Introduction of Digital Printing Textile
To put it simply, the production process of digital printing textile is to input the computer through various digital means. There are different types of digital means such as scanning, digital photos, images or various digital patterns producing and processed by the computer. And then processing by the computer color separation printing system. Then processing by a dedicated RIP.
The software directly sprays various special dyes on various fabrics or other media through its printing system. There are many kinds of dyes such as reactive, dispersive, acidic main dyes. After processing, we obtain various high-precision printing products requiring on various textile fabrics. Compared with traditional printing and dyeing process, digital printing textile has the following advantages:
Digital Printing Textile VS Traditional Printing Textile
Time Cost Between Digital Printing Textile And Traditional Printing
The production process of digital printing greatly shortens the original process route. The manufacturers can take orders quickly and greatly reduces the cost of proofing. Because the production process of digital printing gets rid of complicated process of traditional printing. It gets rid of the process of color separation, drawing, film making and screen making. Thereby greatly shortening the production time. The way to accept the pattern can be through various advancing methods such as CD-ROM, E-mail, etc. Generally, the proofing time does not exceed one working day. The traditional proofing cycle is generally about one week.
In addition, the cost of proofing is greatly reduced due to the simplification of the process. The shortening of the proofing cycle and the reduction of proofing costs is a large benifit to the market. It undoubtedly brings more market opportunities to enterprises. Under the current market competition law,where time is money and efficiency is life. Digital printing technology opened up a way out and became a good choice for enterprises.
Printing Effects Between Digital Printing Textile And Traditional Printing Textile
The principle of digital printing technology makes its products break the limitations of traditional production. It gets rid of the limitation of color registration and the length of the flower back. The technology can achieve the printing effect of high-end printing on textile fabrics. Digital printing technology can use digital patterns, and then through the computer for color measurement, color matching, spray printing. As a result, the number of colors of digital printing products can theoretically reach 16.7 million.
This method breaks through the color registration restrictions of traditional textile printing and dyeing patterns. Especially in the printing of high-precision patterns such as color gradients and moiré. Digital printing has unparalleled advantages in technology. In addition, traditional printing patterns are often limited by the length of the “flower back”. However, the concept of “flowering back” does not exist in the process of digital printing. This greatly expands the space for textile pattern design and improves the quality of products.
Production Flexibility Between Digital Printing Textile And Traditional Printing Textile
The digital printing production really realizes the production process of small batches and quick response. The production batch is not subject to any restrictions. The digital printing production process all realize computerized digital production. This greatly improves production flexibility. Some products can even be delivered on the same day and are ready for immediate delivery. In addition, the application advantages of computer technology are obvious. The equipment can print a series of patterns with different tones of the same pattern. And in the production process, the designer can continuously modify the pattern and color. This has become a major technical advantage that digital printing production is different from traditional printing production.
Energy Consumption Between Digital Printing Textile And Traditional Printing Textile
The high-precision printing process makes it unnecessary to use water and color paste in the printing process.The use of dyes in the printing process is “distributed on demand” by the computer. Therefore, there is no waste of dyestuffs and no waste water during the printing process. In the jet printing process controlled by the computer, there is no noise so that no pollution occurs during the jet printing process. This achieves a green production process. Thus, the production of textile printing can get rid of the production process of high energy consumption, high pollution and high noise in the past, and realize the production process of low energy consumption and pollution-free. This technology has brought a technological revolution to the production of textile printing and dyeing.
What are the technical differences between traditional printing and digital printing? See the table.
Differences Between Traditional Printing and Digital Printing
| Comparison item | Traditional printing | Digital printing |
| Registration accuracy | Prone to imperfect fabric | Precise alignment |
| Number of registrations | The number of flower tubes and screens is limited | Unlimited |
| Maximum flower size | Common garden net flower back is 640mm, 1180mm is rarely used. | Unlimited |
| Flower type and color effect | The screen mesh is limited (high cost) | Perfect grayscale, it is easy to achieve very fine uniform transition colors. |
| Selvage problem | Sometimes it’s hard to avoid or clear | This problem does not exist |
| Sewage Disposal | Large amounts of sewage are generated from washing screens, pulp washing barrels, and plate making. | Close to 0 |
| Very small order | The cost is very high due to the cost of the screen and the waste of color paste and fabric. | Almost 0 |
| Change pattern, color position time | The length of time depends on the number of screens and the efficiency of washing the screen. | 0 |
| Number of workers | 2 people in and out of the fabric, 1 person in the car, 1 deputy, 1 person and 2 people for mixing, total 6 people | 1 person |
| Stakeout time | Depends on the time of making the net, but generally takes 3-4 weeks 50-100. | immediate |
| Production speed (m/min) | 50-100 | As fast as 75 |
Analysis Of The Disadvantages Of Digital Printing Textile Technology
Digital printing technology still needs to improving. The disadvantages of digital printing technology are mainly reflecting in four aspects:
Slow Printing Speed
Efficiency is money, and the speed of printing is largely the benefit of the enterprise. The printing speed of the fastest digital inkjet printer can reach 150m2/h. However, compared with the traditional printing machine, it is still far behind and needs further improvement.
higher Ink Cost
Digital inkjet printing does not need to make a screen. Therefore, the total cost is lower than traditional printing under small-volume production. But the price of its ink is much higher than that of dyes and pigments using in traditional printing. Therefore, after a certain printing length is exceeding, the ink price will drive the cost of digital printing. The cost will exceed that of traditional printing. In the future, the price of ink needs adjusting reasonably. Only in this way can the development of digital inkjet printing promote.
Combination Of Old And New Technology
Digital printing technology continues to improve, and the printing speed is also increasing. But it still has a long way to go to catch up with the speed of traditional printing machines. Therefore, we can use time-saving digital printing machines for proofing or small-volume production. And then with traditional printing machine for mass production. It will be the basic combination mode of the textile printing industry for some time to come. However, the combination of new and old technologies still has problems. We need to make further breakthroughs.
Color Accuracy
Compared with the traditional printing of spot color printing.That is, each set of colors is separately adjusting and matching with the color paste. Through the computer color measurement and color matching system, we can achieve high color accuracy. Even if a certain color paste has a deviation, it will only affect a set of colors. The digital printing is CMYK mixed color printing. All colors are mixed with four-color inks. A little additional influence will affect the accuracy of a series of colors after mixing. Ink differences, differences between print heads will affect the accuracy of a series of mixing colors. Also, small changes in the environment during the printing process will affect the color accuracy. Therefore, the color accuracy of digital printing is slightly worse than traditional printing.
