Dye sublimation calender
AssigneeKornit Digital Ltd.
InventorsAllon Shimoni, Alon Feldman
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A fixation/transfer device for control of dye waste in a dye sublimation process. The device comprises a textile inlet, a textile outlet, a heat press or calender, an endless belt for driving the textile from the textile inlet to the textile outlet through the heat press, the heat press being held at a temperature sufficient to cause sublimation of the printing dye, and a cleaning station for cleaning the endless belt, the cleaning station being located downstream of the textile outlet and upstream of the textile outlet. The feed belt may be heated at the cleaning station so that sublimation may assist cleaning.
Claims21
A calender apparatus for fixation/transfer of images on textile, the fixation/transfer being by dye sublimation, the dye being suitable for use with textiles, the apparatus comprising:
- a dyed textile inlet for input of a textile, the textile carrying an image, the image being prior to fixing and comprising said dye suitable for use with textiles;
- a textile outlet for output of said textile;
- a heat press comprising a calender, the calender comprising a heated rotary textile-pressing drum;
- an endless belt configured to drive said textile from said textile inlet to said textile outlet through said heat press, said heat press being held at a temperature sufficient to cause sublimation of said dye suitable for use with textiles, thereby to fix said image onto said textile, the heated rotary textile-pressing drum being configured to rotate with said textile;
- and
- a cleaning station configured to clean said endless belt to remove traces of said dye suitable for textiles, said cleaning station being located downstream of said textile outlet and upstream of said textile inlet such that a path of said textile from said textile inlet to said textile outlet does not pass said cleaning station.
A calender apparatus for fixation/transfer of dye sublimation, the dye being suitable for textiles, comprising:
- a textile inlet for input of a textile, the textile imprinted with a wet image formed using the dye suitable for textiles;
- a textile outlet for output of said textile;
- a heat press;
- an endless belt configured for driving a textile from said textile inlet to said textile outlet through said ink applicator and said heat press, said heat press comprising a calender, said calender comprising a rotating textile-pressing heat drum, the heat press configured to apply pressure to said textile on said endless belt, said heat press further being heated to a temperature sufficient to cause sublimation of said dye suitable for textiles, thereby to fix said image into said textile;
- and
- a vacuum source located with said heat press to clear vapour resulting from said dye sublimation.
A method of using a calender and dye sublimation, comprising:
- placing an image onto a textile, the image in wet dye, the wet dye suitable for use with textiles;
- inserting said textile into contact with an endless belt;
- using said belt to drive said textile against a heat press, the heat press comprising a rotating textile-pressing heat drum;
- maintaining said heat press at a temperature sufficient to induce sublimation of at least one temperature sensitive dye on said textile, thereby to fix said image on said textile;
- removing said textile;
- and
- cleaning said endless belt.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.