Traditional thermal transfer technology

Thermal transfer printing is a printing process that has been rising in China for less than 20 years. It was introduced into China from abroad in the 1990 s. Through the continuous efforts of industry peers to explore, research, development has become a mature and updated faster printing process. Because the process has great advantages in controlling production costs and improving product appearance, it is highly respected in the printing industry and continues to develop.

Introduction of 1. Thermal Transfer Technology

Thermal transfer technology is divided into two parts: thermal transfer film printing and thermal transfer processing.

1. Heat transfer film printing:

Most of the gravure printing process, printing dot resolution can reach 300 dpi. The pattern is pre-printed on the surface of the transfer film, and the printed thermal transfer film has rich patterns, bright and full colors, small color difference, and better reproducibility of the pattern effect, which can meet the requirements of the pattern designer.

2. Thermal transfer technology processing:

Through a processing of the thermal transfer machine (according to the working principle of the thermal transfer machine, the thermal transfer film is heated and pressurized synchronously), the exquisite pattern on the transfer film is transferred to the surface of the substrate (including plane and curved surface), the formed pattern is integrated with the surface of the product, and the transfer film naturally falls off, I .e. the process is completed.

As the traditional thermal transfer printing process has the advantages of green environmental protection, in line with international standards, the printing pattern effect is realistic, the color is bright and saturated, the product is exquisite and beautiful after molding, the pattern has strong adhesion, durable wear resistance, not easy to fade, less production loss, low cost and so on, therefore, it is widely used in the surface decoration and packaging decoration of cosmetics, toys, electrical appliances, household building materials, stationery, gifts, accessories, daily necessities and other products with large quantities and high requirements. Applicable materials include ABS, AS, PS, PVC, PP, PE and other plastic products and metal, glass, wood products.

Advantages of 2. Traditional Thermal Transfer Technology

The rise of emerging transfer processes such as in-mold labeling, in-mold transfer, vacuum transfer, thermal sublimation, and water transfer has a great impact on traditional thermal transfer technology, but the use of traditional thermal transfer technology is still a prosperous scene. There are numerous applications in cosmetics, toys, electrical appliances, household building materials, stationery, gifts, accessories, daily necessities and other fields, especially on workpieces with cylindrical, conical, curved surfaces and other shapes, such as lipstick shell, refill, finger snowboard, tapered lampshade and other product areas, the traditional thermal transfer is to show its irreplaceable side. Even if it is a flat object, there are many processes that can be printed, but traditional thermal transfer can still show advantages in many aspects.

The first point is high efficiency

Take Rubik's cube as an example. Rubik's cube has six planes. If other types of printing technologies are used, there must be a process of waiting for drying or natural drying. In this process, some places are needed to store these process products. However, thermal transfer printing is different. It can be printed continuously without drying. After printing, packaging can be carried out. The production site is greatly reduced and the production efficiency is greatly improved.

The second point is rich color

Take the Rubik's Cube as an example. The traditional Rubik's Cube pattern has only a single color block on each plane, and the colors and patterns are relatively monotonous. However, the traditional thermal transfer is different. Since the pattern is printed on the PET thermal transfer base film first, the color of the pattern can be reproduced almost unrestricted, and all kinds of flowers, trees, figures, landscapes and other patterns can be transferred to the Rubik's Cube, greatly enhancing the aesthetic appearance of the Rubik's Cube and the added value of the product.

The third point is environmental protection

The traditional thermal transfer film, whether it is the base film or the selected printing ink, release layer, adhesive and other materials, can pass the environmental protection testing of domestic and foreign testing institutions (BV, SGS, etc.). In the production process, the noise pollution of thermal transfer is also low, and the pollution of sewage and exhaust gas is almost zero, which is one of the reasons why the traditional thermal transfer process is popular and different from other printing types.

The fourth point is the combination of rich

The fourth and important point is that the traditional thermal transfer process combination is relatively rich. In addition to the common thermal transfer process with relatively simple process, the product process combination can also be refined to form a thermal transfer process combination with high trimming, UV-friendly, cooking-resistant, winding-resistant, ethanol-resistant, high hardness, high wear-resistant, matte, local aluminizing, local laser, transparent laser, metal texture, etc. Suitable for plastic, wood, leather, metal workpiece surface decoration.

In addition, with the continuous optimization of traditional thermal transfer technology, it also drives the rapid development of the process technology of traditional thermal transfer machine. Many thermal transfer workpieces with high transfer difficulty can be transferred, such as conical surface, curved surface, circular triangle, S-shaped surface with small radian and other difficult workpiece surfaces can be transferred, thus spawned the arm heat transfer machine, taper heat transfer machine, copying heat transfer machine, surface heat transfer machine and a variety of different functions of the tooling components and fixtures, derived a lot of hot stamping function, to meet the needs of a variety of different shapes of the workpiece transfer.