Heat-transfer textile ink

1. A heat-transfer textile ink comprising:

(a) silicone ink base composition;

(b) a pigment;

(c) a heat-transfer adhesion promoter being one or more of the group comprising:

(i) a heat-transfer adhesion promotor comprising a hydrogen bonded silicon;

(ii) an organosilane;

(iii) a metal chelate; and

one or more heat-transfer glues.

2. The heat-transfer textile ink of claim 1 wherein the heat-transfer adhesion promoter comprises the heat-transfer adhesion promotor comprising the hydrogen bonded silicon.

3. The heat-transfer textile ink of claim 1 wherein the heat-transfer adhesion promoter comprises at least one organosilane, alternatively two different organosilanes, and at least one zirconium chelate.

4. The heat-transfer textile ink of claim 1 wherein the heat-transfer adhesion promoter comprising the hydrogen bonded silicon of group (i) comprises:

wherein m is in the range 0 to 120, and n is in the range 1 to 120.

5. The heat-transfer textile ink of claim 4 wherein the heat-transfer adhesion promoter comprising the hydrogen bonded silicon has a viscosity of 20 cst, m is 0, n is on average equal to 60, and an average molecular weight of 2500.

6. The heat-transfer textile ink of claim 1 wherein the organosilane of group (ii) comprises either:

(i) the formula R 3 b SiR 4 (4−b) , where each R 3 is independently a monovalent organic group; each R 4 is an alkoxy group; and b is 0, 1, 2, or 3; or

(ii) the formula R 5 c R 6 d Si(OR 5 ) 4−(c+d) where each R 5 is independently a substituted or unsubstituted, monovalent hydrocarbon group having at least 1 carbon atom and each R 6 contains at least one SiC bonded group having an adhesion-promoting group, c is 0, 1 or 2, d is 1 or 2, and the sum of c+d is not greater than 3.

7. The heat-transfer textile ink of claim 6 wherein the organosilane is one or more of a trialkoxysilane.

8. The heat-transfer textile ink of claim 1 wherein the metal chelate of group (iii) comprises metal tetraacetylacetonate, hexafluoracetylacetonate, trifluoroacetylacetonate, tetrakis(ethyltrifluoroacetylacetonate), tetrakis(2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-heptanedionato), dibutoxy bis(ethylacetonate), diisopropoxybis(2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-heptanedionato), or β-diketone, including alkyl-substituted and fluoro-substituted forms thereof.

9. The heat-transfer textile ink of claim 8 wherein the metal chelate is a zirconium chelate.

10. The heat-transfer textile ink of claim 1 wherein the heat-transfer adhesion promoter comprises methacryloxypropyltrimethoxysilane, glycidoxypropyltrimethoxysilane and zirconium acetylacetonate.

11. The heat-transfer textile ink of claim 1 wherein the silicone ink base composition comprises:

(A) 100 parts by weight of a liquid polydiorganosiloxane containing at least two alkenyl radicals in each molecule,

(B) an organohydrogenpolysiloxane containing at least three silicon-bonded hydrogen atoms in each molecule, in an amount that the molar ratio of the total number of the silicon-bonded hydrogen atoms in ingredient (B) to the total quantity of all alkenyl radicals in ingredient (A) is from 0.5:1 to 20:1,

(C) from 5 to 50 parts by weight of a reinforcing filler, based on the amount of ingredient (A),

(D) from 0.05 to 4.5 parts by weight of a polydiorganosiloxane-polyether copolymer containing from 5 to 50 percent by mole of the polyether, based on 100 parts by weight of the combined weight of ingredients (A), (B), and (C), and

(E) a hydrosilylation catalyst.

12. A laminated heat-transfer product including a heat-transfer coat, said heat-transfer coat comprising the heat-transfer textile ink of claim 1 .

13. The laminated heat-transfer product of claim 12 comprising at least the layers of a liner, a top heat-transfer coat, a base heat-transfer coat and said heat-transfer glue.

14. A heat-transfer printing process for transferring an image from one or more coats in a laminated heat-transfer product to a textile substrate comprising the steps of:

(i) providing the laminated heat-transfer product of claim 12 ;

(ii) conjoining the laminated heat-transfer product of step (i) with the textile substrate; and

(iii) transferring the image from the one or more coats of the laminated heat-transfer product onto the substrate.

15. An imprinted textile garment or article including the heat-transfer textile ink of claim 1 .

16. An imprinted textile garment or article including the laminated heat-transfer product of claim 12 .

17. A heat-transfer printing process for transferring an image from one or more coats in a laminated heat-transfer product to a textile substrate comprising the steps of:

(i) providing the laminated heat-transfer product of claim 13 ;

(ii) conjoining the laminated heat-transfer product of step (i) with the textile substrate; and

(iii) transferring the image from the one or more coats of the laminated heat-transfer product onto the substrate.

18. An imprinted textile garment or article including the laminated heat-transfer product of claim 13 .

19. The heat-transfer textile ink of claim 6 wherein the adhesion-promoting group is at least one of an amino, an epoxy, a mercapto, or an acrylate group.

20. The heat-transfer textile ink of claim 7 wherein the trialkoxysilane is one or more of the group comprising vinyltriethoxysilane, (methacryloxypropyl)trimethoxysilane, vinyltrimethoxysilane, vinyltriacetoxysilane, glycidoxypropyltrimethoxysilane, or combinations thereof.