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Introduction To Digital Printing

Views: 11 Author: Site Editor Publish Time: 2023-12-29 Origin: Site

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Digital printing development

Digital printing is printing using digital technology. Digital printing technology is a high-tech product that integrates machinery, computer electronic information technology, and has gradually formed with the continuous development of computer technology. It first appeared in the mid-1990s. The emergence and continuous improvement of this technology have It brings a new concept to the textile printing and dyeing industry.

Digital printing classification

According to the printing method, it is divided into the following three types:

1. Digital direct printing. The digital direct-jet printing method is suitable for dispersed, acidic dyes, coatings, and reactive inks. The digital direct-jet printing method is a process of directly printing on semi-finished textiles that have been sizing. The process is: select the corresponding ink according to the textile, Design the pattern, apply sizing, and then go to the textile direct-injection printing machine for direct printing, and then proceed to drying, steaming, washing, drying, softening and shaping (the paint only needs to be baked to fix the color) .

2. Thermal transfer printing method. Thermal transfer printing is to first print textile dyes onto paper (coat it), and then use a thermal transfer printing machine to transfer the pattern on the paper to textiles. The advantage is that the accuracy is relatively high, but the printing efficiency is low. It can only produce textiles with a high polyester content or a high polyester content. The transfer fabrics are semi-finished products and have not been added with softeners (the addition of softeners may affect color rate).

3. Cold transfer printing method. Like thermal transfer printing, you need to print textile dyes on paper first, and then use special machinery to emboss the paper and fabric to transfer the pattern. There are two treatment methods for embossed fabrics. One is to undergo traditional processes such as steaming, washing, and shaping; the other is to undergo cold pile chemical reaction treatment to fix the color (the fabric needs to be chemically treated in advance). Using reactive, disperse, acid and other dye inks, this process is suitable for fabrics other than blended fabrics.

According to dyes and processes, they are divided into the following four types:

1. Dispersed digital printing. At present, more than 50% of printing inks in my country are disperse dye inks, which are used for printing polyester fiber and other chemical fiber fabrics. Disperse dyes have very low water solubility. During dyeing, tiny particles are mainly dispersed in water with the help of dispersants. Nonionic dyes existing in dispersed state

2. Reactive digital printing. Reactive dye inks account for about 29% and are mainly used for silk and cotton fabric printing; reactive dyes, also known as reactive dyes, are a type of dye that chemically reacts with fibers during dyeing. The color separation of this type of dye contains genes that can react chemically with fibers. During dyeing, the dye reacts with the fiber, forming a covalent bond between the two and becoming a whole, which improves the washing and rubbing fastness. Reactive dye molecules include two main components: parent dye and reactive group. The group that can react with fiber is called reactive group. At present, it is mainly used on woven and knitted fabrics such as cotton, linen, and silk, or fabrics with higher content of the above ingredients.

3. Acid digital printing. Acid dye ink has a small proportion, accounting for about 7%, and is used for printing on wool, nylon and other fabrics. Acid dyes are a type of water-soluble dyes with acidic groups in their structure, which are dyed in acidic media. Most acid dyes contain sodium sulfonate, which is soluble in water and has bright colors and complete chromatograms. It is mainly used for dyeing wool, silk and nylon, and can also be used for leather, paper, ink, etc. It generally has no coloring power on cellulose fibers.

4. Pigment ink digital printing. The usage of pigment ink in my country is relatively small, less than 2%, and most of them are foreign products. The manufacturers include Huntsman, BASF, DuPont, Klein and other companies.

According to the fabric composition, it is divided into four types:

1. Digital printing mainly uses cotton, but reactive dye inks can also be used for linen, silk, etc.;

2. Digital printing based on chemical fiber, produced with dispersed sublimation dye ink and chemical fiber dispersed direct-injection digital printing;

3. For some mixed fabrics such as T/C, fabrics that cannot be operated with reactive, dispersed or acid dye inks alone should be printed with paint ink;

4. Digital printing based on nylon and wool is produced with acid dye ink, and silk can also be used.

digital printing dyes