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Sublimation Transfer and Solid Ink Printing
Ink is normally in a liquid form, however, there are several printing technology,
which utilizes solid ink.
The first method is sublimation transfer, which is a dry image printing process
that uses dye crystals. When these dye crystals are subjected to heat and pressure,
they are convert from a solid into a gas form without becoming a liquid. This technology
differs from all other printing procedures in that the transferred image is adhered
to the substrate molecules instead of on the print media's surface, as is the case
with inkjet printing. The solid ink is melted, converted into a liquid, then sprayed or piezoelectrically
driven onto the media. One major advantage of solid ink is that the ink does not
have to dry. Instead, it solidifies almost immediately on the printing media surface.
In addition, the solid ink does not dry out, nor does it require a wick as liquid
ink does. Solid ink bounds to the paper surface producing colors that are more
vivid and sharper images. Solid Ink Printing In 1995, Tektronix development indirect printing and revolutionized solid ink printing.
Tektronix used an ink-jet printhead that spray-painted a complete image on a spinning
drum. Once the image was applied to the drum surface, it was transferred from the
drum onto paper. This concept made it possible to use a very simple paper path,
with the paper being feed straight through the printer similar to that of an offset
printing process.
However, this indirect printing process places severe restrictions on the ink.
The ink had to be hard at room temperature, have a low melt point and had to be
able to easily jet through the tiny apertures of the printhead. In addition, the
ink had to solidifies almost immediately on the drum surface and stay in place on
a rapidly spinning drum. Lastly, the ink had to transfer from the drum to paper
during the offset printing step.
This led to the development of the solid inks used today. The solid ink resembled that of crayon-like cartridges. The color quality of solid
ink printing is stunning. In addition, its print speeds exceeded most equivalent-priced
laser printer, due to the fact that it prints colors in a single pass instead of
having to make four passes. The Tektronix-developed technology applies all four-color
solid ink mirror images onto the drum in a single pass.
Small business guides: , Thermal Transfer Labels Guide.com |
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