The vinyl has a low temp of 240 degrees before breaking down. To transfer an image, the average temp is 385 degrees. Split heat transfering is a way to accomplish this. You must be able to buy or produce dye sublimation paper. This paper is put in contact under pressure to a mug that has been treated to accept the dye sub process.
Heat is applied by specially designed heat presses.
The time to complete the transfer is approximately 3.5 minutes. The reason for such a long time is that the mug acts as a heat sink, thus the heat goes to the mug and not the transfer paper. Color copiers, ink jet plotters, electrostatic plotters, screen printing, litho printing, gravure printing, and flexo printing all have access to sublimation paper. The quantity dictates the process. For one mug you would go to a color copier that has been set up with the proper dye sublimation cartridges.