Sublimation inks are basically a formulation of different colored dyes suspended in liquids that will pass through a digital printer. For this to happen efficiently the dyes have to be made to extremely tight tolerances. Great care must be taken in the ink manufacturing process to make sure the dyes are consistent otherwise when it comes to the final transfer colors can shift or clogging can occur.

Let us make it clear at Tropical Graphics we do not make our own inks we have them made for us. The equipment to make consistent quality inks runs into millions of dollars so we let the processionals take care of that side of our operation and we speak with our manufacturer on a regular basis about what and how we expect our ArTainium inks to perform.

To ensure that we deliver to you a consistent product every batch of ink that is delivered to our factory is first rigorously tested in our own production dept. before being packaged into various cartridges and then on to our distributors and customers so you know when using our ink that it up to the job.

The question we get asked about the most with our inks is 'What is the UV life." All we can say is that there are many variables that go towards the life of an ink such as substrate, coating etc. and the ink is only one part of this mix. All inks are made with the same base materials which are dyes and our inks are made with a high concentration of the best dyes available so really the inks cannot get any better. It is the coatings that now need to improve to increase the life of an image. We have tested our inks internally on the same substrates and found that ArTainium UV + inks out lasted our competitors by on average about 10% longer.

Another buzz word that is often used when referring to sublimation inks is "clogging" What is clogging ? Clogging is basically when ink stops getting to the print head. You will first notice this as bands and streaks begin to appear on your transfers but care must be taken not to immediately assume that the banding is caused by "faulty inks" With an Epson 3000 for instance this printer has small dampers which are filters that stop any oversize particles of dye reaching the print head and blocking it. Over time these dampers fill up and need to be replaced as they can starve the printhead of ink which can be interpreted as banding. Another problem often mistaken for clogging is when the docking station begins to tire as the printer gets older it fails to suck enough ink through the print head and the print head becomes blocked producing poor test patterns again mistaken for clogging. So the answer to the question is does our ink clog the answer is no.

Another question is "Is our ink non color correcting ink" well no its not, unfortunately there is no such ink available period. All inks need some form of color correction especially sublimation inks and great care and caution should be taken in dealing with companies that make these claims

Is our ink "high energy ink" Again the answer is no and there is no such thing. All inks are made from natural dyes "High Energy" is a term employed by some to try and justify higher ink prices. You can transfer our inks at 420 degrees or higher if you want, they will work but just because you have used a higher temperature does not mean to say they are high energy

One thing you will find with ArTainium UV + inks is that because our ink formula is very dense you can operate your printer on the plain paper setting as opposed to the Photo Quality setting which in effect gives you approximately up to a 40% increase in yield from your cartridges compared to other inks!