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Distinctive feature century high technology is the ease with which beauty is replicated and originality is put on stream. But if not everyone is given the gift of becoming an artist and painting great canvases, then creating unique images with the help simple technologies many can do.

Wood is one of the suitable materials, on which a photograph or favorite drawing will look great. In addition to the fact that the quality of the product will remain unchanged for many years, it will be a kind of masterpiece or a piece of goods, depending on how it is disposed of.

The essence of technology

Don't let people like that scare you smart words like technology sublimation printing or graverton, because it is one and the same, therefore, less incomprehensible. The technology is based on the principle of sublimation, when a substance, under the influence of high temperature, “jumps” from a gaseous state directly to a solid state, bypassing the wet stage.

Graverton technology allows you to transfer a design to wood, metal, glass, fabric, and the process itself takes place in a certain order:

1. The image is printed on sublimation paper;
2. The front side is applied to the object being processed;
3. Placed in a heat press for a certain time.

expose artistic treatment you can have a huge number of things - from shoes, dishes, fabrics to corporate symbols, puzzles and all sorts of other unexpected things.

The main disadvantage of graverton technology is the need for special equipment and its high price:

• sublimation printer(starting from 500 thousand rubles and kopecks);
• thermal transfer press(from 9 to 30 thousand rubles).

Professional service center"Tonfix", providing comprehensive maintenance and repair services for office equipment in Kyiv. Our work is based on professionalism, loyal pricing policy and openness. A high quality The work performed is confirmed by a company service guarantee. We work quickly, efficiently, inexpensively.

The TonFix service center provides a full range of services, including:

• On-site diagnostics of peripheral devices.
• Repair of office equipment: laser printers, MFPs, copiers, faxes.
• Firmware for printing and copying equipment.
• Restoration of office equipment.

We carefully disassemble the device and repair it using special equipment and original consumables. At the end of the repair, mandatory testing follows. This allows us to verify that the device works as it should and provide you with a warranty.

Service center for repair of office equipment "Tonfix": advantages

The Tonfix service center provides high-quality service and repair of office equipment. Our craftsmen undergo advanced training and retraining courses in a timely manner. This allows them to support high level professionalism and stay up to date with new technologies.

• We go to the customer

• Experienced specialists

• Qualitatively

• Affordable prices

• Fill time

• Any form of payment

• Quality assurance

• Accepting orders

The high speed of work is ensured not only by the qualifications and experience of the technician, but also by the availability of high-quality, original spare parts. We have everything you need to restore the operation of even rare models of office equipment. And if we run out of spare parts, we order them separately. Delivery is carried out within 3–5 days.

We travel to any district of Kyiv and carry out work at home or in the office at a time agreed with you. You can also visit our workshop at the address: Kiev, Gorodetsky 17/1.

Comprehensive maintenance of office equipment - high quality and affordable

Repair of office equipment at the Tonfix service center is a prompt and affordable service. We work with all models of printers, copiers and MFPs, including:

• Xerox;
• Konica Minolta;
• Toshiba;
• Samsung;
• Canon;
• Dell;
• Kyocera;
• Panasonic.

We fix most faults on site at the customer's place. And if the situation is non-standard, then a specialist will take the device to our service center, where there is professional equipment, tools, a computer and a whole fleet of printing and copying devices, which allows you to repair office equipment as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Repair process

The work of TonFix craftsmen is structured so that every client is satisfied with the result. We work according to favorable price and strive to work as quickly as possible. We pay due attention to each stage:

1. Diagnostics.
2. Careful disassembly.
3. Thorough cleaning of device parts.
4. A set of measures for the repair of office printing equipment.
5. Assembly of the device.
6. Final testing.

With us, your office equipment will work with new strength. To order a particular service, simply request a call back or call us.

In this tutorial I will show you 5 in various ways prints on wood. These are great methods that will allow you to make custom designs such as signs, plaques, gifts, or simply brand your creations.

Step 1: Gathering materials

Materials:

• pine board
• Liquitex gel medium

Step 2: Setup

I tested 4 methods for transferring a design from paper to wood and one method using a technique. On each board I used the same image, which had my logo with a large block of text, a picture and regular sized text, so for each type of application it would be clear how well the wood reacted with different options application.

All pictures were printed on my laser printer(not jet). I also mirrored the image so that it would appear correctly on the tree.

Step 3: Method 1 - Acetone

The first method is to use acetone to transfer the toner to the wood. All you need is acetone, a paper towel, nitrile gloves to protect your hands, or you can use an old plastic card. When working with acetone, be careful and read the safety instructions.

I placed the mirrored image on the plywood and wrapped it to secure it in place. Then I dipped a napkin in acetone and placed it on the picture, pressing it firmly on top.

After several repetitions, the toner transferred to the wood and the paper came away from the wood.

Pros: very fast, decent image quality, clean process
Cons: Image quality is average, acetone is a strong chemical

Step 4: Method 2 - Ironing

The next method is to use a regular iron. All you need to do is iron the paper. As in the last step, I wrapped the paper around the piece of wood and then ironed it, being careful not to move the sheet against the wood. I tried to press hard on the iron, and the iron itself was set to high temperature, but it seems to me that the temperature was not high enough.

The picture came out so-so, and I think it was because the iron didn't heat the paper up enough. I've heard that using wax paper can improve the situation, and some craftsmen also transfer images using a soldering iron with a special tip for branding.

Pros: the cheapest method, done quite quickly
Cons: poor image quality, possibility of burning yourself, charring wood or paper

Step 5: Method 3 - Polyurethane Varnish

The third method is based on the use of polyurethane on water based. I used Polycrylic (this is just the name of the manufacturing company, so you can buy any equivalent). You need varnish, an acid brush, a stiff toothbrush and water.

I applied the polycrylic with a small brush, trying to create a thin film so it was wet but didn't puddle. I then pressed the paper directly onto the wet polycrylic and pressed the paper from the center to the edges, removing any air trapped under the paper, and then moved the wood to the side where it dried for about an hour.

After the piece was dry, I wet it with water and then peeled off as much paper as I could remove with my hands. Next I took toothbrush and gently rustled it across the surface until all the remaining paper was cleaned off.

The quality turned out to be excellent! Everything except a small defect on the letter “F” looked very good. I was truly surprised by this wood printing method.

Pros: Excellent image quality, safe water-based coating
Cons: paper removal is a rather messy method, takes an hour to dry

Step 6: Method 4 - Liquitex Gel Solvent

The fourth method was a gel solvent. I used Liquitex gloss, a foam brush, an old plastic card, a toothbrush and water.

The process is similar to the one in which varnish was used, the only difference is that we have a gel in our hands, not a liquid. It is better to work with gel with foam, because the brush leaves a lot of tubercles and stripes.

I pressed the picture into the gel and removed the air trapped under the paper, first with my fingers and then with a plastic card. I then left the piece to dry for 90 minutes and then scraped off the paper with a toothbrush.

This option also looked great, but there were a few pieces of paper left on the wood that couldn't be scraped off with a brush.

Pros: Excellent image quality, safe water-based gel
Cons: polycrylic is more difficult to remove, the surface becomes rough, takes a long time to dry

Step 7: Method 5 - CNC Laser

So, now let's try the technological method. I had access to a Full Spectrum Laser Hobby 20x12 and used it to print the same image. Setting up the device is very simple.

Image quality was good as expected. The only problem area was the photograph, which was difficult for the laser to copy. But the text and logo, completely black in the photo, look great.

Pros: excellent detail of text and logo, set it up and the machine will do everything for you
Cons: Expensive to buy, hard to find rentals, doesn't handle photos very well

Step 8: Apply the finishing coat and final opinion

I decided to apply finished works varnish coating to see how to change appearance products and this procedure slightly changed my opinion about each of the methods I tested.

The acetone darkened a lot after varnishing and I liked the final look much better, which is why I'm ranking this result higher than the gel sample.

The option with the iron... remained of poor quality.

The polycrylic darkened even more and looked even better. This is a definite favorite in my ranking.

The gel also darkened, but the surface of the wood was not leveled, and pieces of paper that I could not remove were noticeably sticking out. To achieve a result similar to polycrylic, I had to spend a lot more time.

Option on laser CNC It didn't darken much, but became a little more like scorched wood, and the detailing was still excellent.

Have you ever thought about “printing” your photographs on wood or has such a thought even occurred to you? One way or another, if you like the effect described, you can easily do it yourself by following simple steps described below.

Step 1 - What is required?

Below is a list of items needed for the job. You do not have to use identical tools, except as noted below.

Photo printed on a laser printer

Wooden board the same size as the photo

Gel medium (it must be acrylic)

Brush for applying gel medium

Knife for butter or any other flat tool to smooth the photo onto the wood

Wood paint (optional) and cloths

Soft paraffin or matte ModPodge decoupage glue to smooth and cover the image

Paraffin brush

Picture hanging brackets

Step 2 – Selecting an image and its future appearance

Obviously, you first need to decide what exactly you want to transfer to the tree. Most often, bright, clear photographs from high resolution won't look too stylish on the tree. In our case, this photograph of an airplane was processed in Lightroom to give it a vintage look - converted to monochrome, contrast was increased and film grain was added.

Step 3 – Print the Photo and Find the Wood Base

Very IMPORTANT - the image must be laser printed, if this is not the case, you don’t even have to try to do the rest. Then you need to find a suitable wooden base, smooth and of the appropriate size.

Step 4 – Applying the gel medium to the wood

This is extremely important point. Cover the entire surface of the wood with one layer of gel medium, not too thin, but not too greasy. If the layer turns out to be too thick and dense, it will be difficult to remove the image after the procedure. Too much thin layer most likely will not allow the image to transfer to the tree in some places. Try to create an even, high-quality layer.

After the gel medium has been applied, you need to position the photo front part on the tree. There will definitely be bubbles in the photo, so do your best to reduce and smooth them out. In our situation it was used plastic tool, which came to hand, but it could be a butter knife, a ruler, a roller, or any other item that you think would be suitable for this purpose.

After the image is placed on the base and smoothed, leave it overnight and don’t let anyone get close!

Step 5 – Remove the Paper

This is a very interesting stage. To remove the paper, we only need to wet it and scrub it with our hands. This is a rather messy process and there may be another way, but we found our fingers to be the most suitable tool. Some parts of the image will be easier to remove than others, but keep in mind that by the end of the procedure your hands and fingers will definitely be tired. The procedure may have to be repeated and in total it will take from up to 30 minutes. But this extremely exciting moment is to see how the photograph appears on the tree. Have your vacuum cleaner ready to clean up the mess that is sure to come from this step.

Step 6 – Finishing Touches

At this stage you can show your creativity. Since we were going for a vintage look, we gave it one coat of wood paint. Be careful not to let the work become too dark or take on an undesirable color. After application, you can soak the surface with a rag to remove excess.

We then lightly sanded the edges to remove excess gel and smooth out wooden surface. We also used a product called Pigment and sponged it onto the edges to create a vignetting-like effect.

I translated an image printed on a regular laser printer. In the future I'm thinking of looking for an inkjet printer to print color images. In this case, you must not forget to mirror the image horizontally. Well, I also made a small tone correction in the light direction.

The surface on which the image is transferred must be smooth. I used sandpaper 120 grit.

Main element technological process- gel medium. When I found a craft store in my city and asked the seller to give me a gel medium, he asked me a question that puzzled me: “Which one do you want?” “Well, well, on the Internet it’s written simply - gel medium. Let me translate the pictures.” Then it was the seller’s turn to be surprised. It turned out that translating pictures is just side effect, which the seller had not heard of before, but in general the gel is used for different effects“under glass” and “with rhinestones”. From all the many gels, I chose a transparent glossy acrylic medium. It turned out I was not mistaken. The gel itself is similar to sour cream. And consistency, and color, and just as opaque.

Glue the sheet with the image and use a roller to push out the bubbles.

The idea of ​​the method is that top layer paper carrying the image is pasted into the medium ( liquid glass). After complete hardening (we left the workpieces to dry overnight), you only need to remove the layer of paper. To do this, the paper is soaked and rolled with your fingers. I used the hard side of the dish sponge. Here you must not overdo it and damage the image itself. But this does not pose a particular problem, the image is quite stable.

We have conducted many experiments on paper removal. The sponge showed itself with best side. But when the paper was rolled up with your fingers, a small paper pile remained, which rose when the varnish was applied.

After removing the paper, all that remains is the printer ink glued into the liquid glass. Moreover, after drying, the gel became transparent and the structure of the wood was clearly visible.

I must say, the technology is quite effective. The whole process takes two evenings. The image is translated clearly and does not blur. One jar of gel with a volume of 125 ml and costing 480 rubles was enough for 9 A4 sheets. The only inconvenience is that the image may be damaged when the paper is removed.

All that remains is to cut off the excess.

Now that you have the technology, you can think about its application. For example, decoration of boxes or original labeling of products.

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