sublimation ink VS inkjet

[ilannod 0]

I'm a beginner for this heat transfer tech, and I wanna make some products with my own design, but I have a question about the ink, so please forgive me to ask this stupid question.

question:

I am wondering is it necessary to use the sublimation ink, instead of the normal inkjet, if i want to transfer my image onto the phone case?

cause normally the printer i could find is the non-refillable printer, but the sublimation ink usually is refillable package, so if using the sublimation ink, i think i have to buy the printer online... that is what i concern.

thank you for your answering!

[Wildgoose 4,200]

Sublimation takes special ink and you can't mix it with regular ink so you pretty much have to dedicate a printer to it. Two main inroads are the Ricoh which is expensive but gets good reviews and Epson which is much cheaper but requires a lot more attention so it won't plug up. Regular ink isn't going to transfer. You CAN use regular ink with Transfers onto cotton garments but even then it's recommended to use durabrite epson ink or some other pigment based ink rather than dye ink which is for regular printing of documents etc... If you have access to a newer epson printer you can do the transfers relatively inexpensively but it's not Sublimation. Hope that helps a little. 

[OWJones 1,981]

If you're just wanting to make a custom phone case for yourself, you can print onto aqueous vinyl, laminate it and then cut and apply it to a phone case.  No special printer needed.

 

If you're wanting to make products to sell, then sublimation is going to be the way to go.  You will need a printer dedicated to sublimation printing, a set of sublimation ink, sublimation transfer paper and a heat press.  Then you'll need to buy special phone cases made for sublimation.

 

Unless this is something you think you're going to do a lot, it is probably cheaper to sub the work out to someone who has all the equipment already.

[ilannod 0]

Wildgoose & OWJones, thank you very much for your detailed answer. 

 

and one more question, for the Ricoh printer, do you have any recommendation, which model is relatively cheap for small amount production. 

 

basically I am starting to develop this idea, if I success to sublimation the design onto the case, I would sell it on my friend's flea market, but guess wouldn't be a large amount for the production. 

[Wildgoose 4,200]

I went the Epson route due to start-up costs. Found a new printer WF 7620 on sale for $150 and bought a set of Cobra ink carts plus a set of 2 oz refills for about $200 and then added some paper and some blanks to practice with. All told I probably spent more than I needed to on the extras at about another $250. 

[OWJones 1,981]

Ricoh printer, do you have any recommendation, which model is relatively cheap for small amount production 

 

Yes... none of them.   Ricoh printers are reasonably priced, but the ink costs as much as the printer (or more) and you're going to have to make a LOT of phone cases to recoup your initial investment.

 

You can pick up a new Epson inkjet printer + a Cobra Ink CISS kit + 4 oz. of each color sublimation ink for less than the cost of a Ricoh and the first set of ink cartridges.

 

Ricoh SubliJet cartridges contain 29 mL of ink (49 mL for black).  The Cobra Ink kit includes 118 mL of each color of ink.  You will use more of it because you'll have to print regular test pages, which is a benefit of the Ricoh printers - not having to do weekly test pages, but you'll not be wasting that much ink and when it comes time to refill, I think I paid around $75 for a set of 4 oz. of each color, vs. $325 for a set of 4 cartridges containg 29 or 49 mL of SubliJet ink.

[ilannod 0]

Hi Wildgoose & OWJones, 

 

I have do some research on the printer, and found a Singapore online shop have the Ricoh printer - Aficio SG 3110DN, which the reviews on internet are quite okay, and I found a local printer remodel store, they can help me to remodel to printer that could be continually refill the ink, what do you think about this plan?

 

thanks again for both of your answers, really appreciate and helps a lot for me!

[Wildgoose 4,200]

There are a lot of different CIS systems available out there these days but it's probably as important to have good ink and support with the color profiles as anything. If you do go that route try to document the process for future generations and we'll all appreciate it. We love new guinea pigs.