In the textile digital printing industry, some textiles will be disconnected when encountering the print head of the printing machine, causing damage. The following editors explain in detail which materials are suitable for digital printing and which are not:
1. Cotton is a natural fiber, especially in the fashion industry. It is widely used in clothing due to its high moisture resistance, comfort and durability. With a textile digital printer, you can print on cotton. To achieve the highest possible quality, most digital printers use reactive inks, as this type of ink provides the highest washfastness for printing on cotton.
2. Viscose Another natural fiber that is widely used in the fashion industry is viscose. Printing on viscose is possible with a digital printer. Just like printing on cotton, printing on viscose with reactive inks works best.
3. It is feasible to print wool on wool fabric with a digital printing machine, but it depends on the type of wool fabric used. If you are printing on "fluffy" wool fabric, this also means that the surface of the fabric has a lot of fluff, so the nozzle must be 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 will seriously damage the nozzle. Therefore, it is very important to choose a digital printing machine that allows the printhead to print at a higher position from the fabric. The distance between the nozzle of the print head and the fabric is typically 1.5mm, which allows you to digitally print on any type of wool fabric.
4. Silk Another natural fiber suitable for digital textile printing is silk. Silk can be printed with reactive inks (better color fastness) or acid inks (wider color gamut).
5. Nylon Lycra Nylon Lycra is a fabric mainly used for swimwear. You can print on polyamide lycra using a digital press, preferably acid inks. With acid inks, the highest color brightness, the best wash fastness, salt water and chlorine bleach fastness can be obtained.
6. Polyester Polyester has become an increasingly popular fabric in the fashion world over the past few years. However, the most commonly used dispersion inks for polyester printing do not work well on high-speed digital printers. A typical problem is contamination of the press with flying ink. As a result, printers have turned to paper-based sublimation transfer printing, and recently they have successfully switched to sublimation inks to print directly on polyester fabrics. The latter requires a more expensive printing machine because the machine needs to increase the guide belt to hold the fabric, but saves the cost of paper and does not require steam washing.
7. Blended fabrics Blended fabrics refer to fabrics 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 requires 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. It also means that the ink won't tint on another material, resulting in lightening and whitening.
