Instructions

Coffee or money? As long as it’s black!

YOW! Shop

14 April 2016

2 min read

White mug, red on the inside, with sublimation print: a black silhouette of Panama and ‘I ♥ PANAMA’, with the caption above: ‘Coffee or money – it doesn’t matter, as long as it’s black!’

White mug, red on the inside, with sublimation print: a black Panama silhouette and ‘I ♥ PANAMA’, above which reads: ‘Coffee or money – it doesn’t matter, as long as it’s black!’

Below, we would like to outline the process for producing a mug using sublimation transfer, and also offer you the ‘Panama’ design for download.

Link to download the file:

panama.pdf

1. Create and print designs

First, we created the design in DrawCut Pro, laid it out on A4 paper and printed it using the Sawgrass Powerdriver on our Ricoh SG 3110DN. The advantage of the Powerdriver is that you can select the type of sublimation paper and the transfer object (mousepad, ceramics, jigsaw puzzle, etc.), and the colours are optimised accordingly. This is the only way to ensure true colour reproduction in sublimation quickly and easily.

Print dialogue box with PowerDriver for the Ricoh SG3110DN; the preview shows an A4 sheet featuring ‘I love Panama’ designs and silhouettes of Panama

The Ricoh SG 3110DN uses sublimation paper featuring mirrored ‘I ♥ Panama’ designs and a black outline map of Panama

2. Cut out the designs and stick them on

The printed designs are cut out as close to right angles as possible (to retain a reference edge for alignment) and stuck onto the prepared mugs using heat-resistant adhesive tape. In our example, we are using a premium Subli mug, Grade AAA with ORCA sublimation coating. This type of mug has an extremely bright white surface and the perfect coating for durable and excellent sublimation transfers.

A mirror-printed sublimation design reading ‘I ♥ Panama’ is cut at right angles on a blue roll cutter for use on mugs

White Subli mug with a red interior; design applied using heat-resistant adhesive tape; behind it, mirrored ‘I love Panama’ prints

A quick tip: If you fold back one edge of each strip of heat-resistant tape, you’ll find it easier to peel it off the mug after the transfer without leaving any scratches.

3. Pressing cups

The cups were pressed in a Secabo TM1 cup press at medium pressure for 180 seconds at 200°C. As the mugs have a high heat capacity, it is perfectly normal for the temperature of the press to drop significantly at first, in some cases to below 150°C. Hence the long transfer time – the crucial period is the final 20–30 seconds, during which the temperature has returned to 200°C.

A white mug with transfer paper stuck to it is placed in the open Secabo TM1 mug press; the display shows 200 °C

Secabo TM1 cup press with a white cup clamped in place; the display shows 176 °C when the set temperature is 200 °C, as the temperature drops initially during pressing

4. Peel off the transfer paper

Immediately after removing the mug from the mug press, the transfer paper must be peeled off – ideally in one go – to avoid ghost images on the mug, which is still at 200°C. Thanks to the tab you attached earlier, the paper and the adhesive tape can be removed very quickly.

Transfer paper is peeled off a freshly pressed cup featuring a card and ‘I ♥ Panama’; behind it is a pot of water for cooling

5. Rinse the cup under cold water

Immediately after removing the transfer paper, we plunge the mug into hot water. Cold water would be too cold for the cup, which is at 200°C, and it could break. That is why we use hot water – which is repeatedly reheated during the quenching process itself, so there is no need to replace it during production. The quenching process cools the mug sufficiently to halt the sublimation process and prevent the ink particles from evaporating. This ensures that the images remain beautifully clear and the edges sharp.