This article is translated from a report issued by the China Dyeing and Printing Association

Ink Development Meets the Needs of Differentiation and Quality

The development direction of inkjet ink technology will closely focus on market demand, and promote the industry to transform towards green, efficient and quality in many aspects such as improving printing efficiency, optimizing color performance, reducing printing costs and enhancing environmental performance.

The compatibility, fluency, storage stability and color saturation of digital inks are further optimized and improved, and the printing adaptability to low temperature and low humidity environment and high-speed printing is continuously enhanced.

The increasing demand for special functional inks drove the technological progress and market application of reactive inks with high light resistance and high color fixation rate, disperse direct printing inks with high washing resistance, high light resistance and high sublimation fastness, textile pigment inks with high washing resistance and friction fastness, and ultra-concentrated thermal sublimation inks.

The environmental protection requirements of inks are constantly improving, and the environmental protection, and carbon reduction and pollution reduction technologies are met by reducing the use of solvents and improving biodegradability.

The ink product is constantly enriched, and the color brightness and layering of inkjet printing are improved by screening more dye varieties and dye color systems. The development of dual-active group active inks, spot color inks and fluorescent inks meets the needs of high-quality digital inkjet printing.

The application solutions for new inks are becoming more mature, and the scope of application for printed fabrics is expanding, such as the application of cationic inks on cationic modified polyester, acrylic and other fabrics; the application of reduced inks on cotton/nylon blended fabrics; the application of latex inks on shoes material, wall coverings, leather, down jackets, sunscreen clothing fabrics, etc. The development of more new inks will also provide a broader application space for the digital inkjet printing industry.

Further Intelligentization and Functionalization of Inkjet Printers

Core components such as print heads, software control systems and boards of inkjet printers are constantly upgraded to support the development of digital inkjet printing equipment in the direction of high speed, high precision, high stability, high cost performance and greater intelligence.

The number of print heads configured in scanners will increase further, driving the continuous improvement of the production capacity and efficiency of a single device. Large-scale, industrialized equipment with high efficiency and low consumption will gradually replace small machine with low efficiency and high consumption. Based on the continuous development of composite solutions for digital inkjet printing, the market demand for special printing such as digital + gold and silver powder/foaming/gradient color is growing rapidly, further promoting the development of multi-process and multi-functional digital inkjet printing machines. More equipment supports online sizing systems, and problems such as sizing uniformity and weft control are effectively controlled, and the applicability to fabrics with poor hygroscopicity and high pattern precision requirements is continuously enhanced. The upstream and downstream industrial chains strengthen collaborative innovation, promote the continuous maturity of low-water printing solutions, and further play the role of digital inkjet printing in promoting the green transformation of the industry.

Textile pigment ink digital direct printing solution meets the current technical requirements for low-carbon transformation. With the continuous improvement of equipment and supporting process technologies, textile pigment ink digital printing will become a hot spot for industry development. The research on digital inkjet technology has been further deepened, and the key core technologies such as large droplet piezoelectric print heads, digital inkjet equipment and supporting dyes and chemicals have been promoted, and new progress has been made in printing speed and uniformity.

The application scope of Single Pass printing equipment for to-be-printed media and patterns has been continuously expink anded, and it has developed in the compact, highly reliable, and intelligent direction. It supports more types of print heads and inkjet inks, adapts to different application scenarios more flexibly in the industry, and continuously promotes product diversification. The wide-format Single Pass printer improves the assembly accuracy of the print heads, ensures the printing consistency, realizes its application in the field of home textiles, and meets the large-scale and flexible printing needs of home textile products.

The deep integration of new generation information technologies such as the Internet of Things, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and blockchain with digital inkjet printing accelerates the upgrading of printing methods, optimization of management models, and improvement of production efficiency through data empowerment, digital intelligence collaboration, and technological innovation. The degree of intelligence and interconnection of digital inkjet printing equipment is constantly improving, realizing unattended automated production solutions, including seamless order change, automatic order tracking, order deletion, MES visual production and remote operation, etc., reducing human intervention while improving work efficiency. The development and application of intelligent software systems such as intelligent print head protection system, print head constant temperature system, and automatic ink supply system continue to enable the improvement of inkjet printing equipment.