Custom Phone Cases — 12 Decoration Methods Under One Roof

Most suppliers offer one or two decoration methods and outsource the rest. We run twelve under one roof in Guangzhou, which means the honest answer to “which process should I use” comes from the people who will actually run your order — not from a trading company comparing three quotes.

This page exists to narrow twelve options down to the one or two that fit your artwork, your quantity and your shell. Start with the three questions below.

40M cases       45 machines      12 methods      from 10 pcs
per year        injection moulding  in-house      per design

Three questions, and you are down to one process

Question 1 — How far does the pattern have to go?

Question 2 — How many pieces per design?

Question 3 — What has to be true about the shell?

If two answers point at different processes, the stricter requirement wins. Tell us both and we will explain the trade-off rather than pick one silently.

The four pattern processes

UV Printing — from 10 pcs, samples in 3–5 days

Sprays cured ink straight onto the back panel. No film, no mould, no screen. The lowest entry point we offer and the fastest sample turnaround. Prints the back only.

10 pcs/design · US$0.49–0.97 · TPU / TPU+PC
→ UV printing in detail

IMD — the graphic is sealed inside the shell

Your artwork is printed on a film, formed, and moulded into the wall of the case. The ink ends up behind plastic. Nothing to scratch, nothing to fade. Available as flat, partial-wrap or full wrap, all on TPU.

20 pcs/design · US$0.59–1.50 · TPU
→ IMD in detail

3D Sublimation — full wrap on a rigid PC shell

Dye migrates into the polycarbonate at 190°C and becomes part of the plastic. The only way to get a full-colour 360° wrap on a hard shell. Registration can drift by a millimetre — we say so before you order.

20 pcs/design · US$0.80–1.29 · PC / PC+TPU
→ 3D sublimation in detail

Water Transfer — coverage nothing else reaches

Hand-dipped in a tank. Water pressure carries the pattern over the outer rim and into the deepest corner radii, where formed films leave bare plastic. The highest unit cost, because a person touches every piece.

500 pcs/design · US$1.15–1.65 · TPU / PC
→ water transfer in detail

Single colour, logos and surface finish

Not every job is a full-colour pattern. Eight more methods handle marks, textures and coatings:

Screen printing — 1–3 spot colours, lowest cost at volume
Pad printing — small marks in recesses, camera rings, side edges
Laser engraving — no tooling charge, permanent, single tone
Hot foil stamping — metallic gold and silver accents
Epoxy doming — raised glossy resin over the print
Spray + soft-touch coating — matte rubber finish
In-mould texture — the pattern formed in the steel itself
Electroplating — mirror chrome, brushed metal and two-tone finishes

→ Screen printing in detail · laser marking and engraving · in-mould embossing · logo printing and finishing

Describe the effect — we will name the process

Buyers rarely ask for a process by name. They describe what they want to see and feel. This is the translation table we use internally:

If your description is not on this list, send it anyway. We have been matching artwork to processes since 2003.

Shortest path, by who you are

A brand testing designs
Start with UV printing. 10 pieces per design, samples in 3–5 days, no set-up cost. Once a design proves out, we move it to IMD or sublimation for better durability and a lower unit price.

A brand launching a hero product
Go straight to IMD full wrap if the graphic must stay perfect; 3D sublimation if you need a hard PC feel. Both start at 20 pieces per pattern.

A promotional or corporate order
Screen printing on a sprayed shell is the cheapest route for a single-colour logo at volume. Laser engraving if the quantity is small and you have vector art.

A product that must look untouched after a year
IMD. There is no other answer — the ink is behind plastic.

A brand that already has the decoration pieces
Send the charms, pearls and bows — we set them into a grooved shell and cast them in resin rather than printing them. Anything between 0.6 and 1.2 mm thick encapsulates flush. See how custom resin phone cases are made.

A brand whose product is soft, not rigid
Silicone is a different material with its own rules — liquid and solid grades, screen printing or laser instead of film, and a colour minimum that hard shells do not have. Start with custom silicone phone cases if the hand feel is the selling point.

Why twelve methods in one building matters

Three practical differences, beyond the obvious.

You get one answer, not three. When a design sits between two processes, the decision comes from the people who will run both. No supplier passing the blame.

Samples move faster. A UV sample takes 3–5 days because it never leaves the building. If the design later moves to IMD, the same team handles the film.

Nobody quotes you the wrong process to win the order. We lose nothing by telling you sublimation is cheaper than water transfer for your job — we run both.

What you never pay for

Worth stating plainly, because it is unusual:

• No mould charge for a phone model. When a new model comes out, we cut the tooling ourselves and absorb it into the unit price. Standard model or last month’s release, the invoice does not include a mould.
• No plate charge for UV printing, sublimation, water transfer or laser engraving.
• Screen, pad and foil charges apply only where a physical plate is genuinely needed — typically US$8–28 per colour.

A custom shell geometry is the one case where tooling is quoted separately. Everything else starts at 10 pieces and a file upload.

FAQ

Can you tell me which process to use before I send artwork?
Yes, roughly, from your description. Once we see the file and the phone model, the answer is usually settled within a day.

Do you have a minimum order?
10 pieces per design for UV printing, 20 for IMD and 3D sublimation, 500 for water transfer. All four require 100 pieces per phone model in total.

Can I mix processes in one order?
Yes, and it is common. Sprayed shell plus screen-printed logo, or IMD back plus pad-printed side mark. We quote it as one order.

What artwork format do you need?
AI, PDF or PSD at 300 dpi. For repeat patterns, a seamless tile gives a better wrap.

Do you sign an NDA?
Before you send files. See below.

Which models do you already run?
Send the model and we will confirm the same day. If it is new, we can cut the tooling — at our cost, not yours.

Send your artwork and the phone model. We will tell you which of the twelve methods fits, and what it costs, within 24 hours.

If you already know which process you want, say so and we will skip straight to the quote.

On confidentiality: what you send us stays with us. We never disclose your artwork, designs or product information to any third party without your written consent — and we sign an NDA before you share a single file.