Dye sublimation calender
AssigneeKornit Digital Ltd.
InventorsAllon Shimoni, Alon Feldman
Life of this patent
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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;
- 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 to fix an image formed from a dye suitable for textiles, the image for fixing being carried on the textile, 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, 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, a path of said textile from said textile inlet to said textile outlet not passing said cleaning station.
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 heat press comprising a calender, the calender comprising a heated rotary textile-pressing drum;
- an endless belt configured to drive said textile through said heat press to fix an image formed from a dye suitable for textiles, the image for fixing being carried on the textile, 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, the heated rotary textile-pressing drum being configured to rotate with said textile;
- and
- a cleaning station comprising a heating unit, the cleaning unit configured to use said heating unit to cause sublimation of ink residue on said endless belt.
A method of cleaning a belt after fixing an image using a calender and dye sublimation, comprising:
- moving an endless belt to pick up a garment carrying an image on a textile, the image in wet dye, the wet dye suitable for use with textiles, 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 from said belt;
- and
- cleaning said endless belt by heating said endless belt to induce sublimation.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.