Sublimation Heat Presses for Hard Substrates – Flatbed Heat Presses
Sublimation transfer printing technology can be applied to all aspects of life.Especially
Sublimation market is growing. Dye sublimation printing is more and more used as it
offers multiple advantages compared to its counterpart like traditional printing
( screen-printing). Indeed, dye sublimation printing allows to be more reactive by
adjusting to the new trends, to produce in small series, to personalize and to decrease
stocks. Today I will introduce Sublimation Heat Presses on Hard Materials.
Hard Substrates
Start sublimation printing is the following: A sublimation printer, sublimation inks, heat press,
sublimation paper, and a polyester substrate or polyester coated substrate. These can all be
purchased in SUBLISTAR to make it simpler for new users.
By heat presses on hard substrates can be used such as: snowboars, mugs and any hard
materials with coated can be heat presses.
For choosing which kind of heat presses will be suirable for trasfer hard substrates, you must
understand all kinds of sublimation heat press machine.There are two main types of heat press
for dye sublimation printing – flatbed or rotary (calender), plus a third option; a rotary press
with a flat automated feed table at the front (sometimes referred to as a ‘Sport’ press, as it is
popular for printing sportswear panels/pieces).
If you’re mainly printing onto made-up apparel, small areas of substrate, or you are likely to also
want to print onto hard substrates, then a flatbed is the way to go. However, if your sublimation
printing operation is geared more towards high volume printing of textiles, sports- and
fashionwear, or you wish to print long lengths of substrate (for example, banners and flags) then
you’ll want to consider a rotary press. These ‘tend’ to be more expensive than flatbeds,
depending on the individual press’s size and spec, but they also offer much faster production
speeds.
Flatbeds with twin tables are generally regarded as a good investment. While an item is being
pressed and sublimated on the first table, the operator can be positioning the next item to be
printed on the second table. This avoids delays between each cycle and ensures that the press
runs continuously, maximising production. If your budget is limited or you have relatively low
volume production, then a single table press is an affordable, albeit significantly less productive
, alternative. Flatbeds are available with tables in a wide range of sizes (up to several metres
square). So, flatbed sublimation heat press machine is better for hard substrates.