Every print application demands the highest possible print quality. As a printing company, you want to make sure that you meet the needs of your customers while keeping a sharp eye on economics. In other words, you need to find the tools that perfectly fit your print process and the specific application. That is why our ink experts introduced Performance Levels in our digital textile printing ink portfolio. But how do you find the perfect textile ink for the job? In this blog, we introduce these Performance Levels and explain how you find the perfect ink for your application.
Performance Levels for Digital Textile Printing Ink
As the performance of digital textile printers increases, higher volumes at faster speeds are needed. This makes downtime more problematic than ever before. That is why all digital textile printing inks we create are optimized to ensure a long printhead life without the risk of corrosion or clogging of the printheads.
The textile industry evolves on aspects like sustainability, delivery times and a faster supply chain. This means our ink portfolio has to evolve in the same way. Our Performance Levels enable an appropriate ink solution for every demand. To find the right ink for your application, your digital textile printer and the desired end-product are of the utmost importance. Your specific textile application or design defines the optimal mix of colour intensity and economics. The challenge is to get the desired quality in the most economic way.
There are four important steps to finding the right ink for your printing process:
1. Assess the application
The fit between ink and fabric is very important. On which type of fabric are you going to print and what requirements do you have for colour brilliance or fastness? There are five types of textile printing ink, all specialized in their own application:
- Reactive inks for printing on all-natural fibres
- Acid inks for printing on polyamide lycra, wool and silk
- Sublimation inks for printing through transfer paper onto polyester
- Disperse inks for printing onto polyester
- Pigment inks for all possible fabrics, especially blends
2. Match your technology
Various ink formulations have been developed for each ink type to ensure perfect runnability in your digital printer. These formulations are necessary, as inkjet printheads require their own specific physical parameters. The ink formulations are optimized to ensure a long printhead life without the risk of corrosion or blockage of the printheads.
This second step of the ink selection process is to match your print technology with the ink formulation. Simply share the brand and model of your digital printer(s) with one of our application specialists. They will use their expertise to give tailored advice on selecting the correct ink.
3. Find the best fit in vividness and application
There is an appropriate ink solution for every need. After all, the optimal mix of colour intensity and economics is defined by the textile application. Are you printing fashion or home decor designs? And are you printing for a brand or do you manage your own collection? These are all very different applications with their own requirements.
4. Pick the right colors
In the end, it is also crucial to select the right colours for your application. For example, printing for high-quality fashion market requires deeper, richer colors than home textiles do. Darker blacks, pepper reds, brighter oranges, and so on. These challenging fashion colors can be printed with our wide range of digital textile printing inks which includes various types of Black, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Blue, Orange, Red and Grey.
For some chemistries, there even are special colours available: Pepper Red, Green and even a special penetration fluid, specially developed for prints that demand an equally qualitative image on the backside and the front side.
N▸RICH technology
In addition to quality and performance flexibility, sustainability is more important than ever. Our ink specialists not only wanted to prepare our ink portfolio for a big variety of markets and segments but also want to prepare our inks for the future. Based on our “Printing Tomorrow” philosophy, we continuously reformulate our textile printing ink portfolio.
When selecting ink components as part of new ink recipes, all known substances from major brand RSLs (Restricted Substance Lists)are considered. In this way we ensure that brand guidelines and requirements such as REACH are met. This way of developing our digital textile printing inks sustainably is called the N▸RICH technology. We do this without compromising on color intensity. SPGPrints digital textile printing inks are developed to achieve maximal color efficiency with the best available dyes - but will be more sustainable than ever.
More information about SPGPrints’ Ink Portfolio
Using the right ink enhances the productivity of your printer and makes sure you deliver exactly the quality your customers demand. Do you want to read more about the technical specifications of our inks? In the leaflets below, you can find the technical specifications of the various ink types:
For more information, you can also download our free Inks Brochure here:
Of course, you can ask all other questions related to your printing business as well. You might find your answers in the Digital Textile Printing Guide, written by our experts, but they also love to answer your questions personally.
