Dyes in Heat Transfer Printing

The process of heat transfer is faster, durable along with being profitable that is why its gaining recognition from several industries.

The apparel industry has a dedicated use of heat transfer printing technology. They use it as an alternative way for printing fabrics. In this process often the designed gets transferred from a pre-printed paper onto the necessary fabric by the method of contact heat, through which the dyes get absorbed into the fabric. Heat Transfer is good technology for having clear and well defined pictures. This process, called sublimation, needs no water unlike the water requirement in conventional dyeing processes.

The heat transfer printing technology uses dyes for carrying out the printing operations. One of the most popular dye that finds application are the disperse dyes and basic dyes. Azo dyes are also successfully used. Some of the popular disperse dye colors are yellow, orange, red, violet, blue and brown. Ideally disperse type inks that are used in the heat transfer should contain 5-20% by weight of disperse dye.

• Solubility of the dyes in Polymer.
• It is very vital that the dye stuffs selected are capable of subliming under heat and pressure conditions. Ideally the dyestuffs should be able to sublime when exposed to temperatures of 140 degree F – 500 degree F for approximately around 10 to 20 seconds.

Some of the popular usages are:

• Apparel Industry- Caps, T-shirts, swimsuits, jackets, cut apparel parts, etc.
• Plastics- Table tops, counter tops, gaming tables.
• Sports Equipment- Snow boards, snow skis, cycling helmets, water sports equipment etc.
• Decorative Industry- Ceramic tiles, wall mural, flooring and interior design etc.