The fabric is available commerically from Fespa onwards, although pricing has yet to be revealed. It will initially be launched in two different 3.1m-wide versions, one for direct-disperse printing, and one for dye-sub transfer printing. The product line will then be expanded to widths of up to 5m.
Senfa business unit director Blaise Humphries said that it had taken Senfa a number of years to come up with a solution to the issue of ink migration, a problem that can create dirty marks, bleeding or phantom images that show up on backlit applications. Senfa is in the process of patenting its new tehnology.
Humphries said: “The big drawback in the past with dye-sublimation printing and direct- disperse, especially for backlit, is ink migration. We’ve been working for the last three years with both internal R&D and with partners outside the company to come up with a solution to stop this completely and we’ve finally come up with one.”
Senfa worked with a number of its partners to carry out more than 300 tests on the range before making it commercially available, testing it in situations where it would be under pressure from ink migration. The fabric is fire retardant and produced in Europe.
Senfa is the France-based technical substrates division of the Chargeurs Group.
