What is hydrographic coating
Water Transfer Printing or Hydrographics is the dipping process of transferring patterns to multiple surface objects using water displacement. Any material that is hard surfaced and non-porous such as metals, wood, glass, ceramics, fiberglass, and all types of plastic can be printed on to. There are now thousands of different patterns to chose from including woods grai
n, camouflage, carbon fiber, snakeskin, metals, or even hundred dollar bills. Other terms used for the Hydrographics process: Water Transfer Printing, Camo Dipping, Carbon Fiber Dipping, Wood Grain Dipping, 3D Cubic Printing, Hydro Graphics, Hydro Imaging, Hydrographics Dipping, Hydro Printing
The hydrographic process
Surface Preparation:
Preparation in Hydrographics process is the most important step. Next we sand and apply a high grade urethane primer to the surface we are working with. We allow the primer to thoroughly dry then we prep the part by wetsanding the primer for our basecoat color. The basecoat color will vary depending on the pattern chosen by yourself. For example: A red carbon fiber look can be achieved by applying a red basecoat of your choice. The Water Ink Transfer Process
The pattern that you want comes printed on a water-soluble vinyl film. The film is cut according to the size of the part to be dipped. Then it is laid on top of clean water in our stainless steel tank, specially designed for water transfer printing. A chemical activator is sprayed which turns the vinyl film from a solid to a liquid ink pattern, that is floating evenly on the water. At this point the part is ready to be "dipped". The water being displaced by the object causes the pattern to efficiently wrap around the part and bonds the ink to the base coat no matter how complex the shape, creating a continuous, high detail finish. Finishing Steps:
After the water ink transfer process is completed and the part has been removed from the tank, we then wash down any residue or contaminants in our specially designed rinse tank , after the part goes through a final rinse process it is dried for final topcoating. A high grade automotive clearcoat is applied. It is also at this time, if a candy color is being used it is also applied. The clearcoat can either be applied in a high gloss or a matte finish. After allowing the the topcoat to cure the part then goes to our quality control department, where it is carefully inspected before being packaged for delivery or customer pick-up.
