Davis Brown
White ceramic pet bowls can be made into a fully personalized item with sublimation printing. It can suit any pet. They are sturdy enough for big or small pets to enjoy and heavy enough not to slide around easily. Moreover, these bowls are not limited to just pets. You are free to decorate these bowls to fit other purposes, such as wall holders, candy, and sweets trays.
Now, these items are too hard to customize with a standard heat press. Instead, you can customize using a convection oven setup with the oven wraps. These are two- or three-inch bowl wraps to keep the image tight and in position
It ensures that you sublimate transfer perfectly onto the bowl flat outside walls.
If you are not using a specialized sublimation oven, then don’t worry. You can use a small convection oven even though may be designed for cooking food at home.
Most convection ovens are able to reach the high temperatures required for sublimation blanks as long as they can reach 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Moreover, it must also fit your pet bowl with the oven wrap.
Equipment Required:
The following equipment required for sublimation pet bowls are as follows:
- Pet bowl(substrate)
- Sublimation printer
- Transfer paper
- Convection oven
- Heat-resistant bowl wrap
- Heat resistant gloves
Step By Step Procedure for Sublimation Printing on Pet Bowls:
So, we will be sublimating ceramic pet bowls using a toaster oven and bowl wrap. Most importantly, before you apply the printed transfer, clean the bowl surface with a lint free cloth.
1. Design:
Create a design with your product design software that fits on both sides of the bowl.
2. Print the design:
When the design is ready, you may print it through a sublimation printer(Epson, Sawgrass, Brother , Mimaki, Mitsubishi).
Configure your print settings to set it to ceramic mug paper and mirror the image. You can set the color code to vivid or photographic to determine the level of detail of your design.
With these all set go ahead and click print on with the transfer.
3. Trim the design:
Then trim around the blank areas and edges of the printed transfer. Then wrap and attach it to your pet bowl using heat tape.
4. Wrap the bowl:
Once that’s been done you may wrap your bowl using a matching sized oven wrap at its tightest setting. Ensure to wrap it to where your transfer is making full contact with the oven wrap.
5. Preheat and then sublimate:
Next, turn on your oven and preheat it to 370 degrees Fahrenheit. Once it’s heated up you may load your oven wrapped pet bowl inside it and leave it to sublimate for 18 minutes. Due to the varying nature of convection ovens these settings may need to be adjusted further to suit your setup.
Therefore, we recommend performing a test run with these pet bowls first. As a result, you will be able to fine tune your settings further before proceeding with your final designs.
Lastly:
After 18 minutes, wear heat-resistant gloves and quickly bring the item out to cool down away from the heat. You’ll want to avoid handling it for too long as the pet bowl and oven wrap will be extremely hot.
After everything has cooled down you may unwrap the pet bowl and quickly peel the transfer off.
Finally, your customized sublimation pet bowl is now ready to go.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Who can use pet bowls?
The pet bowls can be used to serve food to large & small dogs, cats, puppies and adult dogs. Moreover, the size of pet bowl may vary with the size of the pet.
What can you print on sublimation bowls?
You can print photographs, names and designs on sublimation bowls. You can use it for your loved pets, household or a gift item.
What size of pet bowls most commonly available in the market?
There are three sizes of pet bowls in terms of quantity available in the market. They are 32 oz./960ml, 42 oz./1250 ml and 64 oz./1900ml.
What are the types of bowl wraps available in market for sublimation bowls?
There are three types of bowl wraps available in the market for sublimation bowls. They are silicon, stainless steel and zinc alloy wraps. We use it to wrap the printed transfer to keep it in place firmly while placing it in a convection oven. The most common size of bowl wrap available in the market is 360(length) x 70(width) mm.
Can you sublimate on stainless steel bowls?
Yes, you can sublimate on stainless steel bowls. The ideal temperature for sublimation is 180 degree Celsius and time is 5-6 minutes.
