vegasrett

Thanks to you both for a timely reply. at this point water slide is looking more promising than sublimation, but nothing is being ruled out. the sublimation process seems simple and the tech already exists. and the glass can be treated at a low (400 degree) temperature allowing us to run small wrapped batches through an oven for just a few minutes. they could then be pulled out, replaced with another batch, and allowed to dry at room temperature. no one can tell me how permanent it is, or if the polyester coating will stick well to glass, or off color clear glass. I know there are some differences between glass types, but is anyone sublimating flat glass with any permanency? the water slides seem like a more difficult method to cure (at 1600 degrees) and have to cool slowly to prevent "glass sag". this would slow the process to a crawl allowing 2 or 3 batches to cure a day. if our screen printing inks can be used however, we know for sure that they will take 500 washes. this may mean modifying an inkjet printer to run a very strange ink. potential for clogging and smearing here seems like a nightmare. any more thoughts would be greatly appreciated. rett

I don't know where to begin. I work for a glass engraver and we have started screen printing as well. this works well for one or two colors but multi color has proven cumbersome. we are looking for a simple way to do full color photos, and gradient shading on restaurant quality glassware. is anyone here doing such a thing? and what is the smart way to do it? does sublimation stick to glass or is it just for ceramics? can we prep our own blanks in house? will the prep coat fog or off-color the glass? can sublimation be oven/kiln heated, or would we have to clamshell each glass one at a time? is there a digital print and cut system that offers a permanent (500 dishwasher cycles) image on glass? this would just be too easy, right? is there a digital print company that makes a printer we can run our glass screen printing inks through (as we know they are permanent) to produce water-slide transfers? how permanent are water slide transfers printed with "standard" (and what are the standard) inks? any help with any of these questions would be appreciated. thanks rett