Dye Sublimation Printers for Digital Printing Textile
Textile-Flex's digital printing polyester textile fabrics are suitable for UV, direct to fabric dye sublimation, paper transfer sublimation, on a variety of printers in the world---Mutoh, Roland, Mimaki, Mtex, Durst, EFI.
Mutoh just launched a new dye sublimation printer, ValueJet 1948WX. This is a 1.9-meter wide printer designed to print sublimation ink transfer paper, although it can also print directly onto some fabrics. It has four print heads and can print up to 117 square meters per hour. Mutoh also sells a 1.9-meter-wide VJ1938TX to textile printers. It can choose to print inks of different materials, but it needs a calender to fix the color. Mutoh also sells the 1.6-meter-wide transfer paper dye sub-printer VJ1638WX.
Roland produced the Texart series of dye sublimation printers, using 8 colors of ink, including CMYK plus light cyan, light magenta, orange and purple. Roland also cooperated with Sabur to develop dye sublimation inks, which effectively converted XF640 solvent printers directly to textile printers.
Mimaki has several textile printers, including TS500P, a 3.2 meter wide machine capable of 180 square meters per hour. It is designed to print on transfer paper, using Mimaki's Sb310 dye sub ink with blue, magenta, yellow and black. There is a TX500P that can be printed directly on textiles. It includes an infrared heating device that can fix the color during printing. It uses Sb320 ink, can provide four colors, can produce 130 square meters/hour, can also provide six colors, can produce 105 square meters/hour.
Mtex focuses on textile printers, with three models suitable for signage and display applications. All of these designs are for direct printing on textiles and include infrared fixtures. Mtex Blue is a 1.8 meter wide printer that can print at a speed of 55 square meters per hour. The resolution of the four colors ranges from 360dpi to 1080dpi. There are two 3.2 meters wide printers. The 5032HS provides resolutions from 300 dpi to 1200 dpi and four, six or eight color options. It can produce 120 square meters per hour, with reactive, acidic, dispersing and pigment inks to choose from. The 5032 Pro has a higher resolution, from 540 dpi to 1440 dpi, with four colors, and a printing speed of 58 square meters per hour.
Desite produces many dye sublimation printers for graphic work. This includes Luotai 180 TR, a 1.8-meter-wide machine that mainly prints transfer paper. However, Durst has also made some printers designed to print directly to fabric. Rhotex 322 is a 3.2 meter wide printer that can print 140 square meters per hour, while Rhotex 500 is one of the few 5 meter wide printers with a production speed of 125 square meters per hour. In addition, there is a high-speed Rhode HS printer, which is also 3.2 meters wide and can produce up to 430 square meters per hour.
The Rhotex series includes a heater to dry the ink to increase the printing speed, but does not include a fixed heater to complete the sublimation process. Mr. Bray explained: "We will slow down the printer and cannot perform the same control, so we recommend you to offline calendar." He also pointed out that Durst's machines are expensive, and most customers have already done it with cheaper models. A lot of work, so there is already a calendar device.
EFI has developed the Vutek FabriVu series of products, which are based on printing technology acquired from the Italian company Reggiani in 2015. There are two models: 1.8 meters and 3.4 meters wide, with speeds of 400 square meters/hour and 500 square meters/hour respectively. They are designed to be printed directly on textiles and transfer paper, and use four-color disperse dye inks with a resolution of up to 2400 dpi.
