INK-JET PRINTING ON TEXTILES

With the increased pressure from the developing printing markets in the Far East, textile printers in the USA and Europe must respond with both increased quality and shorter time of response. This means supplying customers with new design concepts, printed samples in a wide range of colourways and bulk prints in a time frame unheard of only a few years ago. One of the major bottlenecks in textile printing is the pre-print and sampling stage. Before a customer can receive the design on a textile substrate, the textile printer has to produce engraved screens (for each colour of the design), print on the customers fabric, steam (for fixation) and wash-off. CAD Systems have been available from some time, but offered hard copy output on paper only. Recent developments in the textile field have been aimed at producing hard copy output from CAD systems directly onto textile substrates using ink formulations based on textile dye chromophores. The current 'state of the art' in the nonimpact of printing of textile substrates will be reviewed. The development of reactive dye formulations and associated application technology for the ink jet printing of textiles will also be discussed in detail.