Banking on extensive research in the R&D laboratory, Digitl Ink, a Cheshire, UK-based ink manufacturer, intends to launch two direct to fabric water-based ink varieties - Tex-AD and Tex-PG, for wide-format printers, by close of the current year.
Following success of its Versatile Textile and Vinyl (VTV) - Mild Solvent Inks, which deliver best printing results, both on Textile and Vinyl substrates, the company had been working to develop new water-based inks.
The idea is to produce inks that can be used to directly print on a wide range of fabrics, without involvement of any sublimation. This not only would allow the company to achieve better environmental sustainability and to wipe out the need for room ventilation like it is required while using solvent inks.
Still known by its working name, Digitl Ink Tex-AD – Water Based Acid Reactive Dye Inks is designed for directly printing on nylon, silk and wool substrates. Unlike standard sublimation process, which at times is even complicated, Tex-AD inks can be directly printed on these types of fabrics with minimal pre-print and post-print treatment requirements.
Digitl Ink Tex-PG – Water Based Pigment Inks are designed for digital textile printing, which highly requisites additional lightfastness or durability. Besides silk, nylon and wool, this pigment based ink prints on any textile substrate, and also on a significantly wider range of substrates like cotton and cotton blends/polyester. The main advantage of this ink is that it would require almost no pre-print or post-print treatment.
While Tex-AD is more suitable for T-shirt printing, Tex-PG is apt for posters, displays and vehicle wrappings.
Source:
http://www.fibre2fashion.com/news/textile-news/newsdetails.aspx?news_id=115957
