Images Magazine Digital Edition October 2018

www.images-magazine.com 78 images OCTOBER 2018 TIPS & TECHNIQUES I t is, says Michael Overy, managing director of Dae Ha UK, a simple process to master yet one that produces stunning results that command a premium: sublimation printing onto speciality films. For fans of this printing technique (and those who haven‘t yet explored its possibilities), Dae Ha has applied a special coating to 12 Premium Metallic films and 18 of its 19 Premium Holographic films to allow them to be sublimation printed (Holographic Brown is the only one that can‘t currently be embellished in this way). “With the addition of just one simple process, customers can now add even greater value to their designs and garments to remain one step ahead of the competition,“ says Michael. There is more than one way to use these films in combination with sublimation printing, he explains. In the step-by-step shown on the page opposite, the design is plotter-cut on the holographic or metallic film, while the design is sublimated printed onto paper. The film is then placed on the garment, heat pressed, and then the sublimation paper is heat pressed directly onto the film. Job done. The TIE Fighter design shown here (from the Star Wars films) cost around 75p in film, paper and ink, reports Michael, and took less than five minutes to create. He used Forever Subli Deluxe paper from Forever Transfer Papers and a Ricoh GX7700 printer with Subli Jet R inks. The heat press was the Lotus LTS 138 Slide, the most popular in the range, Michael reports. This technique is ideal for when you want to print a specific design on the holographic film only, and can be used on both polyester and cotton garments. An alternative approach is to sublimation print onto the transfer and garment at the same time – this is recommended for use on polyester garments when you want the design to extend beyond the film. It can also be done on cotton garments; Become a print Jedi and take your vinyl decoration to a new dimension by sublimation printing on to Dae Ha‘s Premium Holographic and Premium Metallic films. The company’s MD Michael Overy shows you how although sublimation inks won‘t bond with the cotton fibres they can leave a ‘shadow‘ behind that may have to be washed out. (See the images on this page.) All colours work well when sublimation printing onto the films, explains Michael, with a higher resolution print naturally producing a better quality print. Decorators do need to be aware when calculating the pressing time. “The length of press time will alter the amount of ink transfer, which ultimately will affect how much of the holographic effect remains,“ he says. “In testing so far, even when pressing for 50 seconds, the effect remains very, very good, apart from the darkest of colours where it starts to lose the 3D effect. The metallic films will retain their metallic effect regardless.“ www.garmentfilms.co.uk May the film be with you In the image on the right, a holographic film transfer was applied to a white polyester garment. A design was then sublimation printed across both substrates, resulting in the main part of the Stormtrooper shimmering while the cape is reproduced directly on the fabric. In the image on the left, a cotton T-shirt was printed using exactly the same design, resulting in only the film being printed, as the sublimation print didn’t adhere to the cotton fibres. [Above] This TIE fighter design was dye sublimation printed on to Dae Ha’s Premium Holographic film