Dye-sub printing

  • Thread starter Thread starter Deleted member 67219
  • Start date Start date
D

Deleted member 67219

Guest
So a family member has an established packaging manufacturing business (yawn...) however they've just invested in dye-sub technology. They're planning on doing the usual stuff for corporate work - mouse mats, acrylic prints, mugs and so forth, however they're interested in collaborating with me on something more creative, perhaps with a view to opening new markets.

I don't really know much about the technology, but I'm interested if any of you have seen interesting ways it's been used before or things you'd thought 'I'd like to do that... but...'. I'm hoping to go to their manufacturing space in the new year to see what it's all about, but I'd like to have some ideas in my head before I could go.

I know it's a bit of a random post that's a bit half-formulated... but... any thoughts?
 
For me the benefits of dye subs are their speed, I was shooting an event at the weekend using wifi, as I shot the image it was wired straight back to the viewing station and prints were coming out in about 15 seconds from pressing go, whilst that doesn't help you directly it is the speed and fact that images come out dry and ready to go which I think you could make use of.
 
It's an interesting thought, but I guess that would only help in a factory setting if you needed to apply a second process on top of the ink instantly. Something to muse on though.
 
Finished print in 15s? My Canon Selphy takes about a minute to complete the four passes needed to give me a finished entrant. My inkjet can turn out an A4 in about the same time, although it then needs to dry completely whereas the dyesub print is dry and ready to be used as a postcard as soon as the final clear layer has been "printed".

For me, the advantage of dyesub is that I can pack the loaded printer and spare ink ribbons in a case and not worry about the inks leaking even of the thing gets crushed! I take mine on holiday and print my own postcards - cheaper than buying them as well as being able to personalise the picture side with text.
 
The advantage of dye sub in a production environment is that dry images can be stacked immediately saving time & drying space, and they are far less likely to get damaged than a soft wet image.
 
Back
Top