Want to colorize your blank, gloomy-looking tile? Or decorate it stylish to gift yourself or your loved ones or perhaps make it so that your showoff neighbor starts to envy you. The sublimation technique is very simple and always beautifying the house, building, or studio that one lives in.
It’s made even easier for you with the guidelines and all materials requirements that we’ve provided you so that you can beautify your tile within a few hours.
All materials you need:
These are the following required tools that you will need for this process.
1. Sublimation Printer
Sublimation printer has over time increased its popularity, as it is more cost-effective, capable, prompt, and easier to use than the old method of transferring a design onto the material. Ionizing the solid molecules of ink can prove to generate high-quality personalization to the product. Sawgrass and Epson are ranking in this zone.
2. Sublimation Inks and Papers
The next step is to choose the best sublimation ink applauded for its performance in the dye-sublimation series. Again, Sawgrass and Epson make their appearance for allowing quality ink for sublimation process on the tile, at great heat to display the image on paper without cracks. With that said, both sublimation inks and papers can be as thick as thieves. The greater the ink used, the heavier the paper should be.
3. Tile Blanks
Tiles come in all shapes, rounds, and sizes. You must select your tile from a variety of tiles, based on the picture you have in mind that best goes with the lucky chosen tile in your hand.
4. Heat Press Machine
The result of your dream picture is finally imprinted onto the tile with the help of heat and pressure generated by the heat press machine. Two famous heat press machines are widely available which run manually and automatically.
Sublimation on the tile printing process:
A round of applause to the people for collecting all of the materials needed for tile printing. But, here comes the big exam question, “How do you sublimate on the tile?” Or it can come in many ways, say, “How does the printing process work?” Try asking your fellow mate, I’m 100% sure he’s dumbfounded, wh… What? Printing? Where?
Well here’s a cheat sheet for the printing process of sublimation on the tile.
- A design is to be printed on the special sublimation paper under the printer.
- Temperature set to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Timer stopwatch set up to 6-7 minutes depending on the size of tile. Of course, larger tile will demand more minutes.
- The ink is used to sublimate the solid molecules into gas directly, by applying the heat.
- By using the heat press machine, the design will be imprinted on your tile.
- Press with a light pressure to make sure no cracks pop up.
- With the applied pressure, the ink cools and returns to the solid phase.
- It attaches itself to the tile with strong adhesive strength. And now you’re ready for the moonwalk.
Best 5 Places To Buy Ceramic Tile Blanks :
1. Amazon:
Why amazon? Well, of course, it’s the star platform for affiliate marketing of products and the main reason is you can buy the best of the best tiles here. In my first search for blank tiles, comes a ‘heart’ shape tile. How lovely, can it be to surprise your sulking partner with an imprinted love tile to be attached in your house?
2. Etsy:
Is Etsy also in the long run for selling cost-effective, best tile blanks? Click on that search engine and type whatever size, shape, or form of tile you want, Etsy will bring it up to you.
3. HeatPressNation:
A lot of good customer reviews come along with good customer service. Heatpressnation is exactly where you want to look for convenient blank tiles to be shipped in a convenient way to your address. Without creating much of a hassle, you’ll receive packaged, and protected blank tile before the due date.
4. Bestsub:
Bestsub delivers a variety of ceramic tile blanks, having flexible sizes and shapes with no cracks. Their tiles present the picture-perfect design for a family and are greatly subscribed by small house owners, souvenir shops and sent as gifts to loved ones.
5. Sublimet:
Sublimet meets a variety of sublimation tiles in their extensive inventory. You’re lucky to try looking for your dream tile here because you’ll come across many different shaped tiles that meet your perspective design.
Tips:
- Follow the guideline, and make sure to have a complete list of materials required.
- Prepare yourself well, before going through the instructions.
- Use a good dye along with the special sublimation paper, that can help your design last longer.
- Always use sublimation paper and not the regular one.
- Always check the humidity level.
- Safety is your priority.
- Make sure pressure is light so that cracks won’t occur.
- Check the heat applied.
- Measure the stopwatch or timer, reducing human reaction error.
- Adjust your tile accordingly to where you want the print to be.
- Provide the best customer service by knowing the goals and demands of your customers and have a variety of tiles in your catalog to imprint the design.
FAQs:
Yes, it is possible if the glass is tempered first. For better imprinting, make sure ink is stopped from blooming
Tempered glass has a great tensile strength which promotes its safety from not breaking or cracking up due to immense pressure applied. Tempered glass is best-made use for the sublimation process of printing designs.
It’s better to use high-quality sublimation paper. Make sure to keep your imprinted tile in a darkroom in a cooler temperate.
Sublimation applies to only 100% polyester film. Yes, laminated tile can be sublimated because it is 100% polyester.
In the lamination two-step process, First heat press the lamination film on tile and later press this sublimated print, leaving minute lamination on the edges to allow shrinking and giving time to cool the laminate. Pressing the hot laminate will produce bubbling and affect the printing process.
The humidity level of the substrate or the sublimation paper should always be checked during sublimation. Otherwise, problems like inaccurate coloring or color bleeding might occur.
Conclusion
The Sublimation printing technology is on its rise in the modern world, coming up with high-quality, picture-perfect lifestyle designs on tiles that showcase your hobbies or your interests. If you follow through with our guidelines, make the best use of this technology, and prepare a presentation for the next birthday person in your calendar, and wish him a good tile imprinting his interests.
