What is "Tag Printing" or "Tagless Printing" or "Tagless Label Printing"?
Tagless printing - also known as "tagless label printing" and "tag printing" - is perhaps one of the hottest trends in apparel manufacturing and promotional apparel industries today.
Apparel manufacturers started looking for alternatives to sewn-in tags several years ago, mainly because they were trying to make the consumer more comfortable in their cloths. The most popular solution was to use labels that adhere to the fabric by thermal transfer ("heat transfer"). However, these labels were usually still not soft enough on touch (not "soft hand" as screen printers put it) and not convenient for short-run production because they have to be purchased in high volumes. So recently another alternative has been found: screen or pad printing.
A pad printed or screen printed tag can be very soft, almost unnoticeable on touch; it costs a fraction of a cent and gives the flexibility to modify the image in-house any time. The challenge that most printing supply companies face is to formulate ink that not only stays in place after repeated washing, wearing and stretching but also produces opaque images - opaque enough to stand out on dark textile - without oversaturating the fabric and making it stiff. Another absolutely unquestionable requirement is to provide well-adjustable printing machines and quality pads/screens/auxiliaries - so that even finest letters and graphics are readable.
Tag Printing Demo:
How Inkcups Now Meets the Challenges of Tagless Label Printing:
For years, we have specialized in high quality affordable pad and screen printing equipment geared for sharp fine graphics. As for this specific application, we offer Sapphire SB series ink specifically designed for textile - including dark-colored textile. The Sapphire ink has been used in Europe as textile ink for decades. It is safe for children, complies with California Proposition 65 and stringent European safety standards. Compared to thermal transfer labels, SB ink for Direct-to-Garment Applications provides the following benefits:
While thermal transfer just puts markings on the garment's surface, SB ink penetrates textile thus extending the life of the tag.
The SB series cures by air, enabling the operator to fold and stack items right after they are printed. As no drying is necessary, you can use a manual printing machine for the tags.
Tags printed with the SB series have soft hand and yet are very durable, even when SB is used as 1 component ink. With hardener, images will withstand 25+ industrial washings.
With the SB ink, you can print fine fonts - as small as, for instance, size 6 Arial.
Printing tags with SB is much more cost-effective compared to thermal transfer, especially for short runs and on-demand production. Unlike the pre-purchased labels, the image for printed tags can be easily modified in-house so you can print personalized and branded tags any time.
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