Patent ID: 7178458

Claim:
A method of making transfer printed webbing comprising the steps of: providing a computer controlled, roll paper fed, dye transfer printer; printing a first plurality of longitudinally adjacent designs on continuous roll paper with dye transfer ink using the dye transfer printer; providing a slitting cutter having a plurality of spaced-apart cutting blades for simultaneously slitting a wide input material into a plurality of relatively narrower output strips, the slitting cutter having an operator controlled adjustable speed control allowing adjustment by the operator during cutting to a cutting speed of less than 200 centimeters per minute and an overlying transparent guide plate; feeding the first plurality of longitudinally adjacent designs into the slitting cutter to simultaneously cut apart the first plurality of longitudinally adjacent designs; guiding the roll paper during slitting by viewing the longitudinally adjacent designs through the overlying transparent guide plate to produce a first plurality of design strips; assembling the first plurality of design strips to form a continuous first transfer strip; providing webbing to be transfer printed with dye transfer ink; providing an aligner for transversely aligning the first transfer strip and the webbing; providing a heat transfer web rolling machine for transferring dye transfer ink from the first transfer strip to the webbing; simultaneously feeding the webbing and the first transfer strip through the aligner, with the dye transfer ink printed designs on the first transfer strip in contact with the webbing; and feeding the aligned first transfer strip and webbing into the heat transfer web rolling machine to transfer print the webbing with the first plurality of designs.