Dye Sublimation on Aluminum

[Sirius Glass]

I have known Ira Meyer Dead Link Removed for years. This weekend I saw him at the Beverly Hills Art Fair. He now sends his photographs to a laboratory to be printed on aluminum with a dye sublimation method. The prints are not only brilliant, they all have a lot pop. Does anyone know about this process? How is it done?

 

[digital&film]

http://www.mpix.com/products/homedecor/modern-metal-prints

 

[Sirius Glass]

Thanx!

 

[polyglot]

I have a 30x40" one of these on my wall from an RVP50 scan. It's OK, but the colour quality isn't really there, there's a bit of metamerism around the highlights (the dyes have quite different reflectivity to the underlying metal) and it has poor detail in shadows and highlights. But if you can get an image that is all strongly-saturated midtones, yes, it will look pretty good. Needs good direct light on it for best effect, like the metallic papers.

Mine is mounted on little posts sticking out from the wall. It's easy to clean dust off - tough surface - but has suffered damage from furniture bangs. And the corners are sharp and dangerous.

 

[Darkroom317]

I do this at work. It is an inkjet process using special inks. The print on top of the substrate is placed in a heat press at 400 degrees fahrenheit. The ink turns to a gas and penetrates the surface of the substrate in this case aluminum. It is then taken out of the press and the print is removed. The ink sits below a coating over the substrate.