The invention relates to a method of printing onto the surface of a substrate, which method comprises a. coating a donor surface with a monolayer of individual particles, b. treating the surface of the substrate to render the affinity of the particles to at least selected regions of the surface of the substrate greater than the affinity of the particles to the donor surface, and c. contacting the surface of the substrate with the donor surface to cause particles to transfer from the donor surface only to the treated selected regions of the surface of the substrate, thereby exposing regions of the donor surface from which particles are transferred to the corresponding regions on the substrate, and characterised in that at least 50 wt. % of the particles are flaky metal pigments comprising a flaky metallic substrate and a surface modification layer of the metallic substrate, wherein the surface modification layer has been made by a treatment of the metallic substrate surface by at least one of the modification substances from the group consisting of phosphate ester, phosphonic esters, phosphonic acids, phosphinate esters, organofunctional silanes, organofunctional titanates, organofunctional zirconates, organofunctional aluminates and mixtures thereof.

An illustrative dye sublimation apparatus may include a heating surface that may have multiple zones. Each zone may include a single individually controlled heater. A controller may control the heater to generate a range of heat and not merely turn the heater ON and OFF. Therefore, one or more controllers may individually regulate heat from corresponding heaters in the zones thereby maintaining a constant and nearly constant temperature throughout the bed of the dye sublimation apparatus in the heating surface. Furthermore, one or more controllers may maintain a first range of temperature during a first state of a dye sublimation process and a second range of temperature during a second stage of the dye sublimation process.

An illustrative dye sublimation apparatus may include a pair of printed sheets placed on either side of a substrate that allows for image infusion on both sides of the substrate. A second heat source, such as a heated plate, is included in order to heat the second printed sheet. Compared to the conventional systems in which a single heat source heats a single printed, the embodiments disclosed herein describe a process for simultaneous double-sided image infusion, which results in a substrate with sublimated images on both sides.

A mug wrapping machine for sublimation transfer printing includes a base plate, above which a clamping frame mounting plate, a pressing plate, an auxiliary plate and a lifting plate are sequentially arranged. A placing plate is arranged above the lifting plate, so that the lower surface of the placement plate is provided with guide posts passing through the lifting plate, the auxiliary plate, the holding plate and the mounting plate of the clamping frame, and the lower end of the guide column is fixed on the upper surface of the base plate. The mounting plate of the clamping frame is installed between the clamping plate and the front and rear ends of the upper surface of the pressing plate, respectively, with ear seats, and a circular center column is arranged between the two ear seats, and the two ends of the circular center column are respectively equipped with rotating plates.

An inkjet printer with an additional adhesive inkjet is disclosed. The printer may print, using an inkjet printer, a conductive ink on a film. The printer may print an adhesive on the conductive ink. The film may be applied to a textile. The film may be heated to transfer the image to the textile.