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ContentsLaser Printer Sublimation - Present and
Future
By Jack Franklin & John Pratt
While inkjet successes, problems and questions seem to dominate most sublimation discussions, laser printer sublimation quietly and profitably earns sublimators many tens of thousands of dollars every day. This happy fact is true today, and will be even truer in the future.
For the uninformed, it may come as a shock to learn that currently, most of these very high profit dollars come from B&W single color laser printers. Borrowing a phrase, we refer to it as "the other white meat."
Compared to single color sublimation, full color laser printer sublimation is a relative newcomer. However, a small but growing number of professional sublimators are enjoying spectacular sales and gaining impressive market share in their areas.
The rest of this article provides an overview of the two processes, now and in the future.
Single Color Laser Sublimation
Two factors contribute to the very high profitability of this process: inexpensive simplicity and the very high perceived value of what it produces.
90% (or more) of production consists of black lettering and graphics on brushed gold aluminum plates. Already sounds like "Dullsville", doesn't it? We agree. The only excitement comes from going to the bank.
The technology consists of any one of hundreds of ordinary desktop laser printers and any graphics or desktop publishing program that will mirror an image.
The consumables consists of a dye sublimation laser cartridge, cheap office copier paper that runs about $25 per case of 5,000 sheets and brushed gold sublimation aluminum at about $3.00 per 12x24 sheet.
That's it. While a plate cutter to cut the metal and a heat press is obviously needed, the only other requirement is the ability to walk and chew gum at the same time.
As one of our customers (who is also an inkjet sublimator) laughingly told us, "I spent about 15 minutes learning how to do the process and have never spent one minute on color corrections."
Low and simple startup and operating investment (a typical laser transfer costs about a dime) is part of the high profit equation. The other part, is the happy (for sublimators) perception of the buying public.
Since birth, we have all been conditioned to feel like gold or silver is "what's happening." If you want to pump someone up, you don't tell him or her to "go for the chartreuse." You exhort them to "go for the gold!" Only diamonds have a higher perceived value.
Black and gold is a natural and desirable "steak and potatoes" combination in the public's mind. It almost automatically increases the value of anything it is put on. Granted, this is our reasoning but how else to explain folk's willingness to pay prices that provide 800% to 1,200% profits?
Even when it is not directly concerned with awards, badges or signs, it can still have a dramatic impact on profits.
One example comes from a souvenir gift shop (they asked to be unidentified because their local competition hasn't caught on yet). Souvenir shops in the same area often carry much of the same items. This too often forces unprofitable low prices, as the only thing they have to compete with, is price.
The shop identified every wood item in their store that could possibly hold a small, personalized plate. They identified every group with a small sublimated plate that stated the price of the item included a free personalized nameplate, done while the customer waited.
They also raised the price of each of those items 10% to 20%. Plates are precut and templates already in the computer. They estimate the cost of each plate at about 25 cents, including employee labor.
They don't make a dime from single color sublimation but are making some very nice extra profits because of it.
Every story is different. About the only story you never hear, is that a shop has stopped offering laser sublimation, because it is no longer profitable.
Cartridge and toner technology will probably not change. Currently, there is no need. Black is black, and a good cartridge will consistently deliver thousands of nice, dense black printed transfers for metal. Oddly, older refurbished laser printers are usually the best printers.
Because of the powerful toners used and the light backgrounding, laser printers produce all over the paper, they will probably not be really suited for "whites" even in the future (the backgrounding cannot be seen on gold, silver and bronze metal). The backgrounding stems from the toner manufacturing process and would raise prices considerably, attempting to eliminate it.
Even to us, it all really sounds rather bland and unexciting. Because of customer desirability and the thousands of award, gift, SOHO and ad specialty companies profiting from the process, however, we don't see anything but solid profits and growth for future sublimators.
If you want to learn more, we invite you to tour our single color sublimation classroom at sublimationcartridge.com. If you would like a free subscription to our sublimation business newsletter, Toner Times, click here.
Full Color Laser Printer Sublimation
First introduced about two and a half years ago, full color laser printer sublimation has enjoyed a steady, albeit less spectacular, (as compared to inkjet) rise in use among professional sublimators.
The biggest majority of sublimators use the HP 4550 color laser printer or its predecessor the HP 4500. With varying degrees of success, a small minority uses some type of a QMS printer.
Like single color laser sublimation, the main strength of the HP 4550 is to deliver a wide gamut of deep, rich color on sublimation metal, especially brushed gold aluminum and brass. While inks have made great strides in quality, the nature of their composition makes it almost impossible to get a good image on brushed gold.
Two additional factors greatly strengthen bottom line profits with full color laser sublimation. First, is an average transfer/operating cost of about $0.25 a page, which is done on high quality (but still inexpensive) laser paper. The second factor revolves around what was previously stated about the very high perceived value of gold and silver, from the buying public.
Full color on gold seems to have such a high perceived value to the market that most sublimators deliberately make even full bleed designs "show some gold."
The laser toners are very consistent from one dye lot to the next and proper gray scale is easily maintained by adjusting print density settings from our color profile numbers. This leaves the operator only with color management tasks rather than constant color correction tasks. There is a difference in our mind.
As nice as the toners are, what really makes color laser sublimation toners viable are the HP 4500 series printers themselves. In our mind, prior to that, print quality was poor, even with regular laser toners. The 4500 series started a whole new ball game.
In the future, this technology will improve even more. The HP 4550 is not much different from the 4500. HP added a few bells and whistles and a different driver. That was about it.
As good an image as the 4500's produce we think the next generation of HP printers will produce a quantum leap in technology that will benefit sublimation even more.
Currently there are not that many sublimation laser toner manufacturers in the United States. As this market niche grows we think other major players will jump in with alternative dyes. As has happen with inks, this will raise quality even further, while lowering prices and increasing competition.
"Metal" sublimators have already found many specialized jobs on "whites" and other materials that laser sublimation handles very nicely. In addition they, and we, are successfully experimenting with different production methods to get around the "backgrounding" issue.
As the market grows and becomes more profitable we also think some manufacturer will eliminate the backgrounding problem. When this happens there will be an explosion of growth.
In the meantime, early users of the process are not only enjoying high profits, but increased market share.
In conclusion we want to categorically state that we are not suggesting that toners will replace inks, because they are "better." That's nonsense. All processes are viable and best suited for specific tasks. If we were still in the retail business, we would probably own and use one of everything.
If you want to learn more, we invite you to tour our full color laser sublimation classroom at colourmagic.info. If you would like a free subscription to our sublimation business newsletter, Toner Times, click here.
This article was written by Jack Franklin and John Pratt of Alpha Supply Company Nashville, Tennessee, and Copyrighted 2001. The article may not be reproduced in whole or part, without written permission