Cotton
Cotton is a natural fiber that is widely used in apparel, especially in the fashion industry, because of its high moisture resistance, comfort and durability. Using a textile digital printing machine, you can print on cotton. To achieve the highest quality possible, most digital printers use reactive inks, as this type of ink offers the highest wash fastness for printing on cotton.
Viscose
Another natural fiber that is widely used in the fashion industry is viscose. It is possible to print on viscose using a digital printing machine. As with printing on cotton, the best results can be achieved by printing on viscose with reactive ink.
Wool
It is possible to print on wool fabrics using a digital printing machine, but it depends on the type of wool fabric being used. If you want to print on “fuzzy” wool fabrics this also means that there is a lot of fuzz on the surface of the fabric, so the printhead 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 printhead, so it can severely damage the printhead.
Therefore, it is very important to choose a digital printing machine that allows the printhead to print at a higher distance from the fabric. Nozzle nozzle to the fabric distance is generally 1.5 mm, which may allow you to be able to digital printing on any type of wool fabric.
Silk
Another natural fiber that is suitable for digital printing on textiles is silk. Silk can be printed with reactive ink (better color fastness) or acidic ink (wider color range).
Polyamide Lycra
Polyamide Lycra is a fabric mainly used for swimwear. You can use digital printing machine to print on polyamide lycra, and it is best to use acid ink. Using acid ink, you can get the highest color brightness, the best wash fastness and resistance to salt water, chlorine bleaching fastness.
Polyester
In the past few years, polyester has become an increasingly popular fabric in the fashion industry. However, the most commonly used dispersion ink for polyester printing, when used on high-speed digital printing machine, the effect is not good. The typical problem is that the printing machine is contaminated with ink fly.
As a result, print factories have turned to heat-sublimation transfer printing on beaten paper and have recently made a successful switch to direct printing on polyester fabrics using heat-sublimation inks. The latter requires more expensive printing machines, as the machines need to add guide tapes that hold the fabric in place, but saves on paper costs and does not require steaming or washing.
Mixed fabrics
Mixed fabrics are fabrics made up 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 in one machine. Since each material requires a different type of ink, it is important as a printing company to use an ink that is appropriate for the primary material that makes up the fabric. This also means that the ink will not color on another material, resulting in a lighter, more dewy color.
For digital printing, there are still certain limitations, for different fabric processing methods are not the same. The above is what I shared with you, I hope it will help you.
