Inkjet printing of silk: factors influencing ink penetration and ink spreading

Abstract

Purpose Pretreatment of fabric with a number of chemicals and auxiliaries is a prerequisite for inkjet printing. Owing to the rapidly increasing use of inkjet printing for textile fabrics, the study of the effects of process variables on various characteristics of the resulting print has drawn considerable interest recently. The purpose of this paper is to study the effects of different variables associated with the inkjet printing process on the quality of the resulting print. Specifically, the effects of chemicals and auxiliaries used in the pretreatment of the fabric prior to printing and factors such as steaming time were studies. Design/methodology/approach In the present study, which forms a part of a larger study by the authors, the influence of the nature of thickener, the amounts of thickener, urea and alkali, pH of the pretreatment liquor and the duration of steaming on ink penetration into the printed fabrics and the ink spreading across the fabrics was studied. The nature of ink penetration and ink spreading are known to have pronounced effects on the quality and, in turn, the overall appearance of the resulting print. A set of experiments based on a blocked 25–1 fractional factorial design with four centre points were conducted to evaluate the role of the aforementioned five variables. Ink penetration was quantified on the basis of the principles of Kebulka-Munk theory while ink spreading was analysed by image analysis. Findings Detailed statistical analyses of the experimental data obtained show that different thickeners perform differently and can have a marked influence on ink penetration and ink spreading. In the case of polyacrylic acid-based thickener, changing the levels of the factors has a marked effect on ink penetration and in-turn on ink spreading. In the case of polyacrylamide (PAM)-based thickener, on the other hand, the effect of changing the levels of various factors on the ink penetration and ink spreading is considerably less pronounced. In addition, PAM treated samples exhibited better performance in terms of ink penetration and spreading. Originality/value This study provides useful information for textile printers and highlights the importance of selecting the right type of thickener to make the printing process and the quality of the resulting print more predictable and controllable.

Tekstil Endüstrisinde Kullanılan İnkjet Baskı Mürekkepleri

“…Tekstil materyaline, inkjet baskısı öncesi kumaşa uygun ön işlem yapılmasının gerekli olduğu bilinmektedir. Ön işlemin amacı, nozüllerin tıkanması nedeni ile mürekkep formülasyonuna eklenemeyen,istenen baskı kalitesini elde etmek için önemli olan çeşitli yardımcı maddeleri kumaşa uygulayarak baskının dağılmasını önlemektir [8,22]. Şekil 6.…”

“…Baskı kalitesinin değerlendirilmesinde, baskının kalıcılığı, kullanılabilirliği veya maliyetinin yanı sıra baskı görünümü ve rengi de dikkate alınmaktadır. Tekstillerin dijital baskısında baskı kalitesi ile ilgili sorunlarbirkaç ana kategoriye ayrılmaktadır [11,22,49]: 1)Kontür netliği, metin kalitesi, çözünürlük veya daha az parlaklık gibi görüntü ile ilgili problemler 2)Renk ile bağlantılı problemler 3)Işık ve yıkama haslığı gibi haslık değerleri ile ilgili sorunlar 4)Tutum gibi kullanım ile ilgili problemler Mürekkep performansının baskı işlemi sonrası görsel analizi, baskılı ve baskısız alan üzerindeki nokta ve çizgilerin incelenmesi ile yapılmaktadır. Analizde, tekstil materyali üzerine mürekkep damlası absorbe olduktan sonra damlanın konumu, şekli, boyutu ve netliği dikkate alınmaktadır.…”

Optical index stabilization of prints of digital printing

“…For example, materials such as paper, plastic, fabric, etc., for the production of single copies or small print runs. This is manifested in the unpredictability of the optical properties of prints, namely chromatic indexes, saturation, and sharpness 1,2 . After all, each type of material is characterized by unique printing-technical and optical properties, such as whiteness, gloss, absorbency, smoothness, surface texture.…”

“…It is these material properties that affect the optical properties of prints in digital printing 3,4 . Furthermore, it was established that the optical properties of prints are affected by the type of ink, the fixing mechanism that forms the thickness of the paint layer, which depends on the absorption capacity of the printed material and the ink chemical composition 2 . ISO standards provide colorimetric indexes of triad colours for certain types of offset printing papers, which can conditionally be used to evaluate colour characteristics in digital printing.…”

Formulation and characterization of pigmented inkjet inks containing aminopropyl/vinyl/silsesquioxane for jet printing onto polyester fabrics

“…Furthermore, the high-temperature curing of pre-treatment components followed by the elevated temperature of curing the pigmented inkjet-printed fabrics adversely impacts the physical properties of the heat-sensitive synthetic fabrics. As a rule, little works have been published for developing post-treatment components for the fixation of pigment-based inkjet inks digitally printed onto fabrics (Nasar et al , 2011; Faisal et al , 2020; Gao et al , 2021).…”