The idea of digital printing on textiles has been around for some time. Carpet inkjet printing machines have beenused since the early 1970s. Digital ink jet printing of continuous rolls of textile fabrics was shown at ITMA in 1995. Again at ITMA in 2003, several industrial inkjet printers were introduced to the marketplace which made digital …
Given the large size of the printing industry, and the extraordinary volume of chemicals it consumes, it is not surprising that it also generates a significant amount of pollution. Gaseous emissions have been identified as the second greatest pollution problem (after effluent quality) for the textile industry – and these are largely generated in printing. Speculation …
Yes, we’re still talking about the printing process! As I warned you, it’s complicated. For the past two weeks we’ve concentrated on the first two steps of the basic 5 steps in printing a fabric, which are: 1. Preparation of the print paste. 2. Printing the fabric. 3. Drying the printed fabric. 4. Fixation of …
Bear with me – I’ll eventually get to the environmental aspects of printing – including digital printing. But I think it’s important to know the basic steps and processes in order to be able to understand green claims. So there will still be a Printing – part 3 before we get to the environmental topics. …
It is well known that the “finishing” of a fabric is where a great deal of the environmental impact occurs – it uses the most water, chemicals and energy. “Finishing” includes not only the application of treatments to make fabric perform in a certain way (i.e., to be free of something, such as static, wrinkles, …
OEcotextiles 