ImagesMagUK_September_2020

www.images-magazine.com SEPTEMBER 2020 images 29 TIPS & TECHNIQUES Thermal adhesive or TA/Tacky coatings become sticky when they are heated, which allows them to glue to the fabric during heat pressing. This helps prevent the fabric from moving or shrinking, resulting in a sharper image transfer and avoiding ghosting, where the fabric moves during pressing but the paper doesn’t, creating an additional (and unwanted) faint print of either part of or the whole design. While these are the main coated types you’ll encounter, there are other types available as well, which a good supplier will be able to talk you through. Non-coated paper performance Non-coated papers, as you may have guessed, have no additional coatings. This means you are relying on the paper structure itself for the print stability, drying and sublimation transfer performance. Some papers perform better than others – and it’s safe to say they all generally perform more poorly compared to coated papers. However, they tend to be much cheaper, and are capable of satisfying certain markets. The basic roll information from your supplier should include its paper weight in gsm and its thickness, the core diameter, and the roll’s width, length, diameter and weight. The supplier should also be able to tell you whether it’s been packaged safely for on-going transit, if it will survive in your print room’s storage conditions, whether it’s manufactured locally and/or sustainably, if it’s continually stocked locally, and what the lead time is. Once you have this information, you can better understand exactly what you are getting. When assessing which supplier to use, ask if it’s a specialist supplier for your industry – does the team have the necessary knowledge and experience to advise what is the right product for you? Do they provide after-sales technical support for their products? Do they supply the partner products, such as ink, film, protection paper, printers, RIP software, heat presses, cutters/lasers, etc? This should give you the confidence that they know what they are doing. Direct-to-textile dye sublimation printing is designed primarily for the soft signage industry. You can achieve much better colour show-through, as well as double-sided prints, with direct-to-textile sublimation, which is why flags and banners look so much better when printed using this method. The drawback, however, is that the fabrics need to be coated to accept the inks and prevent bleed – there are fewer local suppliers of these and you are limited to fabric rolls, so no fabric pieces or ready-made items. The direct-to- textile printer options also tend to be more expensive because the equipment has to handle a more unstable print media. A versatile process Transfer dye sublimation printing, on the other hand, is very versatile: the fabrics don’t have to be coated, they just have to be white or light-coloured and a poly- blend. You can transfer to fabric rolls and ready-made items such as clothing, towels, blankets, cushions, mouse mats, yoga mats and bar mats. You can also transfer to other interesting materials, including coated metal, wood, ceramic, glass, stone, etc, and the printer options tend to be a bit cheaper than those used for direct-to-textile printing. www.i-sub.co.uk E S S E N T I A L H Y G I E N E NATURAL Y ARN ANTIBACTERIAL RV009X FACE MASK: CARTON: 500 (50 packs of 10) Washable (x20) and re-usable, comfort fit facemasks for everyday use with antibacterial nose & mouth zone RV015X ZIGZAG FACE MASK: CARTON: 500 (100 packs of 5) PENCARRIE.COM 0800 252 248 l RALAWISE.COM 0800 212 180 PRESTIGELEISURE.COM 0800 652 1234 l ISENTERPRISES.UK 0800 328 3868 www.resultppe.com RV009X/RV015X PRINTABLE FACE MASKS (NON PPE)