Can a printer be used for Dye-Sublimation after already having been used with regular inks? -

I read somewhere that sublimation ink systems have to be changed including the printer if you want to switch ink brands. Is this true? Also, can a printer be used for dye-sublimation inks if it has already been used with standard inkjet inks? Thank you.

A dye-sublimation printer uses a completely different printing system compared to standard inkjet printers. In d-s printing, colors are not laid down as individual dots, as is done in inkjet printers. If you looked inside a true d-s printer, you would see a long roll of transparent film that resembles sheets of red, blue, yellow, and gray colored cellophane stuck together end to end. Embedded in this film are solid dyes corresponding to the four basic colors used in printing: cyan, magenta, yellow and black. The print head heats up as it passes over the film, causing the dyes to vaporize and permeate the glossy surface of the paper before they return to solid form. Inkjet printers use a form of dye-sublimation in that the inks are heated to allow for a smoother flow, but NOT to the same high temps in a true d-s printer. Switching back and forth between sublimation and regular inks is not recommended because when you mix the two ink types neither one will do the job that it was designed to do. And to clean ink out of the lines is time consuming and costly. http://www.thepaperranch.com/default.asp… wwbgd