By Cassandra Balentine
Dye-sublimation (dye-sub) inks are designed to bring vibrancy, durability, and a soft hand to textile printing. Our August issue dives into the benefits and challenges associated with sublimation printing. Here, we look at various transfer dye-sub ink sets and upcoming advancements.
Epson
Epson manufactures the Epson UltraChrome DS ink set, which is leveraged in the SureColor F-Series line of dye-sublimation printers. Depending on the Epson model printer, this ink set offers customers an expanded color gamut with colors including florescent pink and florescent yellow, light cyan and light magenta, or orange and purple. It offers vibrant, versatile output from vivid colors to smooth gradations, rich blacks with high definition and sharpness, and extremely fast dry times.
Epson UltraChrome DS ink is OEKO-TEX ECO PASSPORT certified and is safe for adults and children, including infants.
“Epson is always seeking new ways to advance its technology and bring new solutions to customers, whether it’s through product design, ink chemistry, or productivity and ease-of-use features. Many of our product advancements come directly from customer feedback, which serves as a catalyst for developing solutions that meet real-world needs and address the ever-changing industry landscape,” says Lily Hunter, product manager, Professional Imaging, Epson America.
INX International Ink Co.
Everything INX offers is labeled as the Triangle brand of alternative inks. “INX’s DT9 and DTX inks are developed for the i3200 and i1600 Epson series of printheads. DT9 is suitable for direct printing and transfer, making it ideal for soft signage. DTX is for transfer printing with an excellent yield and a very deep black, making it a great choice for sportswear,” explains Marco Zanella, global business development director – inkjet, INX Europe.
“For the higher range of printers, we offer DDK and DTK,” continues Zanella. “These two ink sets are formulated for the Kyocera KJ4B series of printheads. Similar to the DT9 and DTX ink sets, DDK is a formulation specifically designed for direct print, which makes it a preferred solution for soft signage. It could eventually be used on paper as well, a possibility that enhances flexibility. DTK was developed to be printed on paper and transferred. The formulation maximizes yield during transfer and vibrancy on the target textile.
Mimaki USA, Inc.
Mimaki offers a variety of sublimation transfer ink sets that are tuned to the performance characteristics of each printer. Base colors are blue, magenta, yellow, and black; some models may include expanded colors such as light blue, light magenta, light black, fluorescent yellow, or fluorescent pink.
“The brightest colors are produced with transfer sublimation inks on polyester fabrics. Regarding hand, we see fabric manufacturers that have tailored their products so that they’re compatible with dye-sub ink. For example, there are different types of polyester fabrics intended to mimic the look and feel of materials such as cotton, nylon, and silk, which are all materials that are incompatible with dye-sub ink. Now many printers have the option and the opportunity to start opening businesses in different markets that they normally wouldn’t have before,” says Josh Hope, director, marketing, Mimaki USA.
“We see continued movement towards addressing sustainability issues in transfer sublimation printing,” adds Hope.
In late 2023, Mimaki offered a technology preview of the Neo-Chromato process for the reuse of printed transfer sublimation fabric. It is a post-use technology that extracts dyes so polyester textiles can be reused up to 20 times, with minimal impact on the environment. The Neo-Chromato process supports sustainability and circularity in textile printing via a “reverse” process using a heat press along with proprietary fluid to remove dyes from the fabric. The result is a reduction of used goods in landfills.
Mutoh America, Inc.
DH21 is Mutoh’s award-winning dye-sub ink featuring an expanded gamut and extremely rich blacks, according to Michael Litardo, marketing manager, Mutoh.
SPGPrints
SPGPrints offers a one-stop-shop solution with the Rose sublimation printer together with Sublimation Morpho-F inks. This combination is available together with the Leaf sublimation paper range. The ink is compatible with the Epson S3200-A1 printheads. The inks provide deep black and vibrant colors as well as crisp image details. It is made for industrial use—expect an extraordinary print quality even in high speed mode.
“This supports productivity in the first place, but boosts total cost of ownership too due to long life of printheads. What’s more, unrivaled runability. The ink runs smoothly thanks to the long open time. This enables long production runs without interruption,” offers Anne de Brouwer – Veldman , product manager, SPGPrints.
Next to that the offering consists of a range of ink sets compatible with a variety of printheads. Sublimation Alcon-N for Kyocera printheads and Sublimation Alcon-F for Epson i3200-A1 printheads.
“Sublimation plays a key role in our future developments. At SPGPrints we continue to innovate as we strive to be at the forefront of the market. We are working on some exiting advancements. Innovations that deliver improved quality and performance, and also a more sustainable offering,” says de Brouwer – Veldman.
Sun Chemical
Sun Chemical offers a range of sublimation inks for the different print technologies on the market. All inks are based on in-house dispersion technology, which allows full control of the chemistry and ink-paper or ink-fabric behavior. All of Sun Chemical’s sublimation inks have been optimized for the best performance across a full range of sublimation papers and with the highest rates of dye transfer, reducing waste, and providing cost efficiency.
Each ink series offers a full range of colors to meet the particular market requirements, with gamut-extending colors such as orange and blue, light colors, and fluorescent options depending on the technology.
The core ranges include ElvaJet Opal SB for wider format printers using Epson printheads, ElvaJet Topaz SC for mid-viscosity printheads, such as Kyocera, with a range of 13 color options including a hybrid black to allow direct and transfer print flexibility, and ElvaJet SR340 for higher viscosity printheads such as Ricoh Gen 5 and Dimatix Starfire.
“Sun Chemical is developing a range of initiatives to bring new sublimation ink technology to the market with a focus on adding value by allowing customers to differentiate their products through better fastness, process flexibility, and sustainability,” says Simon Daplyn, product and marketing manager, Sun Chemical.
Differentiating with Dye-Sub
Dye-sub is a popular process for printing to textiles. From apparel to soft signage, print engine and ink manufacturers in this space focus on advancements in vibrancy, durability, and hand.
Aug2024, Digital Output
