How does sublimation work on textile?

I am fascinated with how dye sublimation print processing embeds graphics onto fabric materials. And with that, I enjoy sharing my knowledge about it. It’s amazing how one discovers the notion of pressing dyes on a treated paper, transferring them onto a cloth substrate with heated rollers under high pressure, converting the dyes into gas and sealing them onto the polymeric structure of any polyester cloth item.

If it’s your first time to hear about sublimation pressing, or you heard and know about it and don’t know much, you might get a little confused with what I said in that last sentences of the above paragraph. Allow me to give you the details about the whole process.

Color Set
This print technology makes use of the color set CMYBK. However, instead of the usual cyan, magenta, yellow, and black combo, dye sub uses the cyan, magenta, yellow, and Overprint combo. This overprint tends to result to black in the process. I must admit that I don’t know how that exactly happens, but I know it ends up black and someone has that figured out since it works as it is.

  

Sublimation Paper Used
The dyes are imprinted onto a specified paper that is called the dye sublimation or heat transfer paper. At this level, it’s pretty much the same with digital printing, where graphics are pressed onto the paper.

Printing on Fabric
After printing on the special paper mentioned above, it’s time to embed the graphics onto the fabric. The cloth suitable for this kind of sublimate print method is anything that is made from polyester material. Fabrics that are polymer-based can work, but then the ideal material is the polyester. Cloth types include knit, sheer, satin, and a whole lot more.

Both the cloth and the paper are put into the pressure unit that has heated rollers at 400F. Flat units are also available. Moving on, they are fed in between the rollers at slow speed. In this process, the pressure and heat converts the dyes into colored gas (depending on what color is used), the polymers on the fabric opens up, and the dyes in gaseous state fills these pores. Once they cool down, the pores close back again with the embedded continuous tones of colors that appears like a photographic image as designed in the computer. The graphic is now embedded on the fabric permanently.

This print technology created a great advancement that did not exist before. And though this has been around for awhile, it has help bloom the display market with the new dye sub printing machines. It has become more and more popular as time goes by.
More info:
Website：www.skyimagepaper.com
Company Name: Fei Yue Paper Industrial Co.,LTD
E-mail: sales@feiyuepaper.com 
Tel: 86-025-83228884
Whatsapp: +86 18252072197

Address: Central Road 323, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China