1. Market Size of Transfer Paper for Sublimation Printing

Global production of transfer paper for digital inkjet sublimation printing is approximately 500,000 tons/year, and it is expected to increase quickly, showing an annual growth trend. This is driven by the increasing demand for polyester fabrics in the apparel and home textile industries, driving an increase in the production of digital inkjet printing polyester products. Furthermore, compared to traditional transfer printing, digital sublimation printing requires no platemaking, offers flexible batch sizes, and offers cost advantages for small-batch processing, which makes it more suitable for the current market demand for small batches, wide variety, and rapid changes, driving the transition of traditional transfer printing companies to digital printing.

In recent years, the traditional transfer printing market has seen a steady decline in orders, with some orders being replaced by digital printing, driving demand for sublimation paper.

2. Technological Advances and Development Trends of Sublimation Paper

To meet the needs of digital printing companies to reduce consumables costs and meet the thinner paper requirements of medium- and high-speed digital sublimation printing machine, sublimation transfer paper is evolving toward lower basis weights, lower coating weights, and higher performance. The basis weight of sublimation transfer paper has evolved from an initial range of 90-120 g/m² to 50-80 g/m², and then to less than 30 g/m². Currently, 29-34 g/m² is the most widely used. As digital inkjet printing equipment becomes wider in format, sublimation transfer paper is also evolving toward wider formats, from the commonly used 1.5m, 1.6m, and 1.8m sizes to the current 2.6m and 3.2m sizes.

Domestic transfer printing paper can generally meet the processing requirements of mid- to high-end digital inkjet printing, with varying degrees of improvement in transfer efficiency, sublimation ink holding capacity, and drying speed. Thin transfer paper has become mainstream, particularly suitable for high-speed industrial scanners and single-pass digital inkjet printers due to its fast drying speed. Thicker transfer paper, with its larger ink holding capacity and adaptable to high-volume printing, is still widely used in products requiring high color saturation or dark patterns, but it carries a higher cost.

With diversifying demand and technological advancements, sublimation transfer paper has gradually developed into a variety of varieties. For example, a self-adhesive series of sublimation transfer paper has been developed for elastic fabrics. It quickly bonds to elastic fabrics under heating, effectively suppressing shrinkage and preventing ghosting.

In the past two years, uncoated transfer papers such as recycled paper and newsprint have seen some use in the industry, with basis weights ranging from 20 to 36 g/m². Their main advantage is low raw material cost. However, their disadvantage is that the color uptake of medium and dark colors is low, which cannot meet the processing requirements of high-quality digital inkjet printing. Therefore, their application in the industry is still immature.