Sublimation Inks

New Africa Inks is one of the leading sublimation ink manufacturers in South Africa, so if you are looking for where to buy sublimation inks in South Africa, you’ve come to the right place!

Our high quality range of sublimation inks are supplied to companies both locally and abroad, and are used for a wide variety of printing applications. Read on to find out more about sublimation ink and its uses, or view our contact page now to find out where to buy sublimation ink in Gauteng, Western Cape and Durban.

What is sublimation ink?

Sublimation ink is a special ink that can be used to print on a range of popular hard surface items, such as mugs, coated ceramics, licence plates, metals, polyester cloth and even Lycra. Because all these items already have a coating on them, it’s necessary to use specially-manufactured sublimation inks to print on them.

To understand how sublimation inks work, you need to understand what sublimation is. Essentially, sublimation is a process whereby a solid substance changes into a gas (or vise versa) without going through a liquid phase. Dry ice, for example, works in this way. It is a fairly rare property, and one that is essential to successful printing on certain hard surface items.

How are sublimation inks used to create prints?

Sublimation printing is actually a simple process requiring just three primary ingredients: sublimation ink, heat and pressure. Heat is the catalyst that converts the substance from solid to gas, and the process is controlled with pressure that is applied over time.

Sublimation inks are made up of solid colour dye particles that are crushed into a powder before being suspended in a liquid carrier. Although you can’t see the particles of dye, they are floating around in the ink. However, unlike sugar in coffee, the dye particles do not dissolve into the liquid. This solution is then used to print an image onto a specially treated piece of paper, and the paper is placed onto the material that is to be printed on.

The material is then placed into a heat press, and when the dye particles reach a certain temperature, they are transformed into gas and the image is transferred to the material. At the same time, the material – which must be created from polyester or a polyester-treated substrate – expands to absorb the gas. Special sublimation ink paper and printers are required for the process.

Buy sublimation ink from a top sublimation ink supplier

New Africa Inks is one of South Africa’s top sublimation ink manufacturers. Our use of state-of-the-art equipment, combined with many years of experience, enables us to create the highest quality sublimation inks that are used by companies in South Africa and abroad. Thus, if you’re wondering where to buy sublimation ink in South Africa, look no further!

Contact us today for all your sublimation ink requirements, or explore our site to learn about the other ink products we manufacture and sell.