Views: 12 Author: Site Editor Publish Time: 2022-08-15 Origin: Site
Textile digital printing is the latest innovation in textile printing industry. More and more printing companies are making the transition to digital printing and are benefiting from the competitive advantages it offers, the fastest production efficiency and the ability to produce complex and fine patterns. Before determining if your printing company is interested in textile digital printing, it is necessary to understand digital printing's choice of printed fabrics.
Digital textile printing is a printing method based on inkjet, which enables the printing machine to print high quality patterns on a variety of fabrics. However, some fabrics are not suitable for this particular printing technique. In this article, I specify which fabrics can and cannot be used in textile digital printing. To fully understand why certain fabrics cannot be digitally printed, it is necessary to understand digital printing technology.
In digital printing, the fabric must be pretreated first and then passed through the inkjet printing machine at high speed. Textile digital printing machines use digitized printable patterns to read the correct color information and print the color onto the fabric.
The fabric is colored using tiny drops of ink created by a sprinkler head. The prints are positioned a few millimeters above the fabric (the SPGPrints Archer technology can put the prints up to 4 millimeters from the fabric).
In textile digital printing, a large number of printing machine nozzle to ensure the printing of high quality pattern design and fast production speed. However, some fabrics cannot be used for digital printing because the nozzle is too close to the fabric. For example, some fabric with loose threads can come into contact with the sprinkler head and cause damage.
Textile digital printing technology can be used for woven and knitted fabrics. Below, I elaborate on which materials are suitable for digital printing and which are not:
cotton
Cotton is a natural fiber that is widely used in clothing, especially in the fashion industry, for its high moisture resistance, comfort and durability. With the textile digital printing machine, you can print on cotton cloth. In order to achieve the highest possible quality, most digital printing machines use reactive ink, as this type of ink provides the highest color fastness to water for printing on cotton cloth.
viscose
Another natural fiber widely used in the fashion industry is viscose. It is feasible to use digital printing machine to print on viscose. As with printing on cotton, printing on viscose with reactive ink can achieve the best results.
wool
Printing on wool fabric using a digital printing machine is possible, but it depends on the type of wool fabric used. If you want to print on "fuzzy" wool fabric, this means that there is a lot of fluff on the surface of the fabric, so the nozzle must be kept as far away from the fabric as possible. The diameter of the wool yarn is five times the diameter of the nozzle in the nozzle, so it can seriously damage the nozzle.
Therefore, it is very important to choose a digital printing machine that allows the printing nozzle to print at a higher position from the fabric. The SPGPrints Archer technology supports a print height of 4mm, while other prints typically have a 1.5mm nozzle-to-fabric distance, potentially allowing you to digitally print any type of wool.
silk
Another natural fiber suitable for textile digital printing is silk. Silk can be printed with reactive ink (for better colour fastness) or acid ink (for wider gamut).
Polyamide Lycra
Polyamide Lycra is a fabric used primarily in swimwear. You can use a digital printing machine to print on polyamide Lycra, preferably with acid ink. Use acid inks for the highest color brightness, best wash fastness and fastness to salt water and chlorine bleaching.
polyester
Polyester has become an increasingly popular fabric in the fashion world over the past few years. However, dispersive inks, which are most commonly used for polyester printing, do not work well when used on high-speed digital printing machines. The typical problem is that the printing machine is contaminated by ink flying ink.
As a result, printing factories have switched to thermal sublimation transfer printing on paper and have recently successfully switched to direct printing on polyester fabrics using thermal sublimation inks. The latter requires more expensive printing machines, which add guides to hold the fabric in place, but save paper costs and do not need to be steamed or washed.
In general, the color fastness of polyester printing with thermal sublimation is slightly lower than that of dispersing ink printing. But in the clothing world, this is an acceptable compromise for sustainable production.
Blended fabric
Blended fabric refers to fabric composed of two different types of materials, which is a challenge for digital printing machines. In textile digital printing, only one type of ink can be used by one device. Since each material needs a different type of ink, as a printing company, it is necessary to use inks that are suitable for the main materials that make up the fabric. This also means that the ink will not color on another material, resulting in a lighter, whiter color.
Usually, textile digital printing machine can handle 70-30% proportion of the mixed fabric distribution. For example, a blend of 70% cotton and 30% polyester can be printed using reactive ink. However, for 60-40% blends, the use of digital printing can be limited in terms of depth of color.
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