Black and white photo

[Bill W. White]

Just wondering if there are any tricks or secrets when sublimating b/w photo's. I will be attempting to put an old football pic on a corian plaque for some of my old team mates. Do I need to change any settings on the printer . Thanks Bill W.

[Mike Null]

Bill

I suggest doing a search for Corian and for dye sublimation. I believe there are answers in previous posts.

Good luck

[Bill W. White]

Thanks Mike for suggestion, I think I have searched and read most of the corian and Sublimation post but I don't remember seeing anything about B/W photo's and I guess I'm just looking for a trick or two that might help me make the project more successful. I've done a couple on smaller pieces of corian and they look ok but certainly not as good as the actual photo. I even coated one with a automotive 2 part urethane clear and it helped. I will call the Conde folks Monday and see if they have any imput....Thanks anyway Bill W.

[Keith Outten]

Bill,

I have uploaded a B&W picture called Peek A Boo, you should be able to find it here. As I recall I used my normal settings when I printed this picture, the only difference was that it was a 25 meg file so it was very high resolution. The quality of this one is better than any I have ever dye-sublimated on Corian.

Credit for the picture goes to Jamie Hayes, a Master Photographer in Richmond Virginia. Peek A Boo was a "Kodak Elite" award winning photograph several years ago. It was printed with permission.
.

[Bill W. White]

Thanks Keith, When I scanned in the photo I then reduced it to 200 DPI which I think was on one of David's U tube video's suggestion as the ideal (150 to 200DPI) I think I will try the higher resolution say 1200DPI and see if that helps enough to offset the extra time involved. All this reolution, DPI etc. especially in aspire goes right over my head. Bill W.

[Martin Boekers]

Bill,

If your printer allows it, select black ink only. That way you won't get a color shift in it.
If it doesn't run a head cleaning first that way your sure you are getting proper ink down.

[Larry Bratton]

Thanks Keith, When I scanned in the photo I then reduced it to 200 DPI which I think was on one of David's U tube video's suggestion as the ideal (150 to 200DPI) I think I will try the higher resolution say 1200DPI and see if that helps enough to offset the extra time involved. All this reolution, DPI etc. especially in aspire goes right over my head. Bill W.

1200 dpi is a waste of your time. Your printer won't render more than 300 or so. I sublimate black and white photos just like color.

[Bill W. White]

Again, thanks for help, I printed all the plaques and they seemed to be clear and they certainly look good enough for my use or in this case to give away. One note I got a stange looking streak of dark ink one one and I could even feel it so I decided to sand off the photo and redo it. I expected that it would be a long slow process but to my surprise it took no time at all with 400 and OS I mean it came right off much quicker than expected. I guess my concern is the sublimation at 20 min and 320 d. going deep enough into the corian? I would hate later to charge someone to do this and have the photo fade away

[Larry Bratton]

Again, thanks for help, I printed all the plaques and they seemed to be clear and they certainly look good enough for my use or in this case to give away. One note I got a stange looking streak of dark ink one one and I could even feel it so I decided to sand off the photo and redo it. I expected that it would be a long slow process but to my surprise it took no time at all with 400 and OS I mean it came right off much quicker than expected. I guess my concern is the sublimation at 20 min and 320 d. going deep enough into the corian? I would hate later to charge someone to do this and have the photo fade away

I know, I know, Keith's settings..right? I am just having trouble with the temperature. Conventional wisdom is that it takes around 400 degrees for the sublimation process to take place..from a solid to a gas . Are we saying that 320 degrees pressed for 20 minutes somehow changes this requirement? I have been sublimating lots of different things and I haven't run across anything that works at less than 350 F ?

[Ken Dolph]

Larry
I have been doing dye sub on Corian for over 15 years. I have not yet had an image fade indoors or out. I have never used another substrate. The process is not as dependent on the temperature of the press as on the temperature of the substrate. Unheated Corian would wick away the heat and keep the temperature of the surface much lower than the transfer temperature for a long long time.

In a typical press on a polyester coated metal or ceramic substrate, the substrate surface heats to 300 to 320 much quicker than Corian would. And that is probably the actual temperature of transfer. What you do to test this is to use an IR thermometer to check the temperature of a ceramic piece immediately after a press. I believe that you would find that the temperature of the piece would be considerably less than the 400 degrees that you set your blanket at.

In coated substrates the image cannot be any deeper than the thickness of the coating. This is typically about .001" If you pressed onto a piece of Solid Surface that was pure polyester the image would go much deeper. I have no idea what preheating (if any) would be necessary. The problem with polyester is that it degrades in UV light. This is the cause of fading of dye subbed products. Even the colors of polyester SS, which goes all the way trough, fades in sunlight.

I have cut through dye subbed images on Corian and found the depth of the image to be more than .003". The acrylic and the ATH in the Corian will not be effected by UV and will protect your image from UV. I can not imagine a better substrate for images that you want to last. There is no coating to chip off or degrade in UV.

I hope that I have not been confusing.

The bottom line is - follow Keith's instructions and you will have a wonderful product.

The only thing that I do differently from Keith is that I preheat the piece from both sides or in an oven. This will eliminate the cupping that sometimes happens. Corian anneals. This means that it does not return to exactly the same size after heating and cooling. By heating it more evenly this effect is equal on both sides and the piece does not cup.

I know this is long but I hope it will help.
Ken

[Larry Bratton]

Ken,
That being said, what would you recommend for 1/4"? I assume the above is for 1/2". I bought some 1/4" Glacier White and have been waiting until I had something I wanted to try on it. I see your point about the surface temperature. I'm new to dye sub, so I am still learning.
Would annealing help with the 1/4"? I know it is bound to be more susceptible to cupping than 1/2". Describe your annealing process. I know that annealing acrylic is a fairly lengthy process if done per manufacturer's recommendations.

[Keith Outten]

Ken Dolph has been my mentor since I started dye-sublimating Corian. He recommended Corian as a substrate I should try when I started inquiring about ading dye-sub services to my sign shop. Along the way Ken has offered lots of tips and tricks that have been more than just helpful.

All of my past Corian dye-sub projects have been with Artainium Ink. I recently purchased a Ricoh printer that came with the new gel dye-sub ink, has anyone here used gel ink for Corian dye sub yet?

If not I plan to give it a try this weekend and I wil let everyone know what happens.
.

[Scott Shepherd]

has anyone here used gel ink for Corian dye sub yet?

If not I plan to give it a try this weekend and I wil let everyone know what happens.
.

Keith, you shouldn't have any issues. Are you using the Sawgrass Powerdriver or the ICC profile from Conde? I personally don't care for the Powerdriver. I think the colors are horrible.

[Ken Dolph]

Keith

Thank you for those kind words. I just wish that I could be more active here than I am.

Larry

Don't get hung up on the word anneal. Annealing is a natural process whereby many materials, when exposed to certain temperature changes, will realign their molecules. This is the process by which metals are hardened and glass is tempered.

Corian in particular is poured on a moving belt. This causes the polymer chains to be stretched along the pulling axes. Heating allows these chains to assume a more random pattern. Of course you can see that the piece will become a little shorter and a little wider. When cooled this becomes permanent. If you only heat one side of a piece there will be tension that will pull the one side differently than the other. This is the cupping. You could force the piece flat but this is stretching the polymers again. By heating the piece evenly, this tension will be equal all over.

You don't have to try to anneal the Corian. Don't worry just get started. If you get cupping, just reheat and put something flat on it until it cools. Just heat the piece thoroughly through. If you only have a heating element on one side of your press, start with the piece bottom side up. Half way through heating flip it over. I typically heat in an oven about 325 degrees F for 10 to 15 minutes. Longer for 1/2" less for 1/4". If it flops around like stiff rubber it is ready.

Have fun
Ken

[Larry Bratton]

Ken Dolph has been my mentor since I started dye-sublimating Corian. He recommended Corian as a substrate I should try when I started inquiring about ading dye-sub services to my sign shop. Along the way Ken has offered lots of tips and tricks that have been more than just helpful.

All of my past Corian dye-sub projects have been with Artainium Ink. I recently purchased a Ricoh printer that came with the new gel dye-sub ink, has anyone here used gel ink for Corian dye sub yet?

If not I plan to give it a try this weekend and I wil let everyone know what happens.
.

I'm about to, if I can figure out how to process the 1/4".

[Keith Outten]

I think I have mentioned before that the large heat press I have is very old. It's a 24" by 30" press and it heats up very slow which I expect had been to my benefit when dye-sublimating Corian. Most of the time I place my Corian substrate in the press cold and then turn on the press. This provides a very slow rise in temperature which saturates the Corian material over a period of probably 45 minutes. I still experience some minor cupping when I remove the piece from the press but I always prepare a flat surface with a top cover material and plenty of clamps for large projects before I start the process. Small jobs are normally clamped between two pieces of whatever is handy with C clamps at the corners. I also have been known to leave the blank in the press and turn it off allowing it to cool down much slower which also uses the press to keep it perfectly flat. The paper will stick to the Corian surface big time this way but I found a way to deal with that problem, basically saturating the paper with solid surface polish and use a plastic spatula to remove the bulk of the paper. I use an ROC sander with a white 3M Scotchbrite pad to finish the surface.

Steve, I'm using the Sawgrass Powerdriver. It came with my Ricoh printer so it is all I have but i admit that so far I am not impressed. I'm not familiar with the new setup yet though, can't find the time lately to use it as much as I would like to.

I have an opportunity to purchase a new best press and dye-sub printer for the sign shop at CNU coming up. If I decide to purchase from Conde I will get the opportunity to use their driver.

I have a home project scheduled for today but I plan to get my Corian blanks and prints ready tonight so I can run them tomorrow. I will be using both half inch and quarter inch thick Corian so I will have some information on the thin stuff to share as well.
.

[Larry Bratton]

Keith
Would you still leave the 1/4" in for 20 minutes or less since it's thinner

[Scott Shepherd]

Keith, I think you'll find the Conde way of doing things superior to the power driver. You don't have to buy from them to use their stuff. You just have to be a customer with an account, I think, to access their downloads. They are a great company and always willing to help get things set up.

Our primary dye subbing requires matching pantone colors. Trying to do that with the power driver was all but impossible. The swatch set that they have is so limited, I'd have to sell my dye sub setup and get out of the business, because I'd look like an idiot to my customers. David got me all set up and I can come very close to pantone colors now with his method, and all my full color stuff looks great with the Conde way. I'd stop using dye sub if I had to go back to the power driver way.

[Larry Bratton]

Keith, I think you'll find the Conde way of doing things superior to the power driver. You don't have to buy from them to use their stuff. You just have to be a customer with an account, I think, to access their downloads. They are a great company and always willing to help get things set up.

Our primary dye subbing requires matching pantone colors. Trying to do that with the power driver was all but impossible. The swatch set that they have is so limited, I'd have to sell my dye sub setup and get out of the business, because I'd look like an idiot to my customers. David got me all set up and I can come very close to pantone colors now with his method, and all my full color stuff looks great with the Conde way. I'd stop using dye sub if I had to go back to the power driver way.

That's coz David Gross is a professional printer guy and he knows what he is doing. He will not let customers set up their own drivers and profiles, he did mine personally, and I am eternally grateful. That's probably out of self defense, it saves them a lot of time troubleshooting new installations, where people have installed them and just simply don't know how. I consider myself to be pretty computer savvy, but no way could I have set this thing up the way he did it. It works like a top too. Exactly what my future with Ricoh printers and Sawgrass inks is going to be remains to be seen, but I will remain loyal to Conde as far as I can.

[Larry Bratton]

Ken & Keith- thank you for the advice. I'll see how I come out with the 1/4"