Digital inkjet printing will become a major trend

Right now, the digital inkjet printing market is getting more and more prosperous. There are even many Taobao sellers who use “digital printing” as a keyword for apparel products.

Li Li, deputy general manager of Hangzhou Honghua Digital Technology Co., Ltd., said: "Now the fashion cycle of clothes is shortened and the variety of patterns is changing. More and more consumers are pursuing unique fabric patterns. In order to meet market demand, fabric manufacturers have developed A large number of patterns provide a choice for clothing brand merchants, which allows the printing plant to accept orders, reduce batch sizes and increase variety.”

The traditional printing process consumes plate-making cost and time. Small-batch orders increase the cost of fabrics using traditional printing processes, and the difficulty of receiving orders increases. Digital ink jet printing is not only accurate in color but also natural and smooth in color transition. Although it is more expensive than ordinary flat screen printing, it is worthwhile for fashion-conscious consumers.

The popularity of digital printing is closely related to the popularity of fashion, and the market for digital inkjet printing is also there.

Sound industrialization "assembly number"

For a long time, due to the high cost of digital ink jet printing, digital inkjet printing is only used as a “print proofing” in the minds of people. This is a misunderstanding in understanding.

"Some people think that the effect of digital ink-jet printing can't be as good as proofing. This is a misunderstanding." Li Li explained, first of all, it is certain that digital ink-jet printing can achieve the same proof The effect is as good. Second, there are many factors that affect digital printing proofing. From a technical point of view, due to the different types and quantities of dyes, differences in size and color are produced; samples such as paper samples, electronic documents or fabric samples, and whether the customer is validly confirmed are all obstacles to digital printing.

For this reason, when digital printing is used for proofing, the “shape” and “color” of the image must be properly handled. The digital printing RIP (Raster Image Processor) software is required to be continuously upgraded. The color modes are various, and the output modes are various. Different density curves and ICC (device color characteristics) files and ink jet quality control parameters are supported by the technical conditions. In other words, many problems that may arise during large-scale production can be considered in advance, and some processing methods for large-scale production color separation diagrams can be adopted to simulate the effects of large-scale production; a complete set of digital printing color cards can be used to create different inkjet methods, and Need density curves and ICC files on different materials and under different environmental conditions. At the same time, we must establish a standardized working model in order to do a good job in the digital printing industry.

Digital printing is gradually shifting from sporadic production to agglomeration and industrialization. According to industry insiders, more than 90% of companies in the European printing industry have adopted digital printing and proofing to achieve rapid response to production while maintaining a clean environment. The high market share of digital printing in Europe is related to the fact that European textile companies focus on the design of textile products. Design drawings provided by European designers can often be applied directly to digital printing equipment systems. This facilitates the designer's proofing effect on digital printing. Promptly proposed amendments, which objectively promoted the level of flower design and digital printing into the industrialization.

Compared with the traditional printing process, digital printing in the color, sharpness, color gamut performance, indeed reached the traditional printing is difficult to reach. However, many people in the industry are also sensibly thinking that digital printing will not replace the traditional printing process on a large scale in the next few years. In other words, digital printing will coexist with the traditional printing technology for a long time and have complementary advantages. Digital printing makes up for the technical defects and gaps in the traditional printing industry and adapts to the international trend of the personalized printing market. According to industry estimates, digital printing will account for 20% to 30% of the printing market in the next few years. Compared with the current printing market, the digital printing market still has a lot of room for growth. The domestic digital printing industry will also have a big development.

The digital printing technology is perfecting The origin of digital ink jet printing can be traced back to the birth of the Milliken-Millitron carpet printing machine in 1975. Since then, digital printing technology has achieved great success on paper and film, which has inspired people to promote the use of textile printing.

At the ITMA in Hannover, Germany in 1991 exhibited fabric digital printing machines and printed fabric samples from Stork in the Netherlands. In 1995, reactive dye inks were displayed at ITMA in Milan, Italy, with a production capacity of 4.6 m2/h and a resolution of 360- The 720dpi wide-format digital printing machine opened the curtain for digital printing machines in Europe. At the same time, the Japanese company Seiren applied more than 200 Viscotec digital printing machines made by itself to realize the industrialization of the digital printing loom. This is a decisive step for fabric digital printing.

At the ITMA exhibition in Birmingham, UK in 2003, Reggiani of Italy and Ciba Refine and the manufacturer of heads (Scitex Vision, Aprion) exhibited a DreAM digital printing machine developed in cooperation with them. Its theoretical production speed was 150m2/h ( 35kHz). In addition, Aristri2020 (or lchinose 2020), jointly developed by DuPont Ink Jet and Tosei Industries of Japan, has a maximum production speed of 50 m2/h. Now that the domestic Honghua high-speed machine series, the theoretical speed has increased from 140m2/h last year to 180m2/h this year.

The rising star of domestic digital ink jet printing equipment Hangzhou Open Source Computer Technology Co., Ltd. has been focusing on the development of high-speed digital inkjet printers. The digital printing ink jet method was first developed from continuous ink jet to drop on demand. Accordingly, two kinds of techniques, namely hot bubble method and micro-piezoelectric method, were developed, among which micro-piezoelectric technology is increasingly occupying a dominant position. Zhang Chaofeng, Marketing Manager of Hangzhou Open Source Computer Technology Co., Ltd., said: “Digital printing is only one part of the entire printing process, and it needs to be matched with the fabric pre-treatment and post-processing equipment. The tenter is used as a digital printing fabric. Processing, the application of necessary chemicals, and drying into rolls.The post-processing of digital printing fabrics, mainly fixing/steaming, washing, drying and rolling, steaming equipment can be connected with the digital printing machine, shorten the process , Fixation directly after printing, can be adjusted to run synchronously. The steaming equipment is not only suitable for the fixing of acidic, reactive and disperse dye inks, but also can be soft, whitened or flame-retarded according to the market needs."

In addition, the United States and Japan have developed digital electrostatic printing technology. The digital ink jet printing fabric is formed by the mechanical force (thermal bubble type and micro-piezoelectric) to eject ink droplets onto the fabric; the digital electrostatic printing fabric is imaged by the light conductor (usually selenium, etc.) cylinder. Surface imaging, and the use of electrostatic force transferred to the fabric formed on the imaging speed and high productivity. Since digital electrostatic printing technology is still in the development stage, its maturity can not be compared with digital inkjet printing for the time being. However, it has the following obvious advantages: the production rate is 10 to 50 times higher than digital inkjet printing, and the cost of coloring materials is low. Better printing darkness, better image fineness and uniformity, running rate and defective rate same as digital ink jet printing.

In short, China's printing industry is in an important historical period of upgrading and transforming its industrial structure, with parallel challenges and opportunities. In 2011, major changes in the field of textile printing will continue. It can be imagined that the digital inkjet printing team is growing and complementing with the traditional screen printing, and the changes in the pattern of the printing market and changes in technology are inevitable trends.