Dye-sublimation inkjet printing for textile
AssigneeKornit Digital Ltd.
InventorsAllon Shimoni, Jacob Mozel
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Abstract
Provided herein is an inkjet dye-sublimation ink composition that is formulated to interact with an immobilizing composition such that the ink composition coagulates on the surface of an absorptive substrate, thereby substantially limiting soaking of the ink composition into the substrate. Also provided are a printing process and a printing machine, wherein the ink composition is directly printed on the substrate concomitantly with the immobilizing composition, and thereafter undergo heat-pressing to afford a dye-sublimation transfer of the dye to the substrate, thereby forming an image which is characterized by sharp and well defined edges of the dyed areas.
Claims9
A process of direct inkjet printing an image on an absorptive substrate using a dye-sublimation ink composition, comprising contacting at least a portion of the substrate with an immobilizing composition, printing the dye-sublimation ink composition directly on said portion of the substrate, and heating the substrate to thereby form the image on the surface of the substrate, wherein:
- said substrate comprises fibers suitable for dye-sublimation printing;
- said ink composition comprises a sublimable dye, a property-sensitive agent and a carrier, and said immobilizing composition comprises a property-adjusting agent and a carrier,
- said ink composition is formulated to coagulate on said portion of the substrate upon contacting said immobilizing composition, thereby substantially preventing said dye-sublimation ink composition from soaking into the absorptive substrate,
- said dye-sublimation ink composition is essentially devoid of a film-forming agent,
- said immobilizing composition and said ink composition are each individually applied digitally on said portion of the substrate by a separate applicator selected from the group consisting of a nozzle and a printhead, and
- said ink composition is applied on said substrate while said substrate is still wet with said immobilizing composition.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.