"Kenneth" <kdw### [at] earthlinknet> wrote in message
news:web.443b5b6110abaad6acc8f35f0@news.povray.org...
> "Lance Birch" <-> wrote:
>
> > Attached are scaled down versions of the top and bottom sheet renders, and
also
> > some (pretty bad) photos of the first board.  The white balance in the
photos
> > isn't right and the high gloss (on the top, the bottom is matte) made it
hard to
> > take a good shot, but you get the idea :)
> >
> Nice work!
>
> I hate to be so *naive* about this, but...how did you transfer your final
> images to the boards?  I'd like to try something like this on one of my
> guitars.

Hey Ken - the process uses dye sublimation.  It's the same principle as other
dye sublimation applications (e.g. those used to transfer colour photographs to
various products) only on a much larger scale.  The design is printed using a
set of sublimation dyes/inks on to a "carrier" sheet.  This sheet is attached to
the final sheet of plastic (which is a type of polyester called "PBT",
poly-butylene terephthalate), and then both sheets are pressed together under
high pressure in a heat press.  The heat causes the sublimation inks to vaporise
and the vapor is then forced into the plastic, binding to the polyester.  The
sublimated PBT sheets are then attached to the board's core using resin, and
vacuum bagged to bind everything together.

Without a lot of expense this couldn't be done as a "one off "at home, but there
are probably some other solutions that would work if you wanted to put graphics
on a guitar.  It would be very difficult to sublimate directly on to a finished
object however (and a limitation of dye sub is that the surface receiving the
ink must be synthetic).

Lance.

thezone - thezone.firewave.com.au

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