Pigment inks unfold innovations for apparel & décor textiles

As long as digital textile printing continues to evolve the technology and chemistry now facilitates high speed production across multiple ink sets, these innovations now enable pigment inks to be jetted at high speed, and the sector is set for a disruptive chapter. Pigment inks represent the largest opportunity for conversion from analogue to digital process and as such offers the digital sector an unrivalled opportunity. Offering environmental efficiency, the pigment ink print process provides a truly one-step solution to the print process, delivering a massive hike in speeds from 50 metres/hr just a few years ago – to over 1800 m/hr using the latest scanning machines.

Previously, with anything up to seven steps, digital textile printing was a complex and technically demanding process, demanding high energy and pre and post-finishing equipment. When using Reactive, Acid and Disperse inks, digital printing still requires pre-coating, drying, printing, steaming, washing, drying, finishing and drying again, a truly involved process which not only consumes time and energy, but also water and effluent. As stated, in the larger world of analog textile printing, pigment inks already enjoy the lion’s share (over 65 percent) of the inks used, however to date – this is not yet replicated in digital textile printing, where less than 10 percent of machinery currently uses pigment inks.