Digital printing: knowledge about thermal sublimation and cotton fabric printing(1)
June 02,2022
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If you are a thermal sublimation printer, you must have heard many times that the thermal sublimation technology is not applicable to cotton fabrics. To tell the truth, this statement is absolutely correct. In chemistry, thermal sublimation is applicable to polyester and polymers rather than cotton fabrics, but that doesn't mean you really can't apply it to cotton fabrics.
There are some new products in the market that can apply sublimation dyes to the surface of cotton fabrics. In the process of thermal sublimation, the dye interacts with the polymer in the molecular layer. As far as clothing is concerned, this means that the chemical reaction takes place under the fabric rather than on the surface of the fabric, which is also the reason why the dye will not crack, peel off and fade when sublimated clothing is cleaned.
For the products sublimated from cotton, the generated patterns are attached to the surface of the fabric rather than the inside of the fabric, and cracks, peeling and fading will occur after repeated washing over time. However, this is not a matter of concern, because the traditional printing methods such as screen printing and digital direct injection have the same situation.
In the past few months, some new products for thermal sublimation of cotton matrix have been introduced, which are mainly divided into two categories: transfer paper and printing materials. Here we mainly talk about transfer paper.
About transfer paper
The operation of thermal sublimation printing with transfer paper is very simple: select the appropriate transfer paper to print on the printer, and then use the hot press to print the pattern on the T-shirt. With the reaction of chemical elements, the dye will attach to the surface of the cotton T-shirt from the paper, and then discard the transfer paper. This is the basic thermal sublimation transfer process. It sounds simple, but it is. However, because the transfer paper is very different, it is important to test different products and then evaluate the results.
At present, the transfer paper on the market is composed of a certain polymer, which acts as an intermediate medium to attach the pattern to the cotton cloth. In the process of processing, the whole transfer paper will be dyed with dye. When the image is applied with a hot press, the pigment and ink will be stripped from the paper and printed on the clothes. However, for some products, some places that do not need printing and dyeing will also be printed with patterns.
For example, if a small mark is printed in the middle of the rectangular transfer paper, the mark and the blank area of the paper will also be transferred during the hot pressing process. After Z, you will see a circle of light white rectangular outline of the size of the transfer paper around the printed pattern on the clothes.
Scissors cut off the excess paper around the printed pattern, leaving only the place to be transferred. If there is a large number of prints, it is recommended to buy a paper cutter that can cut automatically. In this way, the operation steps may be increased, but it will be worth it.
The second type of transfer paper is called "self removing paper". In this paper, only the places coated with dyes will be transferred. It sounds like a good choice, but this kind of paper has its disadvantages. First, the process of hot press printing must be fast; Second, this paper is more suitable for printing dark patterns, and the transfer effect of light patterns is not very good.
In contrast, the first transfer paper is more suitable for printing light color patterns. In other words, the choice of transfer paper is not so simple. Therefore, it is necessary to take time to test the transfer paper and printing process to select the paper suitable for Z.
The use of sublimated cotton transfer paper is much more complicated than the selection of products. Digital transfer paper has many different characteristics, which will affect the color and quality of the image. Transfer paper should absorb dyes and release them properly. Different transfer papers have different effects. These factors should be considered when operating.
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