Costom-printed Industry: Dye Sublimation Printing On Furniture Fabric

Dye sub transferring is a form of heat transfer process that allows you to take a digital image, print it on a sublimation printer and press it onto a garment. You must use sublimation ink, which uses a continuous-tone technology; prints are typically dry and ready to handle as soon as you remove them from the printer. This process can be used on a variety of products, from t-shirts to coasters.

In my neck of the woods, one of the major industries is upholstered furniture manufacturing. The industry isn’t as large as it once was, but the companies that have found their niche are thriving. 

I believe that custom-printed upholstered furniture is an underdeveloped, niche market for digital textile printers and represents a huge growth opportunity, especially for printers with direct or transfer dye sublimation capability.

For a print consumable provider to participate in this market, they have to develop a relationship with someone who can build (or reupholster) the furniture and assist with the layout of the printed images on the fabric. 

This partner might be a small- to medium-sized furniture manufacturing company. There are actually “pockets” of furniture manufacturers around the country . 

Most manufacturers have procedures in place for working with customer-supplied fabric, so for them it’s not a new concept.

A better partner might be a reupholstery shop. There’s one in every town and most can reupholster older furniture and order new frames from larger manufacturers to make new, custom furniture.

Another approach is to produce custom-printed slip covers that could be used on new or old furniture. Different sets of covers could be made for the same furniture, allowing it to be used in different settings.

Who are the prospective customers for this new application? All of your existing clients who have offices with lobbies or customer waiting areas, such as car dealerships, auto service chains and urgent care centers.

 If you’re already producing graphics for trade shows, custom-printed furniture is a natural extension of that product line and another opportunity for the client to get their message across during the event.

 The graphics could be anything from simple combinations of company colors to elaborate uses of logos combined with colors and printed messages.

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