This year the bottle for the taittinger brut millésimé 2000, a blend of 50 chardonnay and 50 pinot noir, was decorated by the american painter robert rauschenberg, wellknown for his &ldquocombine&rdquo works that integrate the aspects of painting and sculpture. The rauschenberg bottle, is encased in a moulded &ldquoshell&rdquo of dupont crastin pbt, and decorated using dupont dyesublimation technology &ndash selected for its ability to accurately reproduce delicate artwork on complex shapes. The artwork created by rauschenberg uses a largely chromatic, but a very subtle palette of colours, with very light and &ldquofadedlooking&rdquo tones of mauve, brown and yellow, together with large areas of dark grey and black. 3dsublimation printing was the most effective way of reproducing these very delicate colours on such a complex shape. 3dsublimation printing requires a material for the shell that resists the temperatures incurred during the sublimation process. Dye sublimation is a dyetransfer process. When the dyes are heated in this transfer process, they vaporize, and if they are in close proximity to a suitable substrate, such as a plastic or coating, the vapours penetrate the adjacent substrate by around 0.002 in. 0,005 mm up to 0.25 in. 0,635 mm. The plastic substrate must be able to withstand temperatures of 280 to 375 ºf 138 to 190 ºc necessary to vaporize the dye.
