How does thermal fusing get involved with laundry? Well, at Dal-Bac Manufacturing we love to solve problems and we learned that industrial and institutional laundry services had a critical need to be able to identify garments. This is especially true for industries that utilize uniforms.
The solution to the challenge seemed simple enough – place labels on the garments. However, the labels would need to meet some challenging requirements:
- Be available in a variety of sizes and colors
- Be printable using commonly available processes
- Be easy to apply
- Be machine washable – repeatedly
- Provide a surface that could be used to adhere to garments
This is where our thermal fusing capabilities met laundry labels. We use thermal fusing to bond thin, flexible materials in situations where it is not possible to use wet adhesives. Our process is ideal for fusing materials like textiles, plastic films, and paper into a finished product with enhanced durability and performance.
By carefully controlling temperature, pressure and dwell time we create exceptionally strong bonds between layers of fabrics, papers, foams and non-wovens that can stand up to any environment extreme – like repeated trips through the laundry!
A key part of our process is the ability to bond adhesive films to the surface of other materials. These films can then be reactivated during processing to adhere to another surface – such as a garment.
To solve the laundry label challenge we created a line of garment labels under our Thermadata brand. Our fabrication process involves:
- Using 100% polyester, durable twill fabric
- A number of high visibility colors
- Fusing a high -performance thermoplastic urethane (TPU) to the fabric in bulk rolls
- Converting the bulk rolls to narrow rolls
- Cutting labels into a variety of sizes
- Finished labels on rolls available for downstream printing
The final result was a complete set of color-coded garment labels in a variety of sizes that can be printed in their roll form, individually removed from the roll and applied to garments using heat and pressure from simple T-shirt presses. And the labels absolutely withstand repeated laundry cycles!
If you have a challenge that requires innovative converting capabilities, please contact us – we would welcome the opportunity to help.