Status and Development of Transfer Printing in Textiles—A Review

Great developments have been achieved in the field of textile transfer printing. Transfer printing is made possible on natural fiber fabrics using intermediary polymeric agents, mostly thermoplastic agents and reactive dyes that contain α-bromoacrylamido or β-bromoacrylamido groups, to enable the creation of strong bonds between the fabric and the dye not observed with disperse dyes. The thermoplastic polymeric agent is either in the dye or on the substrate. Many processes such as benzoylation, Keratran and Fastran processes have been used for coloration of natural fiber fabrics in transfer printing. This review seeks to highlight developments in transfer printing and the various factors that affect transfer printed product quality besides dyes, and how these factors affect the transfer printing process.