Dye-Sub Printing on Car Windshield Shades

[Terry Swift]

I've seen lots of comments and such on doing umbrella's and those kinds of items; but can't find any info for doing either the foldable aluminum covered cardboard (probably not) or more specifically those foldable nylon (guess that's what made from) ones. RPL has started selling some sub-able window models; but they have no idea about windshield versions. Have a client who want to do some for their sales; but if it's foldable / bendable - then screen print or decals would not last long before cracking and crumbling would they.

[Scott Shepherd]

Terry, I haven't seen them, but my personal opinion would be that they wouldn't do well. Dye sub on that type of material does not do well long term, in the sun. Think about those tall thin flags people stick in the ground for advertising. I assume you have them littering your area like they are here. I've watched a number of them close by go up and 3 months later, they are extremely faded.

Dye sub is not UV friendly for the most part. Putting it on fabric and sticking in direct sun is asking for trouble in my opinion.

[Larry Bratton]

Terry, I haven't seen them, but my personal opinion would be that they wouldn't do well. Dye sub on that type of material does not do well long term, in the sun. Think about those tall thin flags people stick in the ground for advertising. I assume you have them littering your area like they are here. I've watched a number of them close by go up and 3 months later, they are extremely faded.

Dye sub is not UV friendly for the most part. Putting it on fabric and sticking in direct sun is asking for trouble in my opinion.

There are few exceptions for printed media that UV does not eventually effect. I would say that vinyl printed with solvent type ink is probably about as good as your going to get outside, maximum 5 years, so they advertise. Pigmented inks hold up reasonably well because they are water resistant. I doubt those flags your seeing are sublimated though. If I had to guess I would say they are screen printed, as that method is about as cheap as you can get. They could possibly be printed on a wide format inkjet printer on flag material with pigmented ink. I would not think that sublimation printing would be any worse than pigmented ink,which you don't see used on hard goods, as far as fading goes. David Gross from Conde says he has tested on license plates quite a bit and says he gets decent results on them. I have a plate on my wifes car that has been on there now for about 3 months outside and it still looks good. Don't know what time will tell yet. Screen printing should also hold up pretty well outside due to the water resistance of the inks.

[Scott Shepherd]

Larry, they are dye subbing more and more flags these days. It's cheap, low end work for people with large dye sub printers. I'd take a solvent printed one over dye sub any day.

http://www.displays2go.com/product.bigft3.asp?ID=5522

[Larry Bratton]

Larry, they are dye subbing more and more flags these days. It's cheap, low end work for people with large dye sub printers. I'd take a solvent printed one over dye sub any day.

http://www.displays2go.com/product.bigft3.asp?ID=5522

I suspect that may be true. The Sawgrass cartel doesn't have control of the ink cost with large format-24"+ . Yes, me too on the solvent inks.

[Terry Swift]

These are not flags that would be in the sun 24/7. I know that I could not print on the aluminum coated ones without the poly spray. Can you dye-sub on nylon as good as it does for poylester? I think if they lasted 1 season (3-4 months) - the customer would be okay with that. Definitely would cause repeat orders. I tried to contact one of the manufacturers and never got a call back. What great service so many companies offer today? You would think in a "down" economy - that people would be more prone to follow up orders / requests versus just not returning a call / email.

[Martin Boekers]

Contact Rodne he's heading to China again. I have seen many Dye Sub products available from China that I can't find in the states

[Scott Shepherd]

Larry (and others), here's how the large format dye sub machine works. I had a customer in here yesterday that makes displays, etc. and he told me that they do all their flags, etc. on dye sub now, then I ran across this :