There are more and more clothing printing nowadays. According to the shape of the fabric before printing, it can be divided into cloth printing, cutting printing and garment printing. This issue mainly introduces the printing methods and characteristics of various garments processed by cutting or ready-made garments, especially the printing process of T-shirt garments.

Printing Method and Its Characteristics

1. Slurry Printing

Water-slurry printing is an early application of printing technology, which is the most basic printing process in screen printing industry. Its working principle is similar to that of dyeing. The difference is that it "dyes" an area of the fabric into the desired color for the flower arrangement. The material used for printing patterns is water-based paste, similar to the pigments or dyes used in painting, so it is called water-based paste printing. Its processing price is relatively low, belonging to the lower-grade printing types.

water print

Advantages: It will not affect the original texture of the fabric, so it is suitable for large area printing patterns. Because the water-soluble slurry can diffuse/permeate on cotton or polyester-cotton fabrics, the air permeability of printed fabrics is good.

Defects: The masking power is not strong, can only print dark color on light color fabrics, on the fabrics darker than the slurry itself, the slurry printing has no effect. In addition, because of printing to stop slurry washing, resulting in clothes feel hard. Therefore, the slurry printing method is more used for local clothing printing.

2. Paste Printing

Paste printing is to print the paste on the cloth surface by fire color overprinting. The paste is adhered to the cloth surface by means of cross-linking agent and adhesive (glue) in the paste. Because of the excellent covering ability of the paste printing, it can print all kinds of light colors on the dark clothes, and has a certain gloss and warfare feel.

Advantages: Paste printing is suitable for all high temperature resistant fabrics, processing unit price is relatively low. The masking ability of paste printing is very good, and it can meet the needs of high elastic fabrics. Because of the resilience of the paste itself, the printing pattern will not break during the stretching process of the fabric, and can recover with the exterior force dissipation. The fabric with deep texture can completely cover up its texture and make the printing surface smooth.

Defects: Size printing fabric has a hard handle, so it can not print large area of floor printing pattern. For large area printing pattern, it is better to use water slurry to print, and then add some glue. This can not only deal with the problem of hard handle of large area of mortar, but also highlight the layered sense of the pattern. Another method is to hollow out the large area of the real map and make the effect of rotten printing. In addition, the process and formulation control is not good, the printing part after the paste printing is sticky, easy to adhere to the fabric and other printing parts. In theoretical application, in order to avoid this phenomenon, there is a new process, namely water cement. This process is difficult to operate, and its color fastness and color fastness are difficult to control.

3. Thermosetting Ink Printing

From the appearance point of view, ink printing and paste printing are not very different, both have a certain concealment, can be printed on dark fabrics light. However, the color fastness of printed fabrics is very poor when the sizing is discontinued on smooth fabrics such as windbreaker fabrics. Ink printing also has no glue printing hand, the ability of high temperature and low temperature resistance is superior to glue printing. But the covering ability of ink printing is not as good as that of glue printing.

Thermosetting Ink Printing

According to different process, thermosetting ink printing can be divided into thick ink plate and thin American oil. Ink thick board pulp, like glue thick board pulp, is based on the plane, and repeatedly printed on many layers of ink, in order to produce the desired plane effect. Dilute oil process is based on ink dilution, the effect of printing on dark fabrics is semi-transparent bottom, medium-light fabrics can be printed light and do not show the background color. Fabrics printed with thin American oil process have better handle than those printed with ink.

Advantages: No sticking hands after printing, smooth surface and high and low temperature resistance. Light colour can be printed on dark fabrics. Processing unit price is low.

Defects: Cover up ability is inferior to paste printing, high elastic fabric is limited.

4. Silk Printing Ink Printing

Silk printing ink printing is also called nylon ink printing. Its screen printing is finer than ordinary printing, the effect can be similar to paper printing, the size is thin, the printed fabric feel soft, and the adhesion is quite good. Mainly suitable for nylon waterproof cloth, leather and other smooth surface materials.

Advantages: thin size, soft handle and good adhesion of printed fabrics.

Defects: Natural air drying time is longer, only soluble in organic solvents (such as cyclohexanone), and has a strong irritating odor.

5. Stamping

Hot stamping is to print the image on transfer paper and then on cotton, linen, chemical fibers and other fabrics with appropriate temperature and pressure. Because its printing process is simple, easy to operate, the material needed is economical and easy to obtain, and it can be widely printed on a variety of printing materials, such as knitted T-shirts, jeans, plush toys, shoes, backpacks, nylon hats and so on. Economical and applicable, exquisite design.

6. Flocking Printing

Flocking printing is to print a layer of adhesives on the surface of the fabric, and then use a certain voltage of electrostatic field to make the short fibers vertically accelerate to plant on the fabric coated with adhesives. There are two kinds of velvet in flocking printing: viscose and nylon. The technical conditions of flocking printing are as follows: fixing temperature 100-105 (?) C, time 30-40 min; or fixing temperature 125 (?) C, time 20 min; or fixing temperature 150 (?) C, time 3-4 min.

Advantages: Common effect, soft handle.

Defects: easy to stain with dust and wool. It can't be flocked in multi-colour, so the processing is easy.