Difficulty of Metal Thermal Transfer Technology

1 Difficulty of Metal Thermal Transfer Technology
Metal thermal transfer technology is the most complex and difficult transfer technology among all thermal transfer technologies.

Metal thermal transfer technology is complex because of the diversity of metal materials.

Common metal materials in the printing field now mainly include: galvanized sheets and pipes, copper sheets, copper pipes, aluminum alloy sheets, stainless steel sheets, stainless steel pipes and other metal objects. The surfaces of these metal objects are mostly smooth, and it is difficult or impossible to attach printed patterns directly on them. This is the difficulty of metal thermal transfer technology.

Metal toy car thermal transfer

2 Metal thermal transfer technology-thermal sublimation
In the past, the "thermal transfer process" of metal products commonly used in the industry was not a traditional thermal transfer process, but a derivative process of thermal transfer process-thermal sublimation.

The process is as follows:

1. First, print the pattern to be sublimated onto the metal product (mostly irregular patterns such as wood grain and camouflage, and the ink used is also special ink) onto a non-coated paper or film;

2. Secondly, "wrap" the metal product with the printed paper or film (the metal products referred to here are all pre-painted on the surface, generally with polyester paint);

3. Finally, heat the metal product, so that the pattern on the paper or film will vaporize and sublimate onto the metal product. This is the general process of thermal sublimation.

This process requires the metal surface to be painted first before it has adhesion.

It is precisely because metal thermal transfer technology cannot solve the adhesion problem of metal materials well that thermal sublimation technology has become popular in the printing process of metal products.

3 Metal thermal transfer technology - development direction
With the continuous improvement of people's living standards and aesthetic views, the single pattern of thermal sublimation can no longer meet people's requirements for the surface decoration of metal products. The pressure of the market has forced practitioners in the thermal transfer industry to initiate new research on metal thermal transfer technology.

So far, although it cannot be said that there have been fruitful results, there have indeed been substantial improvements, which are mainly reflected in the emergence of metal thermal transfer films. Various patterns with rich layers, bright colors and lifelike appearance have appeared on the surface of metal products, and the surface decoration of metal products is no longer monotonous.

4 Metal thermal transfer technology - glue
The traditional metal thermal transfer technology has been able to achieve great development, and the greatest contribution is "metal thermal transfer glue".

It is precisely because the metal thermal transfer glue has been continuously improved that it can now directly form a good adhesion ability on the surface of metal objects, and no longer needs to rely on the surface paint of the metal object, which has laid a solid foundation for the widespread application of metal thermal transfer technology, because adhesion is an important criterion for testing the maturity of metal thermal transfer technology.

Before this, due to the fact that all metal thermal transfer glues were imported, the price of metal thermal transfer printing films was high and the cost of use was expensive, so general products could not afford such high transfer costs.

At present, domestic metal thermal transfer glues have been widely used, and the quality stability is constantly improving. I believe that in the near future, domestic metal thermal transfer glues will be able to completely replace imported glues.