How Can You Use Heat Transfer Ink?

Heat transfer— a printing technology that allows you to print a design onto garments or a material. It is also known as thermal-transfer printing, thermal printing or thermal-wax transfer. Heat transfer printing is a method of transferring a wax picture to a surface or material using heat. This printing technique can also be used to generate a picture by applying wax dye and heat transfer ink onto an item or using pre-painted graphics on a wax sheet.

Printing Materials for Heat Transfer Printing

The thermal transfer procedure is done with a printer, but it requires special heat transfer water-based inks to function. These wax-based inks ribbon together, and an image is made by squeezing the ribbon against an item while pressing the opposing side with a heat press until the ink dissolves off the ribbon and leaves an impression on the item.

Advantages of Heat Transfer Printing and Heat Transfer Water-based Ink

All printing technologies have their own set of advantages. Heat transfer printing is quite popular because it generates graphics that are robust, heat resistant, permanent, and water resistant. Furthermore, the image’s colours are great resolution, with brilliant and vibrant hues.

Heat Transfers Is a Great Replacement

Embroidery On Hats

Hats have become an important part of developing a fashion line. Because order quantities are fewer and the procedure takes longer, they always appear to be low-profit clothing. While embroidery can provide embossed and elevated textures, heat transfers can provide unrivaled intricacy and a silky-smooth finish.

The digitization of the design to be embroidered, which normally costs $50 per design, is also an extra charge of embroidery. This approach tends to cost roughly $2 less per piece to create based on 50 pieces.

In the clothing industry, timing and speed is everything. Work involving water-based heat transfers can be completed 3-5 days faster than embroidered jobs. We can even speed heat transfer works that we’d never be able to fit into the manufacturing timeline with standard screen printing, depending on the project and amount.

When it comes to baseball caps and other hats without a split going down the front side, that’s the quickest way to have a lavishly decorated cap. While heat transfers can be used to bridge a gap, it is not suggested since the stitch leaves gaps for the transfer to the bridge. The off-contact causes a weakening and failure point for the print. When it comes to adding artwork that needs to go across a gap, embroidery is still the best solution.

Moreover, investing in a good quality heat transfer water-based ink also contributes to the efficient and effective running of the process.

DTG Printing

DTG printing has traditionally been the go-to option for smaller orders and designs with a lot of colours. DTG printing is a solution that is no longer done due to the waste generated by the process and the lack of an environmentally friendly ink alternative.

Heat transfers are a direct alternative for the complex colours involved with most DTG printing. While DTG printing may be the solution for average order numbers below 20 pieces, heat transfers are a viable replacement for the sophisticated colours involved with most DTG printing. You can get a better completed product because the procedure uses more environmentally friendly ingredients.

Finally, heat transfer waterbased inks offer a long-term alternative for making intricate and vivid patterns with a lower number of orders.

So, if you are planning to use the heat transfer printing method for your project, get in touch with us!

At DAS Water-based Ink, we offer top-quality heat transfer inks and help you bring your idea to life!