By Olivia Cahoon
Part 1 of 2
Several digital printing technologies are available for printing to textiles including pigment, active, reactive, and dye-sublimation (dye-sub). Recently, textile pigment printing became more popular due to its eco-friendly capabilities and advancements in substrate variability.
Before selecting a pigment textile printer, manufacturers should be aware of the different types of devices and the overall cost of pigment printing.
Pigment Gets Popular
Pigment printing’s recent growth and popularity in digital textile production is a direct result of new advancements in color, quality, and light fastness.
Digital printing with pigment inks on textiles has been an industry goal for some time. Only within the past few years did the ink technology advance to where it is a viable solution. Mike Syverson, textile manager, North America, Durst Image Technology US LLC, believes a big reason for its growth is no different from the analog to digital conversion that happened in the offset, screen, and signage markets over the last 20 years.
“Companies that print pigment inks on textiles with analog systems, such as rotary or flat screen, are interested in inkjet as it gives them another outlet for production with quality on par or better than traditional methods,” shares Syverson. New companies also enter this market as digitally printed pigment ink is well suited to the web to print business model.
Pigment printing’s recent growth in digital textiles is also a result of the technology’s ability to provide better colors and light fastness on natural fabrics. Recent trends in the printing industry focus on how the printing process can be more sustainable, and pigment printing caters to this. For example, the textile pigment process reduces the amount of water typically used with reactive and acid dye printing methods, says David Lopez, textile solutions specialist, Mimaki USA, Inc. It only needs a dry heat process to fix the ink to the fabrics, instead of a steam, wash, and dry process.
Getting Up to Speed
Dye-sub printing is the dominant digital printing technology for the textile market. To help grow pigment printing’s popularity, several improvements were needed to make it equal to and in some scenarios, better than dye-sub printing.
Currently, dye-sub is still the preferred method of printing to polyesters because the ink bonds to the fibers unlike textile pigment inks, which sit on top—giving it less of a rub fastness. “Textile pigment inks are now engineered with different binding agents to help bond better to fabrics and maintain a better rub fastness than before,” reveals Lopez. What makes textile pigment more attractive is that it doesn’t limit the manufacturer to polyesters and it allows printing to natural fibers, like cotton.
Comparing pigment to dye-sub printing is challenging, mostly because both printing methods use heat to bond ink to the material. While pigment handles more fabrics than dye-sub, it has several challenges in ink formulation and high costs due to pigment’s physical particle sizes that make high-quality inks costly to develop, shares Marty Silveira, VP sales, DigiFab Systems, Inc.
Further, most pigment ink sets are six or eight colors to make up for pigment’s less-brilliant colors. He offers, “even with all these improvements, sublimation ink achieves a more vivid print, yet lacking the light fastness and fabric versatility of pigment inks by a long way.”
General Benefits
Pigment printing technology presents several benefits to textiles, especially substrate variability and eco-friendliness.
It offers the ability to print onto a variety of fabrics including cottons, linen, natural fabrics, silk, and blends not suitable for dye-sub. “Pigment can print on virtually any fabric pretreated for digital printing,” comments Randy Anderson, product marketing manager, Mutoh America, Inc.
While reactive and acid dyes are also used for a variety of natural fabrics, both technologies require additional processing. However, Anderson says pigments need only a heat set with pressure recommended. Reactive and acid dyes require steaming to set the ink followed by washing to remove excess dyes and drying before use. “There is extra water for reactive and acid inks, while pigments are print and heat.”
According to Franziska Basalone, sales and marketing assistant, North America, Zimmer Austria Inc., pigment printing also delivers good light fastness, brilliant colors, and a simplified printing process that works on almost all fiber types. “Pigment printing is possible on any textile material, unlike dye-sub, which only works on polyester.”
Before You Buy
Before purchasing a pigment press for textile printing, manufacturers should become familiar with the different types of pigment printers and determine which configurations benefit their applications.
Generally, there are three types of pigment printers—single-pass high-speed printers, multi-pass scanning printers, and sticky belt printers. As a result, buyers should understand what their production goals are. For example, Anderson suggests buyers consider if they need to produce yards per minute or per hour. “Typical multi-pass scanning printers print on the order of ten or more linear yards per hour, while a single-pass printer prints upwards of a hundred linear yards per minute.”
Another consideration is media selection. According to Anderson, any textile pigment printer should be able to easily print on non-stretch fabrics. While most devices print two-way stretch with a little effort, four-way stretch needs a sticky belt printer that actually has a belt, typically with an adhesive applied to it to hold the stretch stable without distortion.
Pigment ink’s ability to handle a variety of substrates is appealing to the apparel and decor segments. However, it’s important to note that fabrics typically need to be pretreated to optimize image quality. “Many suppliers currently offer pretreated fabrics for pigment,” says Syverson.
Not only is it important to determine how the printer handles the fabric, but also if the transport works for all the fabric types the buyer wants to print to, such as woven or stretch materials, suggests Silveira. He recommends buyers also determine if the printhead clearance is acceptable for the intended fabrics and if the speed works for the required output needed to be profitable.
Investments
Determining the cost of pigment printing—especially compared to dye-sub methods—is difficult as both printing technologies offer different advantages.
Compared to dye-sub, overall pigment costs are typically higher. However, Syverson says the added range of printable fabrics and variety of finished products—both in apparel and home textile markets—makes pigment printing a more complete solution for a textile provider.
“It is difficult to compare dye-sub and textile pigment printing because of the different fabrics used,” agrees Lopez. Since dye-sub is for polyesters and textile pigment is mostly used for cottons and natural fibers, the costs of the fabrics and inks are different. To help determine the best investment, Lopez suggests buyers consider fabrics and pretreatments, press costs, ink costs, and fixation units such as a heat press or heated oven.
Textiles Win
Pigment printing is making a splash in the textile market with the ability to handle a variety of fabrics like cotton, linen, and silk. While dye-sub printing is traditionally a more cost-effective printing process, determining the ideal digital printing method comes down to the buyer’s intended applications, fabric types, and budget.
Part two of this series highlights available pigment printers used in industrial printing facilities.
Click here to read part two of this exclusive online series, Pigment Textile Printers.
Jun2019, Industrial Print Magazine