Was wondering if it safe to engrave on a sublimation tumbler or is the coating on these tumblers unsafe compared to engraving on powdered coated tumblers. will even hold up to a laser.
Thanks
Rudy
I have been unable to locate any information regarding the composition of sublimation dyes. If there is any chlorine component (vinyl, etc), it would be detrimental to use a laser on such a material.
If you have access to these inks/dyes, you can perform the copper wire test aka Beilstein test to determine danger. It would be difficult to perform the copper wire test on the surface, as I’d expect the coating to be too thin to transfer to the wire for testing purposes.
I was just wondering if the cup it self can be laser etched.
I dont do sublimation work so I don’t have dyes to test
Just a few white tumblers I picked up.
What are the tumblers made of.
That will determine what you can and can’t do with them.
Thats why I asked the question I really dont know.
Hopefully someone knows.
The ‘general term’ of ‘tumblers’ covers tons of different materials. It might help if you were more specific on the type. Such as a link. The ‘sublimation’ can be applied to numerous materials.
Without any details, we can’t really help much… but here are a few basics…
…
If they are glass or porcelain, where I see most of the ‘sublimation’ graphics, then you can damage them with a laser. Meaning you can ‘engrave’ them but in detail it is shattering the glass, which limits resolution. When I do this, I rub them with steel wool to remove any ‘shards’ of glass that haven’t but will come off. Ending up in the users fingers or elsewhere.
There is also the ‘Norton tile’ method that has lots of threads here. This uses a paint that contains titanium oxide that turns black when lased… Then you have to get the cup/tile cleaned up from excess paint.
This is using the Norton method, but it’s early and I found it a drag cleaning off the paint.
If they are stainless or metal, you probably have to use one of the coatings that will molecularly bond with the metal when lased. Most metals have a high reflectivity rate, over 99% and do not lase well since the power cannot be applied to the molecular structure and/or the metal itself is a good ‘heat’ sink that removes heat from where the laser is working.
This is using LBT100 spray on a stainless steel tumbler.
What kind of rotary do you have? I have a PiBurn…
Take care…
:smiley_cat
I’m loving the power behind my Comgrow Z1 10W (it’s closer to 8W but still very powerful). I did this with 1 pass, 2500 mm/M at 100%.
Edit: Just my brand, the rest was printed on it by the manufacturer.
#Comgrow_Z1
Welcome aboard Fanttik…
It appears to be anodized aluminum which is pretty common to engrave.
You should be fine… Looks good
Had my jab, take care @TheCodeGeek
Thanks! Don’t let me fool you, it has its problems just like all the other inexpensive Chinese-made laser engravers. I was just impressed with how well it turned out. Note: I didn’t show the back where I misspelled “property” LOL.
No reason to give away your secrets… 
I know this is an old thread but I have this same question. The cup appears to be stainless steel but i cannot find too much on the coating. i have attached a link to a cup for reference.