Digital transfer media for OKI white toner printers

In one of our recent blog posts, we introduced the FOREVER Flex-Soft (No-Cut) system for single-colour designs. In this article, we’d now liketo explain theWHITE TONER SYSTEM for multi-colour designs in more detail:

REVOLUTIONARY TECHNOLOGY

A dream come true
The first laser copiers came onto the market over 25 years ago, and it wasn’t long before they were being used as digital transfer machines for textile printing. Transferring a full-colour image or a photograph onto a T-shirt is a simple and cost-effective method, with no set-up costs. This, in turn, opened up new business opportunities for copy shops, T-shirt shops, screen-printing businesses, etc. However, until now, this simple and cost-effective application has been limited to white or light-coloured textiles. Printing on dark textiles has remained a challenge to this day. Whilst products with excellent wash fastness, such as ‘FOREVER Laser-Dark’, have met customer needs for full-image photographs, the application of letters, numbers and logos has always required an additional cutting and weeding process. It is precisely for this reason that people have always dreamed of a simpler method for printing on dark textiles.

White toner makes it possible

OKI’s revolutionary CMYWhite printers break down the final barrier to creativity and design, as the new FOREVER transfer papers make transfer printing on dark textiles just as easy as on light-coloured ones. The print is soft and vibrant, and T-shirts can be washed over 15–20 times without any significant loss of print quality. The black colour is created by mixing the three colours (CMY), and the white toner covers the entire image, except for the areas printed in black. The printer software automatically applies more white toner to light colours and less white toner to dark colours to achieve optimal colour reproduction on the fabric.

Low production costs
Although the cost of white toner is higher than that of colour toner, the average printing cost for a full-colour A4 transfer is less than €0.50. FOREVER’s high-quality transfer papers are so affordable that the total cost of an A4 digital transfer, including the €0.50 printing cost, is less than €1.80.

Attractive for small and large businesses
The applications for white toner are diverse. The spectrum ranges from small businesses that print individual T-shirts to order, to screen printers seeking fast and effective alternatives to printing on dark substrates. This system can also be used in industrial production applications, such as printing on wood, ceramics, metal, glass, cardboard or other coloured materials.

High production speed
The printers are capable of processing 500–1,000 A4 copies in an hour. The transfer time onto light-coloured textiles is approximately one minute and onto dark-coloured textiles approximately two minutes. This means that an average worker can process 30–60 transfers per hour.

COMPARISON WITH OTHER SYSTEMS

Direct printers Screen printing
– Significantly faster application – No film or screen production costs
– Significantly lower capital costs – Significantly lower capital costs
– No daily cleaning – Better resolution
– No pre-treatment required – Flexibility

Flex Printable flex
– No cutting or weeding – No cutting or weeding
– Not limited to single-colour designs – Significantly higher print speed
– Low storage costs and reduced storage space – Also suitable for small, fine details
– Soft to the touch – Soft to the touch

FOREVER LASER-DARK (NO-CUT) LowTemp

Description
FOREVER Laser-Dark (No-Cut) LowTemp is a 2-sheet system. This system gives your designs astonishingly vibrant colours and excellent wash results – all without the hassle of cutting and weeding! Once you have printed your chosen design onto the transparent A-Foil, press it together with the B-Paper LowTemp. Once the two media have been separated, the B-Paper LowTemp provides a white background over the image, which not only ensures good opacity on dark fabrics but also contributes to its wash fastness. The design is completely weeded and ready for transfer. What makes this system special is that you do not transfer any background onto the fabric. The print is only transferred to the areas where there is toner. This gives you an extremely pleasant feel with a screen-print-like finish, only much faster and more effectively.

Finishing with hot-stamping foils and transfer flock
Until now, finishing textiles with metallic foils and flock fibres could only be achieved using standard flex or flock, and the options were limited. With both materials, only logos and lettering in a coarse design could be plotted and applied. A FOREVER Laser (No-Cut) LowTemp Transfer can also be metallised or flocked, but with the advantage that even the finest details can be transferred without restriction.

In the first step, a single-colour design is transferred onto the textile using A-foil and B-paper. The motif is then finished in a further step using a hot-stamping foil or a transfer flock sheet. With a selection of 52 different hot-stamping foils and 15 flock colours, even the finest designs or halftone motifs can be finished with ease.

Can’t decide which hot-stamping foils to choose? Then simply order our HFS colour chart HERE, featuring all the foils as large samples.