What we do is Mugs

A sample mug made for a Gloucestershire cricket club thinking ahead to the new season in 2009. We are always pleased to produce a pre-production sample for the client to inspect prior to going ahead with the main order ... but this one was never commercially produced and is therefore a unique "one off".

Surrey Old Boys Hockey Club ordered just 12 mugs. Order of a dozen mugs is fine by us - you pay a little more per mug to cover the cost of setting it all up but that is the nature of low numbers. Where it hits the pocket is delivery which is the same for 12 as it is for 72 - so the unit price for delivery on 12 is just under £1 a mug while on 72 it's around 15p.

Rugby club mugs

Where rugby all began. Mug made for The Rugby Football Club.

YORKSHIRE RAILWAY

An interesting project to make mugs for the staff & volunteers at the Embsay and Bolton Abbey Steam Railway. Visit their site by clicking on their name for the shortcut.

SUBLIMATION.

Our mugs are printed by a method called SUBLIMATION. So what is Sublimation and how does it work?

Sublimation or dye-sublimation is a very simple but highly effective process to professionally and permanently apply and image into (not onto) the surface of ceramics (and a range of other items) to create high quality saleable products.

In other printing processes, a transfer paper, metal sheet or film is printed and applied onto a blank item. However, with dye-sublimation, the image is dyed directly into the surface of the item.

Dye-sublimation utilises the chemical process called sublimation (which is also the chemical process that produces dry ice), which means that the "ink" changes directly from its solid state on a printed screen into gas without going through the liquid stage then back into a solid state on the special coating of the product itself.

Dye-sublimation "ink" is actually fine dry granules held in a liquid carrier. The dye-sublimation inks are printed with an ink-jet printer onto a special "paper", which holds the image in place. It is interesting to note that in the process the special inks and paper used for the screen are two of the most expensive elements.

The image or screen is then placed onto the blank object (the mug) that is pre-prepared with a polymer coating and heat pressed (in a machine that combines high temperature and pressure).

The dye then "sublimates" into a gas and with the help of both the heat and the pressure being applied, is embedded into the surface of the mug. As the dyes cool they turn back into a solid and have bonded with the polymer molecules which means the image is now permanently in the surface of the product.

And there you have it. No big secret or mystery - just a chemical process that puts patterns, logo's, words, photo's or messages onto a mug.

700 MUGS ...... £1575-00

750 MUGS ...... £1680-00

including DESIGN, SETUP, PRODUCTION and DELIVERY.

We are "The Mug Makers"

The technical bits about "Mugworking"

Whitbourne Mugworks is exactly what it says on the tin. We make mugs - or to be exact we decorate mugs with just about anything required by our clients

Illustrated below is one of our standard shape mugs made for Morley Potholers from our "Wycombe White" range.

mugs

Our standard mug types are the "Wycombe White" and the "Worcester White". We also occasionally use the "Staffordshire" which despite being made in China has the word Staffordshire embossed onto the bottom. All three are virtually identical in terms of shape (see the picture above) but while the Wycombe and the Staffordshire are 9.2cm tall, the Worcester is 8.9cm. The shape is commonly known as a "Durham". All weigh about 10oz. The Wycombe and Staffordshire are both made in China while the Worcester originates from Thailand. The reason we use three separate suppliers is to ensure supply - if there is a problem with one, we have the others to fall back on. Quality wise we can't find a great difference between the three.

We don't mix and match within an order - indeed we do our best not to mix the mug type on subsiquent orders either, unless we consult with the customer first.

TWO TONE

We also supply the "Two Tone" - which is effectively the Worcester mug with a coloured handle and rim. An example of the Two Tone can be seen on the header to this and other pages on the site (BW Electronics). It comes in four colours - Blue as illustrated above, Red as supplied to Grimsby Town mug which is illustrated in the "Links" page, Green and Yellow (see "Gaol Hangers" right). Two Tone mugs carry a supplement of 50p each to our advertised "price guide" prices.

MONEY BANKS

Our other core product is the "Money Bank". Also illustrated above as supplied to Killmarnock Football Club of the Scottish Premier League. A similar size to a mug, the Money Bank (also known as a money box) has a slot in the top and a hole with a rubber stopper in the bottom. Popular as a supplimentto a mug order, it is an ideal gift item and offers merchandisers an opportunity to add an item to the product range without significant investment, as a small order for Money Banks can be tagged on to a mug order using a design similar to the mug - possibly with some added wording.

On the other hand we can always do a Money Bank as a distinct and separate item.

Money Banks are supplied at the listed standard price guide cost plus 80p or if part of a mug order at £3-00 each.

DURAGLAZE

In May 2009 we introduced the Duraglaze Mug. Duraglaze is a fraction of a millimeter thinner than our standard mugs which isn't noticable to the customer but is enough to mean we have to reset our tooling to make the mug. We are talking about 1/5th of a millimeter - but it makes a difference!

It stands 92mm high, is around the 10oz weight again and is the classic Durham shape in line with our other products.

But it comes with a dishwasher proof guarantee (see below). There is a small price difference - it costs 25p more per item.

Ideal for customers like village cricket clubs who have had mugs made for the tea room and use a dishwasher - less important where it is a fund raiser and where margin is the crucial factor.

We are pleased to add it to our range.

.... which brings us to our most frequent enquiry.

DISHWASHERS & MICROWAVE

We are often asked if our mugs are dishwasher proof and microwave safe.

Firstly, our processes do not contain any metallic coatings so can be used in the microwave without any problems.

With regard dish washing machines, it’s a matter of “you pay for what you get”.

With our standard “Worcester White” and “Wycombe White” mug we have domestically dish washed many samples of our mugs over 100 times without problems, but we still recommend hand wash only on this mug to maintain the vibrancy of the pattern.

We are advised that on some occasions abrasives used in dishwashers can affect the print - for example when there are high salt levels in the dish washer often associated with hard water areas. We are also aware that a mug can show signs of wear if constantly dish washed using particular detergents and even the temperature (if very hot) of the water in a dishwasher can affect the print. We therefore cannot guarantee the pattern on a standard mug and recommend hand wash only, particularly when a mug is special to the customer. But … in a normal domestic situation and with a bit of care being taken, we are confident that the product we supply will withstand occasional domestic dish washing.

The same applies to the “Two Tone” mug, which is from the same stable as the Worcester.

HOWEVER …

We have recently introduced the 100% dishwasher proof “Duraglaze Mug”. This mug style comes to us with a dishwasher proof guarantee …. and a 25p additional unit price cost.

We will simply pass on that cost by adding 25p to the unit price of Duraglaze Mugs. Our guarantee will be that we will replace any Duraglaze Mug where the pattern has been removed by a domestic dishwasher within five years of purchase. That’s around 2,000 washes if washed daily …. so we don’t think that’s unreasonable!

We now also offer a Bone China and a Fine China mug that are also Duraglaze coated, thus dishwasher proof and with the same guarantee.

THE FUTURE

We are essentially specialists in making mugs but we are always keeping our eye on the ball and looking at what we offer. During 2010 we expect to be introducing other products to our range and will keep our customers up to date with the innovations we are introducing.