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Clothing and Fabrics

Dye sublimation has a lot to offer, but it does have a couple of limitations. It doesn't work on 100% cotton material, and it will only work with white or light colored fabrics. The dye sublimation process works with polyester. 100% polyester will give you the brightest, clearest, most photo-like colors. One way to work with this is to use the Hanes Soft L'ink shirts. These are made with a 100% polyester outer layer and a 100% cotton inner layer -- as a result they work very well with dye sublimation and still feel like cotton.

You can also produce quite striking results by sublimating images on to other polyester fabric items such as artist canvas, mousepads, tote bags, and car flags -- a process that delivers all of the color of a photograph plus the texture of the fabric.

Dye sublimation will also work with a shirt made of 50/50 cotton and polyester blend material -- but the color will not be as bright and as clear. It may look a little dull or washed out. Depending on your target market, this may still be good enough for the purpose at hand, but we would recommend testing your images on both kinds of material up front so that you can make a decision based on knowledge.

Metals: Coated Aluminum

There are a variety of metal plates available that have been prepared with a coating to make them suitable for dye sublimation. A variety of signs for both indoors and outdoors can be made in this way.

Ink Tech USA sublimated signs have a very high resistance to the UV light in sunlight. In actual outdoor testing metal signs have held up for over a year in full sunlight without fading.

This metal can be purchased in larger sheets or in a variety of smaller pre-cut sizes. The small pre-cut sizes are designed to be attached to a variety of back pieces to create high value, professional looking plaques.

Small cut pieces of coated metal are also key to dye sublimation applications in jewelry, such as the award medals and necklaces offered on this website.

FRP Plastics

A wide variety of plastic products for dye sublimation are available. These normally come in a variety of cut sizes, but they can also be purchased in sheets.

Keychains, luggage tags, and license plates are representative of this group.

These are ideal for the creation of personalized business promotional items and trade show items.

The license plates have been a profitable source of income for many Ink Tech USA customers in states where a front license plate is not required.

Ceramics and Porcelain

Increasingly, a wide variety of ceramic and porcelain products are being coated for dye sublimation. A number of new products have been added in this area.

Mugs and tiles have been around for a while, but now you can get also get coin banks, candy jars, and porcelain Christmas tree ornaments. In addition to square tiles in four different sizes, we now offer four kinds of oval tiles. The number of porcelain Christmas tree ornaments is up to seven.

One of the most exciting thing to come along in a while is the sublimatable glass mug. This is something that a lot of people have been asking for. We have also added three kinds of steins that all work with a standard sized mug press.

Another exciting new application involves cutting up a single image and sublimating it onto many individual tiles for a mosaic effect. 3x3 tile mosaics made up of 4x4 tiles are selling for $100 in California. The cost of materials is about $10, and all nine tiles can be heat pressed at the same time in a 15x15 heat press.

Dye sublimation works very well on these products, but keep in mind that the requirement for heat press time will increase for bulkier items such as the heavy tiles.

Everything Else

It seems as though the creative folks in this business are coming up with new applications all the time. In the last few months we have seen everything from jigsaw puzzles to jewelry boxes.

You can even get a trailer hitch cover that is personalized with sublimation.

It is an exciting time to be in the dye sublimation business.