DTF Transfer Safety
Wearing and washing
What a finished transfer is once it is on the garment, what the manufacturer's data says about skin contact, and what we do and do not claim.
What is on the garment
Once pressed and peeled, a transfer is a thin, flexible film bonded to the fabric. From the top down: a layer of pigment held in a polyurethane binder, and beneath it a layer of thermoplastic polyurethane adhesive that has flowed into the fibres. The carrier is gone. The water and the humectants from the ink were driven off during curing. That is the whole of it: two polyurethane layers and the pigment.
Skin contact: what the data says
The manufacturer's Safety Data Sheet for the ink reports that, on the available data, the classification criteria for skin corrosion and irritation, serious eye damage and irritation, skin sensitisation and respiratory sensitisation are not met. That is a chemical classification of the liquid ink under the GHS. It is useful, and it is the best information we have, but it is not a dermatological test of a finished transfer worn against skin. We have not commissioned such a test.
The adhesive is a fully reacted thermoplastic polyurethane: a finished polymer, not a reactive system. Its manufacturer's safety information carries no hazard classification.
Composition, compared
Conventional plastisol screen-print inks are PVC resin suspended in a plasticiser, historically a phthalate, which is what keeps a plastisol print soft. Our transfers are different in kind: the ink is a water-based pigment ink, the adhesive is a thermoplastic polyurethane that is flexible by its own chemistry, and the carrier is PET. None of the three is formulated with PVC or with a phthalate plasticiser.
That sentence is carefully worded. "Formulated without" is a statement about what the manufacturers' composition data lists. It is not a laboratory result on a finished transfer, which is what a "free of" claim would need, and we have not commissioned that test. If your buyer needs a tested result, tell us; knowing who needs one helps us decide when to commission it.
What we do not say
You will not find the words some vendors use on this site. The documents page lists each phrase we avoid and the reason. The short version: each one either promises a test nobody has run, borrows a certificate we do not hold, or makes a decision that belongs to whoever sells the finished garment.
Washing and care
The adhesive's manufacturer rates its wash resistance to 60 °C (140 °F). That is a durability rating for the bond. Our recommendations, which are also about durability:
- Wash before first wear, as with any new garment.
- Turn the garment inside out; wash cold or warm; no bleach.
- Tumble dry low, or hang. Do not iron directly on the transfer; if you must press it, cover it with parchment.
- Follow the garment's own care label where it is stricter.
We have not wash-tested transfers to a published standard; these are the settings our own customers report the best life from.
Honest negatives
- Flammability. A transfer is a thin plastic film. We make no flammability claim of any kind for it, and we have not tested one. Whether a decorated garment meets the flammability rules that apply to it is for the garment's maker to establish; the children's products page explains where that matters most.
- Food contact. Transfers are garment decorations. Do not use them on anything that touches food.
- Infants. Avoid placements that will sit in prolonged contact with an infant's face or mouth, such as the inside of a bib or a collar an infant chews. This is placement advice, not a finding about the material.