A printing system is disclosed for thermal transfer printing onto a surface of a substrate. The system comprises a transfer member having opposite front and rear sides with an imaging surface on the front side, a coating station at which a monolayer of particles made of, or coated with, a thermoplastic polymer is applied to the imaging surface, an imaging station at which energy is applied by a thermal print head via the rear side of the transfer member to selected regions of the particles coated imaging surface to render particles coating the selected regions tacky, and a transfer station at which the imaging surface of the transfer member and the substrate surface are pressed against each other to cause transfer to the surface of the substrate of the particles that have been rendered tacky.

An ink jet recording method of the present invention includes a fixing step under the following condition (1) or (2) when on a recording medium, an image including an image part formed of colored ink and an image part formed of transparent ink is fixed:
T1>MFT1>MFT2 and MFT1>T2>MFT2(1)
T1>MFT2>MFT1 and MFT2>T2>MFT1.(2)
MFT1: Minimum film forming temperature of colored ink
MFT2: Minimum film forming temperature of transparent ink
T1: Temperature of fixing member when image is heated and pressed
T2: Temperature of fixing member when image is separated from fixing member.

Methods and devices for transferring biological or non-biological material coated on a front surface of a donor substrate to a front surface of a receiver substrate. An example of implementation: the front surface of the donor substrate is facing the front surface of the receiver substrate. The donor surface comprises a transparent portion and an absorbing layer on a front side of the transparent portion. A first laser beam of a laser irradiates a portion of a back side of the transparent portion to increase the pressure and/or temperature of the absorbing layer to eject a portion of the biological or non-biological material from the donor substrate and transfer the portion of the material to the receiver surface. The portion of the material transferred on the second substrate is post-processed by irradiating with a second laser beam of a laser a portion of the front side of the receiver surface.

A method for forming a dye sublimation image in a vibrating membrane employed in a musical instrument comprising the steps of: providing an image, digitally prepared or otherwise, consisting of a simulated animal skin or another form of graphic; printing the image on a substrate employing a heat transfer ink dye; joining the substrate with the printed image with a sheet of a gas permeable membrane comprised of bi-axially oriented non-woven polyester fibers having a plurality of surface pores and vibrating and musical note producing capability; applying a combination of heat and pressure to the joined substrate with the printed image and the membrane to cause the individual surface pores to expand to enable the dye to gasify and permeate the surface pores to transfer the image; and, cooling the membrane to enable the surface pores to seal closed and encase the image within the surface of the membrane to protect against delamination and wear when the membrane vibrates which results from the intense and constant pounding of a drumstick, a mallet, a person's hand or some other rigid-like object.

An ink jet recording method of the present invention includes a step of applying a reaction liquid onto a transfer body, an ink image forming step, a liquid removing step of bringing a porous body of a liquid absorbing member into contact with the ink image on the transfer body to remove 70% by mass or more of the liquid component from the ink image, a transfer step, and a smoothing step of bringing a fixing member into contact with the ink image on the recording medium, heating and pressing the ink image at a temperature not less than the softening point of the resin to smooth the surface of the ink image, and releasing the heated and pressed ink image from the fixing member at a temperature less than the softening point of the resin.

A curved acrylic photographic article and process for making same comprising of an optically clear acrylic layer and an adjacent synthetic organic polymer containing both light scattering particulate and diffused disperse dyes. The layered article being thermodynamically formed into a curved or other shape immediately subsequent to receiving a graphic decoration by dye diffusion thermal transfer.

According to the present disclosure, a textile printing ink jet ink composition includes a thioindigo-skeleton-containing dye and elemental sulfur. A content of the elemental sulfur in the textile printing ink jet ink composition is 0.01 ppm or greater and 500 ppm or less relative to the total mass of the ink composition.

Apparatuses and methods for applying a transfer material from a transfer component onto the surface of an article are disclosed, including apparatuses and methods of transfer printing on and/or decorating three-dimensional articles, as well as the articles printed and/or decorated thereby. In some embodiments, the method may utilize a printer such as an inkjet printer. In some cases, the transfer material may be a UV curable ink and/or adhesive. When the transfer material is UV curable, the transfer component may be permeable to UV radiation to allow curing of the ink and/or adhesive therethrough. UV curable adhesives including thiol-acrylate and thiol-ene acrylate inkjet-able adhesives are disclosed. The UV curable adhesive may be colored (such as with white pigment) in lieu of providing a base (white) ink layer so that more UV radiation will be able to pass through the ink layer(s) in order to reach the adhesive.

Techniques are described for obscuring residual images on print ribbons that have been used to print on plastic cards in order to prevent access to sensitive or personalized data appearing in the residual images. An image is printed on a retransfer film using the print ribbon, thereby creating a residual image of the printed image on the print ribbon. The retransfer film is then used to obscure some or all of the residual image on the print ribbon by transferring ink from the section of the print ribbon containing the residual image onto the retransfer film. In some embodiments, obscuring the residual image on the print ribbon occurs before the printed image on the retransfer film is transferred to the plastic card.

An apparatus and methods of decorating a metallic container are provided. More specifically, the present invention relates to apparatus and methods used to provide a decoration or indicia on a predetermined portion of an outer surface of a metallic container body. The decorator includes at least one digital print unit, a transfer blanket, and a support element. The digital print unit transfers a decorating material to the transfer blanket to form a decoration on the transfer blanket. The support element then moves a metallic container into contact with the transfer blanket. In this manner, the decorating material is transferred to an exterior surface portion of the metallic container to decorate the metallic container. In one embodiment, the digital print unit is an electrophotographic system which transfers a toner material to the transfer blanket. In another embodiment, the digital print unit includes an inkjet print head which transfers an ink to the transfer blanket. Optionally, the decorator may include two or more support elements.