Method of multicolor printing a material

Abstract

This method of printing a material consists in decorating the material with a multicolor design or composition consisting of an assembly of elementary primary forms such any desired geometrical forms, numeral and letters having each a primary color, this multicolor design being composed preliminarily on a provisional carrier from inks adapted to be transferred to the material under the combined action of heat and pressure. A basic bundle of colored sheets is formed by stacking one or a plurality of sheets having one flat face covered with sublimable ink. The sheets are cut simultaneously to the contours of the elementary forms of the decorative design with respect to the peripheral contour of the material, each or all the sheets having consequently a cut area corresponding to the elementary forms of the final design. The multicolor decorative design is composed on a provisional carrier by superposing and/or juxtaposing the precut elementary primary forms which are taken from the sheet having the corresponding primary color, and the thus composed multicolor design is transferred from the provisional carrier to the material to be decorated while maintaining a close contact, by pressure, between the provisional carrier and the material and heating the assembly in order to sublimate the inks and cause an accurately positioned diffusion of the inks in the material.