How to Easily Address Custom Transfer Print Trends 

Enhanced print quality is a critical trend in custom transfer printing because your ability to provide sharper and more vibrant, detailed prints helps your products catch consumers’ eyes for apparel and promotional products. Further, high-quality prints also can contribute to heightened brand reputation and customer satisfaction.  

However, enhanced print quality can be difficult to achieve if the adhesive: 

• Enables dyes to migrate: Dye migration can be particularly problematic with dark or vibrant textiles, allowing the dye to turn light prints into unwanted shades. The adhesive needs to create a barrier to block dyes from migrating into the print, enabling the desired colors.  
• Allows halo effects: When ink spreads beyond the intended design area, the edges of the print can appear blurry or unprofessional. It's important for an adhesive to be formulated to prevent unwanted, fuzzy edges.  

For example, traditional plastisol or water-based adhesives are popular options due to their cost and ease of use, but they often lack the necessary barrier properties to prevent dye migration. Further, they can be problematic for detailed or intricate designs where precision is crucial, allowing ink to spread beyond the design area for a halo effect.  

Reducing environmental impact is important across all industries as consumers and companies seek products that contribute to reducing carbon emissions. In custom transfer print, it’s important to incorporate more sustainable materials when possible – however, this can be difficult to achieve if the adhesive does not offer: 

• Compatibility with silicone inks: Silicone inks are often utilized in custom transfer print because they are: 
  • Free of harmful chemicals, which reduces VOC emissions  
  • High in elasticity, which enables the product to be stretched multiple times without the design cracking, making consumers less likely to discard the end-use product as quickly. 

If the adhesive is not compatible with silicone inks, you may have to use other options that are less sustainable and may even lack other performance requirements. For example: 

• Plastisol inks perform well with traditional clothing materials but lack flexibility for more elastic materials. 
• Second-generation water and solvent-based inks offer flexibility, but not high elasticity for stretching, which does not make them suitable for addressing increased elasticity requirements. 

Expanded material compatibility is a significant trend in custom transfer printing due to the need to print on a range of materials including fibers, blends, cotton, lycra and more. This versatility allows businesses the ability to offer more customized products; however, it means all other materials used must be compatible.  

Material compatibility is particularly important in custom transfer print, including direct-to-film (DTF) and direct-to-garment (DTG) printing, as it helps ensure the elements used in manufacturing the designs maintain their integrity across different textiles. However, it may not be easy to achieve if the adhesive lacks: 

• Softness: A soft adhesive helps ensure the print feels comfortable on the textile regardless of type; a rigid adhesive may prevent this, causing stiffness.  
• Flexibility: An adhesive with flexibility helps adapt to the stretch and movement of various textiles. Without flexibility, the adhesive could crack or peel on stretchy materials such as lycra. 

While traditional plastisol or water-based adhesives can provide expanded material compatibility, they can lack adequate softness or flexibility. These adhesives can be rigid, leading to stiffness on garments like t-shirts or activewear that require a soft hand feel. They also may not provide enough flexibility to accommodate stretch or movement, resulting in cracking and peeling.  

When choosing the right hot melt powder adhesive technology, it’s important to think about how you prioritize the trends listed above; the trends you feel are the most important to your custom transfer print needs will help you identify your desired performance needs to determine which hot melt powder adhesive technology may be most applicable.  

Copolyester Powder Adhesives 

Copolyester powder adhesives are known for their excellent adhesion properties and resistance to dye migration. They allow colors to remain vibrant and do not bleed into each other, maintaining the clarity and sharpness of the print. Additionally, these adhesives provide a non-halo effect, resulting in clean edges and precise details for intricate designs and text. Copolyester powder adhesives also provide: 

• Good plasticizer and washing resistance to mitigate cracking and help ensure a flexible, soft touch transfer that will outlast the garment.  
• Fast set processing speeds to streamline operational efficiencies, making them suitable for high-volume production. 

Thermoplastic Polyurethane (TPU) Powder Adhesives 

TPU adhesives are formulated for strong adhesion and high stretch while maintaining the softness and flexibility of the material, resulting in long-lasting comfort. Out of the noted technologies, it has the widest range of compatibility with fibers, blends, cotton, lycra and more, and works well for both direct-to-film and direct-to-garment printing applications, reducing production changeouts and costs. TPU adhesives are also compatible with silicone inks to help support sustainable practices. Further, TPU adhesives fuse at low and medium temperatures, keeping energy usage to a minimum. 

Copolyamide Powder Adhesives 

Copolyamide powder adhesives are versatile and provide strong adhesion to various fabrics, including cotton, polyester, nylon, and blends. This adhesive technology contributes softness and flexibility to the material, enhancing the overall feel and comfort of the printed product. They offer high wash resistance and excellent plasticizer resistance, allowing the material to withstand the most challenging heat transfer applications, including low surface energy textiles. Further, copolyamide powder adhesives enable quick bonding, easy cutting and low melting points for improved productivity. 

Customized Blends 

Customized blends of hot melt powder adhesives are tailored to meet specific application requirements, addressing unique challenges in custom transfer printing. These blends can combine the benefits of different adhesive chemistries, such as anti-dye migration, non-halo effect, softness, flexibility, and silicone ink compatibility. By using customized blends, you can achieve optimal performance and quality for specific applications.