There are also several digital printing methods for leather, and each printing method also has its own characteristics:
1. UV printing digital printing is a process that has been rapidly applied in recent years. It is characterized by simple, direct, low cost, and strong personalization. It can directly print the seen patterns on the leather surface. The colors are vivid and bright, waterproof and sunscreen, and the firmness is very strong. Now the use of UV printing and digital printing more and more has become a trend.
2. The big advantage of dye printing is that the hand feel is not affected. However, leather cannot withstand high-temperature steaming, so the textile process cannot be copied. There are a series of dyes abroad, mainly 1:2 metal complex dyes, which can be used to print leather without steaming and can be dried in the air. However, the price of these dyes is high, and their strength is only 30-50% of that of ordinary dyes. It is very troublesome to encounter dark colors. A series of dyes are selected from textile printing dyes. They have the same fastness as imported ones. They are bright in color and high in strength. Only their fastness to light is slightly poor. They can be printed on leather and dried without steaming or washing.
3. Pigment printing is a kind of printing with large quantities in leather printing. Because pigment printing can express gold and silver, with hot film, the product is ever-changing, which can greatly express the noble and gorgeous characteristics of leather.
4. Transfer printing is a more suitable printing method for leather, which can be divided into dry and wet methods according to the process. Dry transfer, mostly made of hot sol ink, printed on release paper or BOPP film, and then transferred to leather under hot-pressing conditions. The wet transfer is to spray a special solution onto the leather first. Then, the dye on the transfer paper is dissolved into a solution by hot pressing and then fixed on the leather. At present, leather transfer printing is a kind of high-grade printing method on leather. The fineness and visual effect of the pattern are not comparable with other methods.
Leather digital printing equipment
The irregularity of leather and the high price of leather determine that leather printing equipment cannot copy the tradition. At present, the printing equipment in the leather industry is divided into direct printing equipment, transfer printing equipment, and some auxiliary equipment.
1. Direct printing equipment: manual plate lifting and leather digital printer. It has the advantages of fast pattern change, wide adaptability, and convenient color registration. However, the major problem with the manual lifting plate used in leather printing is the large amount of waste caused by the irregularity of leather. The technical term is “edge pasting”, which needs to be repaired with scissors after comparison. Therefore, the manual lifting plate is not used much in leather printing. The leather digital printer is widely used in a short period of time. Its advantages are fast, direct, simple, will not cause scrap, low cost, and arbitrary personalization.
2. Transfer printing equipment: transfer printing requires a paper printer and a heat transfer machine. At present, foreign countries use film instead of paper, so a film printer can also be used. The heat transfer machine is different from textiles. It requires high pressure. The normal working pressure is 20~30kg/cm2. Generally, oil pressure is used. The temperature requirement is not high, 120 degrees is relatively high, and 80 degrees is enough.
3. Auxiliary equipment: the auxiliary equipment is the key equipment of the leather printing plant, which is related to the product category and market share.
Whether it is white, dark, black, transparent Pu, etc., you can use a UV printer to print bright products. Both full-scale printing and partial embellishment printing are vivid and natural.