Dye sublimation - starting a business in personalised products

Dye sublimation is the process of converting by heat, special ink from a printed transfer to a gas and back to a solid on the substrate required.

The process is affordable and allows for low volume, high (photo) quality images to be placed onto any surface with a high polyester content or coating.

Mugs, mousemats, t-shirts and keyrings are just some of the products that are available.

The equipment needed is compact and a small bench will often suffice for the basic setup which includes an Epson inkjet printer with dye sublimation inks and a heat press.

There are several types of heatpress, but the best by far, is the swing press which allows more control over the placing of the transfer onto the product. Some flatbed presses also have attachments to allow you to produce none flat items such as baseball caps and plates.

In addition, there are special presses just for producing mugs etc - these have a wrap around heating element.

There are a few websites that give information on setting up and these include forums where members can exchange hints and tips - one such forum is Dye Sub Forum UK

There is also a good quality tutorial dvd available from Dye Sub tutorial DVD which is available in PAL format for UK and Europe. The site also gives some basic background about using dye sublimation to produce personalised products.

Also available in Australia and New Zealand in PAL via http://www.au.how2imprint.com

And also available in the NTSC format for the Americas from Dye Sub tutorial DVD