Dye Sublimation Printing Durable Color Decoration for 3D Parts
Mar 02, 2022
In recent years, dye sublimation—a dye-transfer technique that was first developed in the 1960s for use in textiles—has progressed to offer full-color, wear-resistant surface decorating for flat items like mouse pads and tiles. It has shown to be useful for three-dimensional items even more recently.
The technique, created by Kolorfusion International, Inc., enables the transfer of a whole range of hues, tones, and patterns onto a number of materials, such as glass, metal, and plastic. The business is the owner of the method patents for the 3D decorating technology, which it both licenses to third parties and utilizes for bespoke decoration.
Applicable to any shape or size of part, the process requires no special tooling. It causes dyes to penetrate the surface of the polymer so that the impregnated images are highly resistant to wear. Kolorfusion can supply clear coatings for further protection. According to company president Steve Nagelle, the dyes and coatings have shown superb durability and uv resistance in commercial plastics products such as archery bows, gun stocks, all-terrain vehicle (ATV) components, bottle chillers, cooling canisters, snowboards, flashlights, and sunglasses clips.
With the recent opening of Kolorfusion's second decorating plant in Shenzhen, China, and the company's new marketing partnership with DuPont Engineering Polymers, the technique is ready for broader use. PBT, PET, acetal, and nylon resins from DuPont are a few that work well in this technique. These engineering resins provide up new possibilities for the process in sporting goods, appliances, power tools, consumer electronics, and automotive components.
In this transfer technique, the dyes are heated to a vapour, and if they are near a suitable substrate, such a coating or plastic, the vapors can permeate the nearby substrate by as much as 0.25 in. to 0.002 in. The plastic substrate must be able to withstand temperatures of 280 to 375 F necessary to vaporize the dye.
Since the dyes are transparent, the substrate should be light in color white, light gray, or beige. If the plastic substrate is translucent, it will remain translucent after coloring. "The lighter the substrate color, the better the result of this process," Nagelle says. He adds that the dyes will penetrate a black substrate but will not be visible.
When first used in textiles, this process allowed a printer to make a design on sublimation paper and then heat transfer it to knits or weaves. Explains Nagelle, "For flat-surface decoration such as snowboards, the design is first printed on sublimation transfer paper, and then a hot press impregnates the dye sublimation paper design into the substrate."
For 3D decoration, Kolorfusion typically prints the design on an air-permeable and flexible textile-based medium called Kolortex. This is then placed around the object, which is put into a high-temperature film bag from which the air is pulled, forcing the textile to tighten around the substrate. The vacuum bag with the part is then placed in an oven for 5 to 40 min.
"We can now make digital designs and transfer them onto the part. If a user provides us with a design, we can scan the design digitally or receive it electronically and then use ink-jet technology to print the image onto Kolortex and transfer it onto the part," Nagelle notes.
According to him, the method was created as an alternative to the dipping method created by Japanese company Cubic Printing and granted a license to other companies for around 20 years. Using that technique, a preprinted film is submerged in a liquid pool, allowed to disintegrate, and then the substrate is dipped into a layer of floating inks. Because dye sublimation penetrates the component, this procedure is not as long-lasting as dye sublimation and is much more costly. We are ranging from 20% to 40% less expensive than the dip method "says Nagelle.
In comparison to the dip technique, the Kolorfusion method has a number of additional benefits. Robotics, an artisan, specialized training, or fixturing are not needed. "The substrate and object size determine the cycle time of our simple, non-skilled method. Our procedure usually takes between three and forty minutes. Its appropriateness will depend on how much capacity you require: when you have higher quantities and larger sections to decorate, you'll need more personnel for loading and unloading. Generally speaking, the method works well for lower volume production and Asian manufacturing, where labor costs are cheaper."
