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Production process of thermal transfer film

The thermal transfer process on pure cotton fabric is a mature example of fabric printing technology. It uses a flat heat press or heat transfer machine to transfer the pattern on the heat transfer film or heat transfer film to the garment as a whole.
The thermal transfer process itself is not complicated, but the production process of thermal transfer film is complicated. Initially, the pattern to be transferred needs to be completed by silk screen printing. Since silk screen printing can only print one color at a time, it is very cumbersome and difficult. From the perspective of silk screen printing technology alone, you must master plate making technology, printing technology, and ink adjustment technology. If there are more than three colors, the entire process of making thermal transfer film will take a lot of time. The accuracy of multi-color overprinting is not easy to master.
With the development of printing technology, printers are encroaching on the field of silk screen printing. An example is the process of making thermal transfer film. It directly prints the pattern to be transferred onto PET film, which is fast, colorful, and easy to achieve dot effect. Although it is not enough to shake the position of silk screen printing in terms of three-dimensional sense and saturation of color, its advantages in most occasions have been recognized by many practitioners in the clothing industry chain.

DTF stands for Direct to Film, which means directly to film:

Structure

DTF equipment is mainly composed of printing part, powder spreading device, powder shaking device, drying device, etc. The printing part includes the print head, ink path system, etc., which are responsible for printing the ink onto the film; the powder spreading device is used to evenly spread hot melt powder on the printed film; the powder shaking device is used to remove the excess powder that is not absorbed by the ink; the drying device heats the ink and hot melt powder to better fuse and dry them to ensure the firmness of the pattern and the stability of the color.

Principle

There are two common ways of DTF printing. One is hot melt adhesive powder DTF, which first prints the hot melt adhesive powder onto the transfer film through the print head to form a pattern, and then uses a heating device to melt the hot melt adhesive powder, thereby transferring the pattern to a substrate such as fabric; the other is direct inkjet DTF, which directly prints the ink onto a special release paper, and then transfers the pattern to the fabric by thermal transfer, so that the ink solidifies on the fabric to form a pattern.

Application

• Clothing industry: Personalized patterns and texts can be printed on various fabrics such as cotton, polyester, etc. to meet the needs of fashion and customization, such as making cultural shirts, sportswear, etc.

• Home decoration: It can be used to print curtains, sofa covers, tablecloths and other fabric decorations to increase the beauty and uniqueness of the products.

• Advertising materials: Flags, banners, advertising shirts, etc. with corporate logos, slogans and other patterns can be produced to achieve the purpose of publicity and promotion.

Development status

• Market demand growth: With the increasing demand for personalized and customized products, DTF printing technology has been growing in the market demand for clothing customization, cultural and creative products and other fields due to its advantages of small batch and diversified production.

• Technological progress: The printing accuracy is constantly improving, which can achieve more delicate and realistic pattern effects; the performance of ink and hot melt powder is also constantly optimized, which improves the firmness of the pattern and the vividness of the color; the degree of automation of the equipment has also been improved, such as automatic powder spreading, shaking powder, drying and other functions, which improves production efficiency and reduces labor costs.

• Intensified industry competition: The development of the DTF printing market has attracted many companies to enter, and the market competition is becoming increasingly fierce. Enterprises need to continuously improve their technical level, product quality and service capabilities to enhance their competitiveness.

• Increased environmental protection requirements: Against the backdrop of increasingly stringent environmental policies, DTF printing technology is also developing in a more environmentally friendly direction, such as the development and use of water-based inks, degradable hot-melt powders, etc., to reduce the impact on the environment.