Impressions - August 2016 - 58

sublimation. Full-color graphics, text and
photos can be combined to create stunning visual messages for businesses, events,
public areas, etc. Coated metal is a popular
substrate for signage and is available in a
wide range of precut sizes. In addition,
coated metal panels can be custom cut
in a variety of sizes, as needed.Tabletops,
typically manufactured for use in coffee
shops and small-scale eateries, are another
unique substrate available for signage.
Beyond signage, wide-format sublimation can be found on architectural panels
that are integrated into the design of a
building. In other cases, it can be used to
reproduce fine art or professional photography for wall-mounted panels.
Also, wide-format sublimation also is
popular with finished garments, with the
most common application being allover
sublimation.When applied to apparel, this
process provides a huge revenue opportunity, as it creates unique products with
a higher perceived value. However, the
production costs are quite low.
Also, fabric color is never a concern
because you simply start with a white
garment and then recolor it via the
application of the image.This means virtually any shirt color can be created and
successfully printed. Essentially, you are
printing white without white ink. And
since sublimation will not crack, peel
or fade when laundered, it will outlast
the garment.
The garment must be made of polyester fabric, but with the huge popularity
of poly-performance garments, there
are plenty of apparel options available
for sublimation.
Other large-area finished products
include, flags, banners, towels, quilts,
blankets, etc.
Bulk Production
A different direction for wide-format
sublimation is the production of bulk
goods, most of which involve fabric, but
not finished goods.These products usually
are delivered to cut-and-sew operations,
which turn them into fabric-based products. In the case of specialty operations,
the printed material is converted into a
finished product on site. Examples include
apparel, upholstery, tapestries, trade show
backdrops, overhead exhibition signs, pullup banners and table covers.
Traditional sublimation on finished
products requires a flat press, which must
be larger than the largest printed image.
With bulk fabric goods, a calendar press
typically is used. It consists of a series of
P.58

Wide-format sublimation
can be used to produce a
variety of finished products,
such as home décor; bulk
goods, such as fabric for
upholstery; or professional
photography for wallmounted panels.

heated rollers through which the paper
and fabric pass.This provides the necessary time, temperature and pressure on
a continuous-feed basis. Considering
that paper rolls can be hundreds of yards
long, a lot of fabric can be printed in a
single production run.
In addition to large individual pieces and
bulk-goods production,wide-format printing also is commonly used to produce large
volumes of smaller, individual substrates.
For example, if you had a 44-inch-wide
printer and needed to produce an order
for 100 6" x 6" sign panels, you could
use the copy-and-paste function of your
graphics software to maximize printing
so that each run produced multiple images - six images across by 17 rows long.
This is too long for most heat presses, so
some cutting would be necessary.
However, you could mate up sections
of the transfer - within reason - with

blank substrates in order to take advantage of a wide-format heat press's large
area. It also should be noted that roll-feed
printers measuring 24 inches or greater
have paper-cutting functions.
Inks & Cost
Wide-format printers usually are eightcolor systems, whereas desktop units
typically are four-color systems using
CMYK inks.With the former, the additional base colors increase the overall color
range that can be produced and enhance
the imaging in certain applications such
as Pro-Photo, where accurate facial skin
tones are crucial. Specialty inks that are
developed specifically for this application
can deliver top-quality photo images in
a high-definition format.
Other unique sublimation products
include fluorescent spot-color and

Cost MisConCeption
One misconception with sublimation concerns how ink cost impacts production cost. With sublimation
imaging costing less than $0.01 per square inch - regardless of the printer - ink cost hardly is relevant
in the grand scheme of things, as it usually only accounts for a small percentage of the overall production
costs (typically 2%-4%). In fact, in terms of ink consumption, the cost of sublimating a cell phone cover,
for example, is identical regardless of whether you use a desktop printer or wide-format unit. The real
difference is in labor and overhead, which translates into hourly operational costs.

i m p r e s s i o n s m a g . c o m AUGUST 2016

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Impressions - August 2016

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