Hand Made in The UK - Fabric Displays

What is dye-sublimation printing?

Dye-sublimation printing is a two-step process that uses extreme heat and pressure to fuse ink directly into the weave of the fabric for a vibrant, high-quality finish. It is a preferred method of fabric printing as it gives photo-realistic print finishes that are ideal for commercial displays such as event and exhibition advertising stands, banners and pop-ups. In addition, dye-sublimation gives a durable, long-wearing finish as the sublimation process involves the inks being chemically bonded to a material; so the fabric print is permanent and washable. 

What kind of fabric is used for your fabric displays?

Our fabric displays made using dye-sublimation are crafted from a durable polyester fabric as it’s the best material for absorbing dye into the fibres. The additional benefit of using this kind of fabric is that it can be easily machine washed at 30°C to remove dust and dirt, keeping your displays looking fresh and bright each time you use them.The elasticity in this fabric means that any creases in the fabric are stretched out when you fit the display snugly over its frame, for a perfect, crease-free finish. Finally, this uniform two-way stretch polyester material is fire resistant to DIN 4102 Class B1 standard, for safe exhibiting.

How does dye-sublimation work?

Dye-sublimation has two different phases. The first stage is where we print your artwork on our large-format printers onto 85gsm transfer paper using water-based sublimation ink. Our printers are programmed to the Fogra 39 standard to ensure a high level of detail and colour vibrancy, but in this initial stage, the artwork is printed in reverse, so the colours initially appear more muted.

Next, we take the transfer paper print and line it up with the fabric, feeding both into the Monti Antonio sublimation machine, which uses 200°C heat and intense pressure to fuse the ink deep into the fabric weave. The finished printed fabric appears out of the other end of the calendar machine with your finished print in bold hues and vivid details.

What process do you follow after printing?

There is more to producing high-quality printed fabric displays than just the two dye-sublimation printing steps mentioned above. Once your artwork has been through the sublimation process, we complete the final steps:

• Print Check - once we remove your display from the Monti Antonio, we lay it out flat across a special workbench where we go over every inch of the print in detail, checking carefully for any flaws or faults.
• Cutting - next, we cut each display by hand to the required dimensions.
• Sewing - once checked and sized, the display is handed over to our in-house finishing department: this is where your fabric display is sewn together. Our experts use a cotton/polyester mix thread to overlock and hem the edges of your display; this ensures that the seams are durable and resistant to splitting while creating a clean, neat edge finish. A zip is added at this stage using a single-lock stitch and a transparent monofilament thread which adapts to the colour of the artwork for an invisible finish. 
• Test-build - we will never send out any fabric displays until they have been tested. This applies particularly to our fabric exhibition stands, which we construct prior to dispatch to ensure the fabric fit is perfect and that your display doesn’t sag or crease when fitted to the frame. During the build, we check the graphic again for print and finishing quality. Only once our production manager is 100% satisfied do we pack everything away neatly and dispatch it for delivery.

Fabric Display Stand Bundle

Monti Antonio Dye-Sublimation Machine AT XL Displays

How does the artwork need to be supplied?

Typically, dye-sublimation printers use a CMYK colour process, which can lead to issues as a lot of artwork is usually supplied using an RGB scheme. Converting RGB to CMYK can cause issues with the colour finish of the display; while we do provide a free preflight check for all of the artwork that’s supplied using our Artwork Upload page, if you’re unsure about your colour conversions, our expert Graphic Design Team is on hand to help with any finishing queries, or indeed a full artwork design.

Why is the colour finish different from other forms of printing?

Whenever you are printing on fabric, there is always the possibility that saturation, or colour shifts, can occur as the dye is absorbed into the fabric fibers. The colour of the base fabric can also influence the final print display. As a result, sublimation prints are typically created to be brighter, finished with richer colours than other kinds of print, as any variations in colour show up less in a more vibrant print.

The key to achieving a detailed, photo-perfect finish is to have a colour profile for your dye-sublimation. Having a color profile that is used as a standard for a process baseline gives you peace of mind when it comes to the finish of your display. We have tried and tested our dye-sublimation process on our in-house fabrics to create our ideal set of colour profiling processes - meaning we can guarantee you a perfect finish every time. 

What are the benefits of in-house printing?

By manufacturing, cutting and printing all of our fabric displays in-house, we have complete control over the quality of each and every product that leaves our factory site. We keep close tabs on every stage of the process, from the quality of the fabric to the finish of the stitching, the surface of the print graphic to the fit with the display frame. Our production team are specialists within this field so the attention to detail is second to none, and the fabric displays they manufacture are the best in the industry. We can design, print and manufacture within 5-6 days, allowing us to deliver high-quality solutions at a fraction of the cost of other retailers. Printing fabric displays in-house has allowed us to cut out the middle made and effectively pass on huge savings to our customers. 

For more information about our print process or our fabric displays, you can get in touch with our team via our Contact Us page, or call us on 01733 511030.