# Is Dyesub on Nylon/Spandex possible?



## jryoo (May 25, 2011)

Hi T-shirt Forum.

I am working on making swatches made of nylon/spandex.

One online dye-sub store heard bad stories about trying to sublimate onto nylon.

I was focused on industrial grade for the lowest cost.
My set up is looking to be like:

Epson 7890 with Sawgrass SubliM inks.

Im not sure which heat press to use because of the nylon issue here.

Is sublimating onto nylon possible and worth it?

What kind of heat press should I use?

Thanks


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## binki (Jul 16, 2006)

we stay away from nylon. i have tried dyesub on it and it didnt work. the biggest problem with nylon is you need to know the melting point of the particular version you have.


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## Riderz Ready (Sep 18, 2008)

What heat press you utlize does not matter. You just need to be careful not to expose any fabric to the press itself while testing meaning make sure your paper completely covers the fabric as if you have the press too hot for the fabric it will melt onto the press causing a mess. You may also want to pre press the spandex first as it does shrink quite a bit. We press at 375 but you want to test your specific fabric.


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## D.Evo. (Mar 31, 2006)

There are different types of nylon and Spandex. Some of it will sublimate really well, with some you will have problems like fabric might deteriorate during heat pressing, or the print itself will not look good. 

We have printed on rip-stop nylon, raincoat-type nylon, nylon for sports bags, nylon stockings, etc - most of it works well, but some tweaking of pressing time and temperature is required.

Same with spandex and lycra - most of it works really well, (as Mark said - pre-pressing/pre-shrinking is essential) but some of it is not suitable for dye-sub at all. 
I had an issue once when a customer brought in a roll of poly-Lycra from a local fabric store (which looked exactly like fabric we printed for them before) and we did a test print - it looked great immediately after pressing, but a couple of days later the print started to migrate/bleed in all directions loosing clarity and vibrancy. 

I would suggest when testing this type of fabric go for lower temperature first and gradually increase it if required. You may need to compencate for lower temperature by extending pressing time.


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## uncletee (Feb 25, 2007)

gotta test it, some works really well. good luck uncletee.


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## JerryAmsterdam (Jul 28, 2010)

Any luck on your test? I'd like to know as well since I'll be venturing into that area soon. Thanks


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## jfish (Feb 26, 2010)

What about silk?


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## D.Evo. (Mar 31, 2006)

You can't dye-sub on natural silk (or any other natural fibres), but artificial/acetate silk and satin will work.


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## Geoffasaurus (Jun 13, 2012)

I've recently been trying to sublimate on spandex and most of the time it goest quite well, i think the blend was like 80% polyester and 20% spandex, once in awhile though i get a ghost effect on the garments and i can't quite figure out why, anyone have any thoughts?


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## Riderz Ready (Sep 18, 2008)

Spandex typically shrinks more than poly. Shrinking is a major factor in ghosting. Not sure if you are wide format or desktop format but if you are wide use tacky paper and you will never experience ghosting again. If you are desktop with no access to tacky paper prepress the material which will basically shrink the material before you press the design to it.


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## D.Evo. (Mar 31, 2006)

We usually pre-shrink Lycra or Spandex-rich fabric and use tacky paper. If you don't have tacky paper - try tacky (positioning) spray from craft stores


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## Geoffasaurus (Jun 13, 2012)

We are a wide format printer, and i do use tacky paper and i pre shrink every garment but roughly one in twenty garments still expierence a ghosting effect when there is spandex involved, I've really been racking my brain over this!


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