What are the similarities and differences between digital heat transfer, digital sublimation, and digital direct injection? Digital heat transfer technology is a new technology that combines traditional heat transfer technology with digital printing technology to print color images and patterns in the form of no plate making. At first, this technology was mainly used in advertising, signs, cards, and ceramic image production in China. Later, with the expansion of application fields, it was more used in industrial production, such as digital printing and dyeing and garment production, shoe material production, ribbon, garment label, and other industrial production, and the application products were increasing.
The first countries to apply this technology include the United States, South Korea, Italy, Switzerland, China, and other countries. In terms of the size of the market in the past two years, China has become the world’s largest digital heat transfer processing market. Many international thermal transfer color printing ink brands began to focus on the huge Chinese market, such as “in kirk” American thermal transfer sublimation ink, South Korea’s “image king PK” and so on, with the help of domestic leading Shenzhen. The development platform of the other side culture participates in the domestic market competition, and the competition will become increasingly fierce.
Here, we want to talk about digital heat transfer, which takes inkjet printing technology as the technical form, because this technical form can ensure a certain width and length, and is suitable for industrial production.
At present, heat sublimation. Thermosetting transfer printing and inkjet direct printing are both called digital printing. They are new technologies to adapt to the development of the personalized markets and consumers’ demand for personalized products. Thermal sublimation and thermosetting transfer appeared earlier, and inkjet direct printing is still in the promotion stage in China.
The working principle of thermal sublimation is that dispersed dyes have the characteristics of sublimation at a certain temperature! The ink or ink containing dye is printed on the transfer paper, and then the transfer paper printed with patterns is closely contacted with the fabric. Under the control of a certain temperature, pressure, and time, the dye is transferred from the printing paper to the fabric and enters the interior of the fabric through diffusion, so as to achieve the purpose of coloring. In terms of technology, there are three kinds of traditional sublimation heat transfer: silk screen heat transfer, gravure heat transfer, and offset heat transfer.
The consumables used for thermal sublimation are sublimation ink, that is, thermal sublimation ink. After heat transfer by the thermal transfer machine, a clear image, high color reduction, and water washing fastness are the basic requirements. High-quality thermal transfer ink is mainly produced in the United States and South Korea, and domestic agents are mainly concentrated in Beijing!
Sublimation transfer printing is mainly applied to chemical fiber fabrics and hard materials coated with heat transfer coating. It has perfect color performance, natural transition, high-precision printing, and comfortable wearing. However, it requires complex processes such as hot steaming and washing, printing and dyeing, washing and drying equipment, reasonable hot steaming equipment, and working space. Therefore, there are certain technical and investment restrictions on homework. At the same time, thermal sublimation uses chemical consumables that are harmful to the human body. At the same time, the above treatment process will produce a lot of wastewater, so it is not environmentally friendly.
For pure cotton, at present, it is mainly thermosetting transfer printing and digital inkjet direct injection. After the thermosetting pattern is transferred, a layer of gel is formed on the surface of the attachment, which has poor hand feel and is airtight. When it is used for dark cotton printing, there are many restrictions and it is difficult to promote! Digital direct jet printing is the most advanced printing scheme for pure cotton printing, and it is also the printing method adopted by domestic advantageous textile manufacturers to change their business philosophy! Digital printing is easy to operate without plate making. Traditional complex processes such as filmmaking are used to connect the computer equipment with the printing machine through USB. What you see on the computer is the obtained garment printing. The printing quality is outstanding, the layers are rich, and the color changes naturally. It can be made by one person and one piece. It is breathable, comfortable, colorful, noncolloidal, and perfectly represents the real color world. Due to the use of consumables that do not contain any chemical components, it meets the standards of the new concept of environmental protection clothing, and adapts to the world trend of the manufacturing industry with low cost and cheap labor as the main advantage, and changing to a new manufacturing industry that focuses on research and development, from production efficiency to brand efficiency, and has high added value.
If there are few pure cotton clothes and the effect is your main target, a digital direct-injection machine will be the best choice. At the same time, those equipment is relatively expensive.