Sublimated Graphics on Base

Originally posted by faded-a-fool Why does some of the dye from the bottom of some base graphics rub off? (in reference to my Lib Tech Phoenix "ship") Will it all eventually rub off (or fade) over time?

what has rubbed off? that's a little disturbing cause that thing has a TNT base, right? My TRS has the same base and it looks "faded" but i don't think it's in any danger of rubbing off. my other lib boards haven't had this issue at all. i think it could just be a loss of the gloss from the infused wax since the sintered bases don't do it.

have you waxed it yet? (just eliminating the obvious questions)

Crazy. i have never heard of this. i think your board is just weird or something...hahahaha

haven't heard of it before but it probably is a sign that you should have bought the version with the naked girl. 

i think i laugh at everyones pain...in a good way...on the bright side lib tech without a doubt has the most vivid graphic ink in the business. no other company has been able to achive the same level of brigtness. maybe this is why a little comes off

Geeeez, no words of encouragement.

I like sublimated base graphics better anyways than some die-cut shite anyways. To me the die-cut stuff just looks plain and boring.

Originally posted by Nu-Nu so is the base of the board like a tatoo?

I guess you can call it that. I'm not sure if the process is the same.

Sublimated or diecut graphics are usually the two ways that we get such cool bases. There is also silk screening but that has kinda gone by the way side and is super old skool.

Sublimation is like printing the graphic onto the base (or fabric, you see this a lot at expos, conventions, trade shows, Point of Purchase displays, any display that is that shiny fabric, plastic stuff). Dyes are transfered into the base to create the base graphic and then a layer of laminate is placed on top of it to prevent the change back to liquid. (which I guess accounts for some slight run off that you are seeing). The dye is transfered using a heat transfer (kinda like iron ons).

This definition is a good one. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dye_sublimation

Diecut bases (all the rage and much preferred and much harder to do) entail creating each piece of a base (different colors, shapes, letters, numbers, etc.) and then placing them together like a jigsaw puzzle for the creation of the snowboard base at the time of pressing. This can be a labor intensive process and there have been instances of pieces of bases falling out, but that is rare and that was when diecutting bases was really taking off a few years ago.

"All our base graphics are die cut. Base material begins as a sheet of plastic. In order to create a die cut base graphic, each component (letter or shape) is cut from an appropriately colored piece of base material. The same shapes are cut into the base or background color. Each piece is then put together much like a puzzle. All the pieces are held together with tape while the board is being pressed."

From http://www.donek.com/tech.htm