dye-sublimation printers are computer printers that use heat to transfer dyes to materials such as plastics, cards, paper, or cloth. The name of the sublimation was first applied because the dye is thought to make the transition between solid state and gas without going through the liquid stage. Understanding of this process then proves to be wrong. There are some melting dyes. Since then, this process is sometimes known as dye-diffusion , although this has not yet removed its original name. Many consumer and professional dye-sublimation printers are designed and used to produce photo prints, ID cards, clothing, and more.
This does not have to be confused with dye sublimation transfer printing printers, which use special inks to create transfers designed to be printed on textiles, and where the dye is sublimated. This is done at lower temperatures but higher pressures, especially in the all-over printing process.
Some dye-sublimation printers use CMYO colors (cyan magenta yellow overcoating), which are different from CMYK colors which are better known for the black color removed for clear overcoating. This overcoating (which has many names depending on the manufacturer) is also stored on the ribbon and effectively a thin layer that protects the mold from the discoloration of UV and air rays, while also making waterproof printing.
For ID card printing, text and bar codes are required, and they are printed using additional black panels on the tape (YMCKO). This extra panel works by thermal transfer printing instead of dye diffusion: the entire layer, not just some dye in the layer, transfers from the tape to the substrate on the pixels determined by the thermal head. This whole process is sometimes called the thermal transfer of dye diffusion (D2T2).
Video Dye-sublimation printer
Printing techniques
Dye-sublimation printing is a digital printing technology using full-color artwork that works with polyester and polymer-coated substrates. Also referred to as digital sublimation, this process is generally used to decorate clothing, marks and banners, as well as new items such as mobile covers, placards, coffee cups, and other items with sublimation-friendly surfaces. This process uses sublimation science, where heat and pressure are applied to solids, converting them into gases through endothermic reactions without passing through the liquid phase.
In sublimation printing, a unique sublimation dye is transferred to a "transfer" sheet of paper through a liquid gel ink through a piezoelectric printhead. The ink is stored on this high-release inkjet paper, which is used for the next step of the sublimation printing process. After the digital design is printed onto the sublimation transfer sheet, it is placed at a heat pressure along with the substrate to be sublimated.
To transfer images from paper to substrate, a hot pressing process is required which is a combination of time, temperature, and pressure. The heat press applies this particular combination, which may change depending on the substrate, to "transfer" sublimation dye at the molecular level into the substrate. The most common dye used to activate sublimation at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. However, the range 380 to 420 degrees Fahrenheit is usually recommended for optimal color.
The end result of the sublimation process is full-color printing that is almost permanent, high resolution. Since the dye is inserted into the substrate at the molecular level, rather than applied at the topical level (such as with screen printing and directly to garment printing), the prints will not crack, fade or peel off the substrate under normal conditions.
Maps Dye-sublimation printer
Operation
The most common processes put one color at a time, the dye stored on the polyester bands of each color on a separate panel. Each colored panel is the size of the media being printed; for example, a sub-dye printer 6 "by 4" will have four panels 6 "by 4".
During the printing cycle, the printer rollers move the media and one of the colored panels together under the thermal printing head, which is usually the same width as the shorter print media dimension. The small heating element in the head can change the temperature rapidly, producing different amounts of dye depending on the amount of heat used. Some dyes diffuse into print media.
After the printer finishes printing media in one color, it will tape the ribbon to the next color panel and remove some media from the printer to prepare for the next cycle. The entire process is repeated four or five times in its entirety: the first three put colors onto the media to form a complete image; may or may not then be a black thermal transfer process; while the latter laminate laid on it. This layer protects the dye from UV rays and moisture.
Comparison with inkjet printers
Traditionally, the superiority of dye-sublimation printing is the fact that this is a continuous-tone technology, in which each point can be colored. In contrast, inkjet printers can vary the location and size of the ink droplets, a process called dithering, but each drop of ink is limited to the ink color that is installed. As a result, the dye-sublimation printer produces a continuous tone that actually looks like a chemical photo. An inkjet print consists of droplets of ink and layered inks to simulate continuous tones, but under enlargement individual droplets can be seen. In the early days of inkjet printing, large droplets and low resolution made the inkjet prints significantly lower than dye sublimation, but some inkjets now produce very high quality prints using microscopic droplets and additional ink colors, resulting in superior color fidelity for sublimation-dyeing.
Sublimation dyes offer several advantages over inkjet printing. For one, the mold is dry and ready to be handled immediately after exiting the printer. Because the thermal head does not have to sweep back and forth over the print media, there are fewer moving parts that can be damaged. The entire printing cycle is very clean because there is no liquid ink to clean. These factors make the dye sublimation generally a more reliable technology than inkjet printing.
Dye-sublimation printers have some drawbacks compared to inkjet printers. Each colored panel of the ribbon, and the thermal head itself, must match the size of the medium being printed. Furthermore, only special coated paper or special plastics can accept sublimated inks. This means dye-sublimation printers can not match the versatility of inkjet printers in printing on various media.
The dye spreads slightly before being absorbed by the paper. As a result, the prints are not sharp. For photos, this produces a very natural mold, but for other uses (such as graphic design), this slightly opaque is a disadvantage.
The amount of wasted dye per page is also very high; most of the dye in the four panels may be wasted for a typical print. After the panel is used, even to print a single point, the remainder of the dye on the panel can not be reused for another mold without leaving the empty space where the dye was used previously. Due to the single-roll design of most printers, four colored dye panels must be used for each mold, whether necessary for printing panels or not. Printing monochrome does not store anything, and three color panels not used for that page can not be recycled for different color prints. Inkjet printers can also experience 'waste' because ink cartridges tend to dry with low usage (without 'heavy use', cartridge nozzles can be clogged with dry ink). Dye-sublimation media packaging, (which contains ribbons and paper), is ranked for the exact number of prints that results in a fixed cost per print. This is contrary to inkjet printers where ink is purchased by volume.
For environments that print confidential or confidential documents, dye-sublimation printers are a potential security risk that must be handled with care. Due to the printing mechanism, a perfectly colored image separated from the printed page is created on the color panel of the supply roll, and the "dye rolls" of the dye panels can be opened to view everything that has been printed with the printer. For such environments, waste rolls should be shredded or incinerated in place rather than disposed of in the trash. Also, for home users, waste rolls from photo printers can be recovered from the trash and used to see everything that has been printed. Since the supply roll is plastic, the life of rolls used can be years or decades, allowing the recovery of the old image after discard.
Also, paper and ribbon sublimation dyes are sensitive to skin oil, which interferes with the ability of the dye to sublimate from the tape to the paper. They should also be free of dust particles, which can cause small colored blobs to appear in the mold. Most dye-sublimation printers have a filter and/or cleaning roll to reduce the likelihood of this occurrence, and a speck of dust can affect only one mold as it is attached to the mold during the printing process. Finally, dye-sublimation printers fall short when producing neutral and tight black-and-white prints with higher density levels and almost no metamerism or bronzing.
Apps
Previously, the use of sub-dye printing was limited to industrial or high-end commercial printing. Sub-dye photo printing has been used in medical imaging, graphic art inspection, security, and related applications of broadcasting. But at the moment, it's very popular in photography shows and photo booths or kiosks that require high speed, on-demand printing.
Alps Electric manufactures first-quality dye-sub printers for home consumers in the $ 500- $ 1,000 range, bringing sublimation dye technology into a wider range of audiences. Now there are many dye-sublimation printers on the market ranging from as low as $ 100, especially postcard size photo printers.
The ability to produce cheap instant prints from small printers has led to sublimation dye solutions replacing traditional instant photos in some applications, such as with ID photography with card printers.
Some companies market desktop size units as stand-alone printers and for print kiosk applications and photo booths. Some of these units are based on generic printers. Some manufacturers, offering software development tools with their printers, show that these companies hope to attract system integrators as a potential market.
The stand-alone-size dye-sub photo printer is also applied by the social photographer in event photography. The instant printing capability of the unit allows photographers to produce and sell laboratory quality prints immediately during the event they attended, with minimal amount of hardware.
Dye-sublimation can also be used as an indirect printing process. Standard black and white laser printers are able to print on plain paper using special "toner transfer" containing sublimation dyes which can then be permanently heat transferred to T-shirts, caps, mugs, metals, puzzles and other surfaces.
Textile
The dye-sublimation printing process is used to print on polyester or other synthetic fabrics. It is used for applications such as T-shirts, banners, desk covers, id cards, sportswear and flags. Original printers are electrostatic technology using toner but now generally large format inkjet printers use specially formulated inks. Sublimation dye ink is a dispersion dye suspended in a liquid solvent, such as water. These images were originally printed on heat-resistant transfer paper coated as an upside image of the final design, which was then transferred to a polyester fabric in a hot press machine at a temperature of about 180 to 210 C (375 F). Under high temperature and pressure, the dye turns into gas and penetrates the fabric and then solidifies into its fibers. Fabrics are permanently dyed so that they can be washed without damaging the image quality. Shelfies and Blue Notes are the two companies that use this method.
Sublimation-dye advantage over other textile printing methods: the image is permanent and does not peel or fade, the dye does not accumulate on the fabric.
- Colors can be very bright because of the dye bonds with transparent fibers from synthetic fabrics, a truly sustainable tone can be achieved that is equivalent to a photo, without the use of special techniques such as half-screen printing, and images can be printed across items, regardless difficulty in printing to the edge.
The drawback is the speed of the printer is low and any folds in the clothing during printing leave the void.
Print speed for dyeing thermal sublimation printer
Because dye-sublimation thermal printers use heat to transfer dyes to print media, the printing speed is limited by the speed at which elements in the thermal head can change the temperature. The heating element is easy, because a strong electric current can raise the element temperature very quickly. However, cooling the element down, when changing from darker to lighter color, is more difficult and usually involves having a fan/heatsink unit attached to the printhead. The use of multiple heads can also speed up this process, because one head can be cool while the other is printing. Although print times vary between different dye-sublimation printers, the cheap dye-sub printer used at home can print 6 "x 4" photos in 45 - 90 seconds. More heavy-duty printers can print faster; for example, the Sinfonia Colorstream S2 dye-color sub-dye printer can print 6 "x 4" photos in just 6.8 seconds, and the Mitsubishi CP-D707DW is known to have faster prints under 6 seconds for the same size. In all cases, the finished prints are completely dry after they appear from the printer.
Ink for piezo printer
There are two types of sublimation dye ink for dye sublimation piezo dye printers available in the market. The most popular are aqueous sublimation dye inks for use both on desktops and large format printers. The other is solvent sublimation dye inks that can be used in XAAR, Spectra and some Konica wide-format printers.
Due to the rapid development of digital textile printing, sublimation dye inks are becoming more and more popular in digital inkjet printing on fabrics.
Print speed for large format piezo printers using aqueous sublimation dye inks is on the rise. Speeds range from 18 square meters per hour in a 44 "wide 44" printer to over 3,000 square meters per hour in high-speed textile industry printers.
See also
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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