Sublimation laser printer...

[JSR]

There was discussion several years back about using laser printers for sublimation - someone was formulating toner that would be protected from the heat process in the printer (the kind of thing that was originally being R&D'd for inkjet printers).

I'm not sure anything ever came of it. The intention was to break free from the stranglehold of Sawgrass' patent on inkjet printers, but I believe the toners that were available were priced so high that it didn't make any difference.

[Jimbo]

Laser sublimation has been around for years, in fact it was here before desktop Epson inkjet. I remember seeing a demo at Novachrome a long while ago which involved a Canon laser copier. The problem with the copier was that you could only use one colour cart at a time.
Since then in the US, sublimation toner has been available for laser printers, initially for the HP but I believe you can now get it for some of the Oki printers.
The major problem with laser toner is, the toner leaves a slight toner splatter on the backgound which is noticable when printing to white aluminium but cannot be seen on either the gold or siver.

Jimbo

[Jimbo]

here's a link to a US supplier.

http://colourmagic.info/index.htm

Jimbo

[Jimbo]

A further link but believe it or not, this one offers White laser sublimation toner. Don't know how that would work because you would need to remove one of the other carts to accommodate it.

http://www.atttransfer.com/whitetoner.html

Jimbo

[JSR]

here's a link to a US supplier.

http://colourmagic.info/index.htm

Jimbo

That's the site I saw years ago. Price for toners - over $1100 (probably over £900 including VAT). The main point of laser sublimation was reduced cost due to no patent conflict with Sawgrass. But if the toner price is so high, you may as well stick with inkjet sublimation.

Oh, and the toner cartridges are for a printer that was discontinued years ago - which tells me that it's a project that's died (probably because it was just too expensive).

[JSR]

A further link but believe it or not, this one offers White laser sublimation toner. Don't know how that would work because you would need to remove one of the other carts to accommodate it.

http://www.atttransfer.com/whitetoner.html

Jimbo

Reading the description, you must have a new printer with clean drum and four white toners to use the white sublimation toner - cost $1660 (~£1250 including VAT). You'll need a second printer for the colour toners - cost $975 (~£735 including VAT).

So, if you have yourself a spare £2,000+, then go for it. Otherwise, it's priced way out of the market.

[Jimbo]

Reading the description, you must have a new printer with clean drum and four white toners to use the white sublimation toner - cost $1660 (~£1250 including VAT). You'll need a second printer for the colour toners - cost $975 (~£735 including VAT).

So, if you have yourself a spare £2,000+, then go for it. Otherwise, it's priced way out of the market.

Iwas not reccomending or planning to by it myself, Iwas merely responding to the poster who asked if laser sublimation existed.
Jimbo

[JSR]

Iwas not reccomending or planning to by it myself, Iwas merely responding to the poster who asked if laser sublimation existed.
Jimbo

Fair enough. I was just answering your speculation about how it might work (in that just changing a cartridge to white isn't enough - which is a pity).