What is Sublimation?

Sublimation enables you to take an artwork, photo or sketch and permanently imprint it into anyone of our products.

Mugs, phone cases, bags, shirts, notebooks, keychains…the list is endless. Just print your design using a dye sublimation printer and special transfer paper, then use a heat press to complete the transfer. Easy!

But How Does Sublimation Work?

There is a lot going on behind the scenes that you don’t see. Sublimation is a chemical process that embeds dyes into polymer surfaces. Though this might sound limiting, but there are lots of ways that substrate manufacturers have come up with to embed polymers onto the surface of their products. Wood, ceramics, glass and metal are just a few examples of materials that can be made sublimatable by adding a polymer coating.

The Science Behind Sublimation

The scientific definition of sublimation is the process of transforming matter from a solid to a gas, without the matter ever becoming a liquid.  This means that the image is transferred from your printed paper to the object as described already and your image is locked into the polymer coating of your object.