Sublimation onto Clear Acrylic

[webtrekker]

We used https://www.cutplasticsheeting.co.uk/
know who used Bay Plastics too

I'll second cutplastcsheeting. I've had lots of cast acrylic from them, clear and opaque coloured, custom-cut accurately to size.

[Mrteajunkie]

Which is the cast acrylic though it doesn’t state?

[pisquee]

It certainly used to - you have a choice of cast or extruded .... extruded doesn't work.
If the website doesn't say, give them a call.

[Mrteajunkie]

No it doesn’t say either.
I’ll give them a buzz thanks.

[pisquee]

https://www.cutplasticsheeting.co.uk/se ... earch=cast

[webtrekker]

[User Deleted]

[GlassBlaster]

I have carried out some more testing and have found that 185C for 220 seconds appears to be the best at this stage however I'm not certain so attached is an image of the original sublimation and the sublimated image onto the back of a piece of 10mm clear acrylic. Is the faded image what I should expect? Cheers.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]6375[/ATTACH]

[webtrekker]

What is your printer setup - ie. model, ink brand, and paper type? Do you print with an ICC profile? One thing to understand about sublimation is that the pressed images bear little relation to the original printed images in terms of colour. Try pressing that same image onto a piece of white 100% polyester fabric, or an aluminium sheet blank if you have one and see what it turns out like.

[GlassBlaster]

I don't have a sub printer etc at the moment, I purchased a couple of A4 sheets for testing purposes from somebody that does sublimation on a regular basis (not acrylic though). I did another test piece since my last post at 170C for 400 seconds and for arguments sake it's identical. I chose the lower temp & longer time to help reduce distortion & imprints into the acrylic; it worked somewhat but I think I will stick with the higher temp & shorter times. I think you have answered my question when you say "pressed images bear little relation to the original printed images in terms of colour" however I will try a piece of white 100% polyester when I can get my hands on some. Thanks again for your help.

[webtrekker]

[User Deleted]