Steps
1.Make sure you have what you need.
The items needed are, the following: Sublimation printer(Epson or Inkjet) with sublimation inks installed, graphic art software like Adobe Illustrator or Coral Draw, sublimation paper, tumbler heat press or oven, pair of scissors or art knife and a ruler, shrink wraps or sleeve, heat tape and a few blank sublimation tumblers
2.Have a template.
The template we need dimensions of printing area. AI template is setup so you can print the graphics for two tumblers on the one page. We have left guidelines in place to show you where to position the logos so that they are positioned at approximately 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock if you are looking down on top of the tumbler with the handle in the 12 o’clock position. Please keep important text and graphics 2.5mm away from the edge of the magenta cut line or the guide-lines. This is so when you cut out your finished printed sheet that you don’t accidentally cut into your logo. Background graphics should extent 2.5mm past the cut-line
3.Once you have finished the template.
Open it in Illustrator and layout your logos or artwork in the position stated. If you only want 1 logo on each tumbler then position your logo to the right hand side. This means a right handed person will see your logo when they pick up your tumbler. It is actually on the wrong side at the moment by once we print in mirror image it will be on the correct side, which is on the left side of the page.
4.Once you are happy with the position of you logo / logos you are ready to print your artwork.
Generally for most good quality sublimation paper you don’t require a lot of ink to be laid down on the sublimation paper. If you are using an EPSON printer good setting to start with are Quality Option: Photo, Paper Type: PLAIN PAPERS, under the Page Layout Tab make sure the Mirror Image check-box is ticked. Click OK then the Print Button and then the Print button again in the Illustrator Print window.
5.Now that you have printed your page it should look something like this.
Don’t worry about the washed out look. All sublimation prints look like this. The magic happens once the image is heat pressed / printed onto the tumbler. This is when the ink turns to a gas state and is absorbed into the polyester coating on the surface of the sublimation tumbler.
6.Next step is to cut out your designs with your scissors or art knife and ruler.
Cut about 1mm inside of the magenta cut-line. don’t leave any of the magenta line on the paper of it will print on your tumbler.
7.Now we are ready to position our print onto our sublimation tumbler. For now we use straight tumblers which are easy to wrap and bond. But sometimes people want to do on tapered tumblers or tumblers.Tapered tumblers we need to do full wrap with shrink wrap so that we could make the paper tight with body.
8. Now adjust your pressure setting on your tumbler press so that when you clap your tumbler in the press it have medium to heavy pressure on it.
You can tell if you have enough pressure as the Teflon and silicone rubber backing of the tumbler press will bow around the top and bottom of the tumbler a bit. If the shape of tumblers are not regular straight, tapered tumblers we may use oven.
9.Now plug in your tumbler press and set the temperature for 400F / 204C and the timer for 180 seconds and let it preheat to the required temperature.
(please note this is the setting for TexPrint XP sublimation paper) other sublimation papers may require lower temperatures or longer or shorter heating times.Once the press reaches the set temperature slide you tumbler into position and clap the tumbler press shut. If you have one with a count down timer it should start automatically or you may have to press the enter button to start the timer. If oven, because it is average temperature through whole oven area, we could low down a little temperature at around 248F/120C.
10.Once the time is up release the pressure off the press and remove the tumbler by the handle followed by picking the edge of one the the bits of heat tape on one end of the paper with your fingernail then peeling the paper off the tumbler in one smooth movement.
(watch out its HOT!) This part is important as while the tumbler is still hot the image will still be releasing ink gas and if you do not remove it in a smooth motion you may end up with ghosting (double image), over spray or a slightly blurry image. This can also happen if you cook the tumbler for too long. you may have to experiment with heat and times to get the right setting for your press.
11.Now place you tumbler on a heat proof surface until it has cooled down enough to handle.
If you have done everything correctly then you should end up with something like this.
1. Make sure you have what you need. The items needed are, the following: Sublimation printer(Epson or Inkjet) with sublimation inks installed, graphic art software like Adobe Illustrator or Coral Draw, sublimation paper, tumbler heat press or oven, pair of scissors or art knife and a ruler, shrink wraps or sleeve, heat tape and a few blank sublimation tumblers
2. Have a template. The template we need dimensions of printing area. AI template is setup so you can print the graphics for two tumblers on the one page. We have left guidelines in place to show you where to position the logos so that they are positioned at approximately 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock if you are looking down on top of the tumbler with the handle in the 12 o’clock position. Please keep important text and graphics 2.5mm away from the edge of the magenta cut line or the guide-lines. This is so when you cut out your finished printed sheet that you don’t accidentally cut into your logo. Background graphics should extent 2.5mm past the cut-line
3. Once you have finished the template. Open it in Illustrator and layout your logos or artwork in the position stated. If you only want 1 logo on each tumbler then position your logo to the right hand side. This means a right handed person will see your logo when they pick up your tumbler. It is actually on the wrong side at the moment by once we print in mirror image it will be on the correct side, which is on the left side of the page.
4. Once you are happy with the position of you logo / logos you are ready to print your artwork. Generally for most good quality sublimation paper you don’t require a lot of ink to be laid down on the sublimation paper. If you are using an EPSON printer good setting to start with are Quality Option: Photo, Paper Type: PLAIN PAPERS, under the Page Layout Tab make sure the Mirror Image check-box is ticked. Click OK then the Print Button and then the Print button again in the Illustrator Print window.
5. Now that you have printed your page it should look something like this. Don’t worry about the washed out look. All sublimation prints look like this. The magic happens once the image is heat pressed / printed onto the tumbler. This is when the ink turns to a gas state and is absorbed into the polyester coating on the surface of the sublimation tumbler.
6. Next step is to cut out your designs with your scissors or art knife and ruler. Cut about 1mm inside of the magenta cut-line. don’t leave any of the magenta line on the paper of it will print on your tumbler.
7. Now we are ready to position our print onto our sublimation tumbler. For now we use straight tumblers which are easy to wrap and bond. But sometimes people want to do on tapered tumblers or tumblers.Tapered tumblers we need to do full wrap with shrink wrap so that we could make the paper tight with body.
8. Now adjust your pressure setting on your tumbler press so that when you clap your tumbler in the press it have medium to heavy pressure on it. You can tell if you have enough pressure as the Teflon and silicone rubber backing of the tumbler press will bow around the top and bottom of the tumbler a bit. If the shape of tumblers are not regular straight, tapered tumblers we may use oven.
8. Now plug in your tumbler press and set the temperature for 400F / 204C and the timer for 180 seconds and let it preheat to the required temperature. (please note this is the setting for TexPrint XP sublimation paper) other sublimation papers may require lower temperatures or longer or shorter heating times.Once the press reaches the set temperature slide you tumbler into position and clap the tumbler press shut. If you have one with a count down timer it should start automatically or you may have to press the enter button to start the timer. If oven, because it is average temperature through whole oven area, we could low down a little temperature at around 248F/120C.
9. Once the time is up release the pressure off the press and remove the tumbler by the handle followed by picking the edge of one the the bits of heat tape on one end of the paper with your fingernail then peeling the paper off the tumbler in one smooth movement. (watch out its HOT!) This part is important as while the tumbler is still hot the image will still be releasing ink gas and if you do not remove it in a smooth motion you may end up with ghosting (double image), over spray or a slightly blurry image. This can also happen if you cook the tumbler for too long. you may have to experiment with heat and times to get the right setting for your press.
10. Now place you tumbler on a heat proof surface until it has cooled down enough to handle. If you have done everything correctly then you should end up with something like this.
Post time: Oct-15-2021
