Besides its traditional markets in publication printing, such as magazines and catalogues, and packaging and decorative printing, gravure is used for other specialised processes. One of these niches is heat transfer printing. A relevant player in this niche segment is one of eras newest members: The Turkish Company Unlu Transfer, situated in Istanbul, a city for all your textile needs. What is heat transfer printing? It is a rather young technology for the printing of designs on synthetic fibres for textiles and fashion. The process was developed in the late fifties of the last century, and has been applied on industrial scale since the sixties. First of all a specially created design is printed in gravure on paper using special inks. This printed material is called transfer printing paper which is either delivered to a converter who transfers the printed designs from the paper onto textiles by pressure and heat or it is directly transferred at the unlu transfer facility. The customers are the fashion and home textile industries. Unlu Transfer, which at present employs 45 people, is among the very few supplying this special market, and one of the market leaders.
