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6x6 inch tile questions for clients
MRudland
Registered Users Posts: 284 Major grins
How are they finished? Do they have a protective coating? Do they need to be washed any special way?
I have a ton of clients who have suddenly become interested in them, but they are asking me questions!
Thanks
Michelle
I have a ton of clients who have suddenly become interested in them, but they are asking me questions!
Thanks
Michelle
0
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http://www.smugmug.com/prints/ceramic-tiles
They don't need any special washing.
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I haven't bought these but I used to work for a company that made them and a heck of alot of other dye-sublimated products.
In this process, you have a product, tile, mug, plate, stainless mug, etc that has a special polyester coating. These coatings are generally rather sturdy when exposed to normal handling.
In the dye-sub process special dye sub inks are applied to a release paper. (think about making a home t-shirt transfer).
This release paper is applied to the product and heat and pressure are applied to the entire piece.
Pressure keeps the ink as close to the coating and heat is what causes the ink to be transfered into (read: INTO) the coating. This is the beauty of dye-sub products. The ink, which is a solid, turns into a gas and that colored gas is absorbed into the coating. As the coating is heated up think of pores opening up at a molecular level within the coating. The 'open' coating absorbes the colors and then 'recloses' when cooled.
Why am I explaining this??? Because there are only a few things that can damage the coated product.
1. Heat. Repeated washings in a dishwashwasher will cause the colors to fade. Hot water coming in contact with the coating will cause the 'pores' to open a tiny bit. The hotter the water the more leaching. So you can easily fade a dye-sub product by washing it in a dishwasher and speed it up dramatically if you use the sanitize setting.
Don't dishwasher dye-subed products as this will increase life of the colors.
2. Physical damage. The coatings are generally tough, but they will suffer abrasion damage. Handling them is fine. Placing pots and pans on top of the tiles will damage them over time.
3. Chemical damage. Generally most household chemicals used in daily cleaning practices don't affect the coatings. Strong and/or prolonged soaking in dishsoap water, bleach water or any warm water is discouraged. Plain cool water and lukewarm water seem to be fine. So if there are some nasty food stains on the products I've always just placed them in cool tapwater overnight and all is well the next morning.
4. UV. Just don't store them in a running tanning bed. UV will fade even the most UV-resistant inks. :-)
The longest lasting dye-subed products are those that are used for display. So the best place for a 6x6 tile is on a mini easel on a bookself out of reach of sunlight.
More ...
This is not a photographic process. Dye subs are generally printed at 150 dpi and because they are transferred via sublimation the final product is close to a photograph but better than the pics in USA Today. Fine detail should not be expected to transfer well.
Also, the dye-sub manufacturing process is an art and a science and uses manual labor. If you order 12 tiles you will not get 12 identical tiles. They will be close. Sometimes very close. If you attempt to place a little border around the edge of the tile you will be disapointed due to natural variations in the manufacturing process. Best to place unimportant visual information near the edges. You and your customers will be most satisfied. Avoid borders...you will be more satisfied.
Hope that helps.