Method of dry transfer printing of synthetic fibrous material with disperse dye and transfer paper

Abstract

A transfer paper which comprises a transfer paper base and a disperse dye ink printed thereon or imparted thereto. The transfer paper is used in a dry transfer printing method in which the transfer paper is pressed against a synthetic fibrous material with heating to thereby transfer the dye (pattern) from the transfer paper to the fibrous material. The transfer paper is characterized in that the transfer paper base has a releasant layer comprising a synthetic resin soluble in organic solvents and an ink-receiving layer made from a mixture comprising a hydrophilic synthetic resin which softens or melts upon heating, a hydrophilic binder, and various aids, the ink-receiving layer being superposed on the releasant layer. With this transfer paper for dry transfer printing, a highly fine pattern can be printed with excellent reproducibility. Furthermore, the transfer paper enables quick delivery by so-called printing without platemaking. The method of dry transfer plating employs this transfer paper.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD[0001]The present invention relates to a method of dry transfer printing on a synthetic fiber material using a disperse dye, and to a transfer paper.BACKGROUND ART[0002]For drawing a design fast and finely on a cloth with a dye, screen printing, roller printing, rotary screen printing, gravure printing, and transfer printing based on the cited printing techniques have conventionally been known, and also industrially employed. These plate printing techniques have, however, the following drawbacks.[0003]i. The number of applicable colors is limited.[0004]ii. Although printing with pattern frames of decomposed three primary colors can express a multicolor image, it is difficult to adjust the hue and density of the colors composed from the three primary colors.[0005]iii. Reproducibility of the printing effect is prone to be degraded because of forming multiple layers.[0006]Besides, problems of loss and waste of materials have been pointed out, such as the expensive plate ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0056]The present invention provides various eminently beneficial effects from the viewpoint of cost, quality and ecological benefit, such as enabling quick delivery by the plateless printing and easy production of a sharp, high-density, high-quality and fast design, upgrading the texture of the synthetic fiber product obtained, eliminating the need to prepare surplus paste, and allowing utilization of existing general-purpose equipments. Also, the dry transfer printing method according to the present invention enables executing a small-lot production at a low cost, and yet obtaining a high-quality transfer-printed product. In particular, the present invention not only simplifies the printing technique which has so far been complicated thereby creating an advantage in the industrial production, but also provides a special effect that anybody can choose a favorite design and print the design clearly and fast on various synthetic fiber materials at any convenient place, and obtain excellent texture.

[0057]The present invention provides a dry transfer printing method for a synthetic fiber material that enables expressing a delicate printed design with high reproducibility, which has so far been considered to be quite difficult, and provides a novel technique established against many obstacles. For example, although two properties of the transfer paper, the preservation stability (the ink receiving layer is to be kept from being damaged or peeled off during the storage of the transfer paper) and the transfer performance to the cloth (transferring 100% of the ink receiving layer through the transfer process and cleanly releasing the paper from the cloth) are contradictory to each other, the technique according to the present invention harmonizes those contradictory properties, and besides allows directly printing on the uncolored transfer paper with an inkjet printer and utilizing the synthetic fiber material, the object of the transfer printing, without any pretreatment. Further, the present invention not only allows constructing an industrial manufacturing system capable of quickly and efficiently coping with the highly variety low-volume manufacturing and a wide variety of needs which have come to be an essential requirement, but also provides a high-quality and functional transfer paper with which people can easily enjoy printing at home, thus providing a method that is environment-friendly, economical and excellent in quality achievement (sharpness, fastness, texture, etc.), which greatly contributes to improvement in quality and added value of the printed fiber products.

[0058]The advantage of the present invention lies in providing the transfer paper that allows directly printing a design on the uncolored transfer paper with an inkjet printer, eliminating the need of the pretreatment of the cloth, industrially executing the dry transfer printing of the synthetic fiber by utilizing the equipments for dry transfer printing and steam fixing for the polyester fabric that are currently widely employed, and providing excellent printing performance with eminent texture, sharpness, and fastness, and in providing the dry transfer printing method that utilizes the transfer paper.

Problems solved by technology

Although printing with pattern frames of decomposed three primary colors can express a multicolor image, it is difficult to adjust the hue and density of the colors composed from the three primary colors.

Reproducibility of the printing effect is prone to be degraded because of forming multiple layers.

Besides, problems of loss and waste of materials have been pointed out, such as the expensive plate making cost in the case of a small-lot production, and necessity of preparing a surplus amount of color paste than is actually necessary for the printing process.

This technique has, however, such drawback that when printing a dye ink in small dots with the inkjet printer on an uncolored transfer paper, uniformity in printing effect among the dots becomes insufficient, and that the dye solution oozes out thus destroying the delicacy.

A drawback of the direct printing process on a cloth is that, as stated in patent documents 1 (JP-A No. 2005-264021, page 9, paragraphs 0047 to 0051) and 2 (JP-B No.

The pretreatment has to be different depending on the type of the woven or knitted fabric (type of weaving or knitting, thickness and twisting type of thread, etc.), which leads not only to complication of the process and an increase in cost, but also to the need of preparing pretreatment facilities and special chemicals, thus resulting in degraded economical efficiency and stability of quality.

Besides, it is difficult to apply the direct printing process to thick fabrics including a three-dimensional woven or knitted fabric or three-dimensional cloth such as velvet and a sewn fabric, as stated in a patent document 3 (JP-A No. 2004-176203).

Further, in the case of direct printing on the cloth the transfer paper cannot be stocked in advance, and therefore quick delivery may become difficult, in view of the printing speed of the inkjet printer.

(1) Because of employing the disperse dye that has a high sublimation effect, bleeding is incurred around the pattern and sharpness of the design is degraded.

In other words, sharpness and reproducibility of the design is not satisfactory.

(2) Because of the sublimation fixing process, sufficient color yield cannot be achieved in intense colors.

(3) Thermal stability, sublimation fastness and washing fastness are low because of lack in fastness of the sublimation disperse dye.

(4) Because of surface dyeing, a chalk mark is prone to appear.

(5) High-temperature treatment degrades the texture of the fabric.

These drawbacks are considered to be reasons for that the sublimation transfer printing method with the disperse dye has not yet been industrially adopted in earnest.

Besides, the hydrophobic resin is difficult to be removed by rinse, which leads to the disadvantage that the cloth texture is degraded.

The patent document 5 provides the feature that the transfer of the paste and the adhesive agent is performed solely by pressing, without heating, because the ink receiving layer is predominantly composed of the paste, however the process that employs such coating layer is barely practical.

However, the disperse dye ink to be employed in the present invention is more prone to aggregate than a water-soluble dye ink and hence prone to cause clogging of an inkjet nozzle, and therefore a large amount of organic solvent such as ethylene glycol or glycerin is employed for the purpose of prevention of drying (moisture retention) and of clogging.

This worsens the absorption of the disperse dye ink into the uncolored transfer paper, and impedes obtaining a high-density print.

Besides, the uncolored transfer paper of the three-layer structure referred to in the patent document 6 incurs the disadvantage of increased number of processes and insufficient achievement of transfer rate.