M6
Sublimation
Dye turned to gas under heat and bonded into the polyester itself. Nothing sits on the surface, so there is no hand feel and no cracking edge, but it only works on light polyester.
- Minimum order
- 12 pieces
- Colour ceiling
- Full colour
- Maximum size
- 16 x 20 in
- Laundering
- Highest
Macro detail. The printed shape is an original abstract mark, not a customer design.
What it costs
- Per piece, one position, one colour
- $8.60
- Setup
- $20.00
Setup is charged one-off colour profiling per design. It is a one-off, so a repeat run of the same artwork does not pay it again within twelve months. All prices in United States Dollars, before the quantity band discount.
Laundering test
No measurable colour change through 50 home laundry cycles at 40°C in accordance with AATCC 61 2A accelerated laundering. The dye becomes part of the fibre rather than sitting on it.
This describes an accelerated laboratory procedure on a test sample. It is a measured result under stated conditions, not a guarantee about a particular garment. Wash temperature, drying method, detergent and how often the garment is worn all change the outcome.
On press
- Production window
- 7 business days
- Runs on
- 5 of 38 blanks
Production starts after your artwork is approved by a reviewer, which adds one business day, and after pre-press, which adds two. Runs of 100 and above add two more days; runs of 250 and above add four.
What this method cannot do
- Polyester only, and light colours only. The dye is transparent, so it cannot cover a dark or coloured ground.
- On our catalogue that means White, Silver and Gold polyester bodies. Everything else is blocked.
- Twelve pieces minimum.
- Seams and underarm areas take dye unevenly. Full-panel artwork will show variation at the seams.
- Cotton, blends, woven, canvas, acrylic and bonded softshell are all unavailable.
What it is the right answer for
- Full-panel artwork edge to edge on a light polyester body
- Kit that gets washed constantly
- Designs where a hand feel of zero matters
Colour on any method is an approximation. Screens emit light and ink reflects it, so a colour on your monitor and the same colour on a garment will not match exactly. We can work to a nominated reference colour and we will get close, but we do not promise a visual match. How we handle colour
Fabrics this method runs on
| Fabric class | Blanks | Availability | Rule |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cotton knit | 11 | Not available | Sublimation dye bonds to polyester at a molecular level. Cotton has no polyester in it, so the dye washes straight back out. |
| Cotton-rich blend knit | 9 | Not available | Only the polyester fraction would take dye. On an 80/20 body that is one fifth of the surface, so the image comes out pale and patchy. |
| Tri-blend knit | 1 | Not available | Half the fibre is polyester and half is not. The result is a washed-out image at roughly half strength, which we will not ship. |
| Polyester knit | 5 | With a caveat | Sublimation dye is transparent, so it cannot cover a coloured ground. Available on light colourways only. Seams and underarms take dye unevenly on full-panel artwork. Colourways: White, Silver, Gold only. |
| Woven shirting | 3 | Not available | Cotton and cotton-rich woven shirting has too little polyester for the dye to bond to. |
| Cotton canvas | 3 | Not available | Cotton canvas has no polyester content. The dye will not bond. |
| Structured cap twill | 4 | Not available | Cotton twill will not take the dye, and a curved crown cannot be pressed evenly at sublimation temperature. |
| Acrylic rib knit | 1 | Not available | Acrylic is not polyester and would melt at the 200°C the process requires. |
| Bonded softshell | 1 | Not available | Sublimation runs at around 200°C. The bonded membrane inside a softshell separates well below that temperature. |
Blanks you can run Sublimation on
5 of 38 styles in the catalogue.
