PRODUCT
Why Glitter HTV Is the Hardest Heat Transfer Film to Make Well
Sparkle, cuttability, wash durability and flake control pull in different directions. Getting all four in one 350 µm film is the whole craft.
Four properties that fight each other
A plain PU film has one job: hold colour and stretch with the garment. Glitter film has to do that while carrying a layer of loose particles that must sparkle, cut cleanly, survive the wash and never come off. Improve one and you usually lose another.
Sparkle wants large, loosely packed flakes that catch light. Cuttability wants small, evenly packed flakes so a 60° blade passes cleanly.
Softness wants a thin binder. Flake retention wants enough binder to encapsulate every particle.
A low press temperature protects polyester. Full adhesion of a 350 µm film wants heat and time.
Where cheap glitter film cuts corners
The fastest way to make glitter film is to dust flakes onto a wet binder and dry it. The surface sparkles on the roll—and sheds on the weeding table, the platen and in the wash. It also cannot be layered, because nothing bonds to a loose surface.
How SHINHAN builds the layer
Glitter particles are sized and sorted before coating so the layer is uniform and cuts cleanly.
Particles are encapsulated in the polyurethane binder rather than dusted on top.
A top skin is cured so the surface stays closed.
The hot-melt adhesive is laminated in-line immediately after coating, so the layers never separate in the wash.
The numbers that come out of it
Total thickness 350 µm on a 100 µm PET carrier
Press 160 °C for 15 seconds, medium pressure, cold peel
Rated 100+ domestic washes at 60 °C in our lab
Cuts on standard plotters and craft cutters; no warm weeding
Why it took patents
SHINHAN holds 21 registered patents (27 filed) on glitter sheet processes and coating equipment, built up since incorporation in 2000 with glitter and sequin roots in the 1980s. The process is not a recipe you buy with a coating line; it is the reason the film behaves the same batch after batch.
Judge it yourself
Every sample kit includes a pressed sample and a piece pre-washed at 60 °C. Weed it, press it, wash it, and compare it with the film you use today.
