones can be achieved that are equivalent to
photographs, without the use special techniques such as half-
screen printing.

Disadvantage of sublimation
 Back side of fabric always be white as it only prints the surface of the
textile.
 Sampling cost is high.
 Cost and lead time will be high for smaller run.
 Not success for light weight qualities like chiffon, ggt.
 If we stretch the fabric 20% or more then you lose a whole stack of
color depth when the white shows through the fabric/knit ribs (dark
blue suddenly becomes light blue, black becomes grey).
 Sublimation heat transfer is suitable for polyester fabric only.
 The limitation of sublimation is that it only works on polymer-based
surfaces,

Digital Printing
Digital fabric printing is
relatively new technology
with tons of applications. It
is described as any ink
jet based method of
printing colorants onto
fabric.
Digital can print any
design on all kind of fabric,
like cotton, poly or silk etc.

Pre-Treatment for digital print
Before going to digital print all fabric
need to coated with chemicals and
prepared for digital printing.

Digital Printing Process
 During the printing process, the fabric is fed through
thr printer using feed roller and ink is applied to
surface of fabric in the form of thousand tiny
droplets.
 fabric is printed by digital printers with the design
prepared on computer using ink jet based method of
printing colorants onto fabric.
 The fabric is then passed through steam/heat
chamber to cure the ink.
 Then steamed fabric required washing and drying.
10
sukhvir.sabharwal.tit07@gmail.co
m

Cost for production
 So for the print where we can’t achieve desired result on rotary
printing machine we have option of going for sublimation print
thru roller printing machine (true for only polyester fabric), but
because of the cost of the roller sampling is problem (cost of
one copper roll appx 50000 to 60000 rupees ),
 We take the route of printing of paper by digital printing machine
using low sublimation disperse dyes and transfer on to the fabric
using hot paper press for sampling only.
 The result of heat transfer printing and digital printing using low
sublimation disperse dyes would be the same.
 Cost-sublimation/heat transfer in the bulk is cheaper than the
normal rotary print but the quantity per print should be more
than 20000 meter otherwise the cost of printing will be high
because of copper roll cost.11 sukhvir.sabharwal.tit07@gmail.com

Advantage of Digital Printing
 The image can be printed all over the entire item, with no
difficulty in printing all the way to the edges.
 Colors can be extraordinarily brilliant due to the bonding of the
dye to the transparent fibers of the synthetic fabric.
 It is time saving for sampling as compare to rotary process.
 Truly continuous tones can be achieved that are equivalent to
photographs, without the use special techniques such as half-
screen printing.
 Time saving for sampling only.

Sublimation Vs Digital
Sublimation Printing
 Paper image is transfer on the surface of
the polyester fabric.
 There is no need of fabric to be coated.
 Base fabric should be synthetic or 100%
polyester,
 Disperse dyes are used
 Sublimation will not fade, even after multiple
washings
 Sublimation dyes does not penetrate the
surface of fabric. So back side of fabric
always white.
 Production feasible and less costly for
bigger run.
Digital Printing
 The inks are printed directly to the coated
fabric.
 There is need of fabric to be coated .
 All fabric can used as base except polyester
or synthetic.
 Reactive dyes are used
 Digital print can get fade after multiple
washing.
 In this dyes penetrate the surface of base
fabric. Digital relying on molecular bonding,.
 It is not production feasible , Ideal for
sampling only.
sukhvir.sabharwal.tit07@gmail.com13


Thank You

Sublimation vs Digital Printing By Sukhvir Sabharwal

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