By Printing Method
1. Digital Direct Printing
The digital direct printing method applies to disperse, acid dyes, pigment, and reactive ink. The digital direct printing method is directly on the sizing of semi-finished textiles for the direct printing process.
The process is according to the textile selection of the corresponding ink, design pattern, and sizing. After the textile direct printing machine at direct printing. And then drying, steaming, washing, drying, Soft fixing, and other processes (in which the pigment can fix the color by baking).
2. Heat Transfer Printing
In heat transfer printing, textile dyes are first printed onto coated paper. Heat transfer machinery transfers the design from the paper to the textile.
This method offers high precision but lower efficiency and is suitable for polyester or high-polyester-content textiles. The pre-treated transfer fabrics do not contain softeners, as softeners can affect color yield.
3. Cold Transfer Printing
Like heat transfer, cold transfer printing involves printing textile dyes onto paper and pressing the paper and fabric together using specialized machinery to transfer the design.
After pressing, the fabric undergoes either traditional steaming, washing, and setting processes or cold pad-batch chemical fixation (requiring pre-treated fabric). This method is compatible with reactive, dispersed, and acid dyes, and is suitable for all fabrics except blends.
By Dye and Process
1. Disperse Dye Digital Printing
In China, manufacturers use dispersed dye ink for more than 50% of digital printing, primarily for polyester fibers and other synthetic fabrics. Disperse dyes, which are non-ionic and have very low water solubility, exist in a highly dispersed state in water with the aid of dispersing agents.
2. Reactive Dye Digital Printing
Reactive dye ink accounts for about 29%, mainly used for silk and cotton fabric printing. It is a kind of dye that reacts chemically with fibers when dyeing. The color separation of this kind of dye contains genes that can react chemically with fibers.
When dyeing, dyes react with fibers and form covalent bonds between them to form a whole, which improves the fastness of washing and rubbing.
Active fuel molecules include parent dyes and active groups. The groups that can react with fibers are called active groups. Currently, manufacturers mainly use them in woven and knitted fabrics, such as cotton, general anesthesia, silk, or fabrics with a high content of these components.
3. Acid Dye Digital Printing
Acid dye ink has a small specific gravity of about 7%. It is used for printing wool, nylon, and other fabrics. And being water-soluble dyes with acid groups in their structure, dye fabrics in an acid medium.
Most acid dyes contain sodium sulfonate, which is soluble in water, bright in color, and complete in chromatography. It is mainly used for dyeing wool, silk, and nylon, and can also be used in leather, paper, and ink. Generally, it has no coloring power on cellulose fibers.
4. Pigment Ink Digital Printing
Pigment ink usage is relatively low in China, less than 2%, mostly supplied by foreign companies such as Huntsman, BASF, DuPont, and Clariant.
By Fabric Composition
1. Cotton Based Digital Printing
This category also includes linen, silk, and other fabrics that can use reactive dye inks.
2. Synthetic Fiber-Based Digital Printing
Utilizes disperse sublimation dye inks for production and direct disperse inkjet printing for synthetic fibers.
3. Blended Fabrics (e.g., T/C blends)
These fabrics cannot be processed with reactive, dispersed, or acid dye inks alone and require pigment inks for printing.
4. Nylon and Wool-Based Digital Printing
Uses acid dye inks, also suitable for silk.
By understanding these classifications, textile manufacturers can select the appropriate digital printing method and dye for their specific fabric types and desired outcomes.
