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Note that the reports (and your interpretation) have the transfer operating at ambient temperatures and pressures -- producing classical Brownian, diffuse, slow, and low-energy mixed transport of the gaseous materials. In that domain, the vapors tend to remain gaseous and, indeed, with time, would diffuse into (and around) the fibers.
The "Dye sublimation" mechanism (if not material) I proposed would have operated in a radically different time_temperature and energy domain.
In that T_t domain, the colorants (or reactive agents) begin and end the transfer process as condensed solids. And, the velocity imparted to them by the brief, but explosively energetic, heating process does, indeed, result in linear ("collimated", if you will) transport from source to destination. (Otherwise, "DyeSub" printing would produce unacceptably-blurred images...)
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Since we already have an established personal contact history, I'll type up something for sharing with you via FReepmail revealing personal, experiential info clarifying why I'm pursuing this specific "skin-to-cloth" transfer/transport mechanism.
So far, I see nothing in it that is at irreconcilable odds with the analyses performed by Rogers & Arnoldi. And, it does address the "collimation" issue...
Again, thanks for the references!! I look forward to communing with you on a different level than "mere Mac stuff"! '-)
All good points, but it still does not address the fact that at explosive force at a distance from point source generally tends to be in equal globe around the point source of origination blurring the image.