Introduction
Printing
is the technique of reproducing text and images using a master form or
template. The first non-paper products involved in printing included things
like cylinder seals and Cyrus cylinders and Nabonidus cylinders. The earliest
form of printing as applied to paper was almond printing which was published in
China before 220 AD. Subsequent developments in printing technology include the
movable type invented by Bi Sheng in 1040 AD and the printing press
invented by Johannes Gutenberg in the 15th century. The technology of printing
played an important role in the development of the Renaissance and the
scientific revolution and laid the material foundation for the spread of modern
knowledge-based economics and education to the masses.
History of Printing
Woodblock
printing is a text, figure, or pattern widely used throughout East Asia and
probably originated from China in archeology as a method of printing textiles
and later paper. As a method of printing on cloth, the earliest surviving
examples from China textile printing were known in Europe through the Islamic
world from about the twelfth century until about 220 BC, and it was widely
used. However, European dyes tend to be liquid, which limits the use of printed
patterns. Fairly large and ambitious designs were printed for decorative work,
such as wall-hanging and lectern-cloth, where they were less of a problem as
they did not require washing. As paper became more common, the technology for
printing almonds was quickly used. The higher cloth was also imported from
Islamic countries, but it was more expensive. The Aztecs of Peru, Chile, and
Mexico practiced textile printing before the Spanish invasion of the Incas in 1515. In
the latter half of the 17th century, the French brought them from their eastern
colony directly to the sea from the east coast of India. Indian blue and white color patterns prevent
prints and with them, give details of the processes by which they were
produced, which make the washed fabric.
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| Wood plate |
Textile Printing
Textile
printing is the process of applying fabric dye to specific patterns or designs of
properly printed fabrics, the dye is bound with fiber, to prevent washing and
abrasion. Textile printing is related to dyeing but in the case of precise
dyeing, the whole fabric is evenly covered with one color, whereas in printing
one or more colors are applied only to specific parts for it and to highly
defined patterns. In printing, wooden blocks, stencils, engraved plates,
rollers, or silkscreens can be used to color fabrics. The colors used in the
printing are thickened by the capillary attraction to spread the color beyond
the boundaries of any pattern or design.
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| Textile printing |
Methods
Textile
printing techniques may be categorized into four styles:
a.
Direct printing, in which colorants containing dyes, thickeners, and the
mordant or substances necessary for fixing the color on the cloth are printed
in the desired pattern.
b.
The printing of a mordant in the desired pattern prior to dyeing cloth; the
color adheres only where the mordant was printed.
c.
Resist dyeing, in which a wax or other substance is printed onto fabric which
is subsequently dyed. Waxed areas do not accept color by leaving colorless
patterns against the colored ground.
d.
Discharge printing, in which a bleaching agent is printed onto previously dyed
fabrics to remove some or all of the colors.
Resist
and discharge techniques were particularly fashionable in the 19th century, as
were combination techniques in which indigo resistance was used to create blue
backgrounds prior to the block-printing of other colors. Modern industrial printing
mainly uses direct printing techniques.
Process Flow chart
The printing process involves various stages to prepare the fabric and printing paste,
and to fix the impression permanently on the fabric:
a.
Pre-treatment of fabric,
b.
Preparation of colors,
c.
Preparation of printing paste,
d.
An impression of paste on fabric using printing methods,
e.
Drying of fabric,
f.
Fixing the printing with steam or hot air (for pigments),
g.
After process treatments.
Methods of printing
There
are eight distinct methods presently used to impress colored patterns on cloth:
1. Hand block printing,
2. Perrotine printing,
3. Engraved copperplate printing,
4. Roller, cylinder, or machine printing,
5. Stencil printing,
6. Screen printing,
7. Digital textile printing,
8. Flexo textile printing,
9. Discharge Printing
Hand Block printing
This process is the simplest, easiest, and slowest of all printing methods. A design
is painted, or transferred to ready wooden blocks. Each individual color in the
design requires a separate block. A block cutter first builds wood around heavy
masses, leaving finer and more delicate work to the end so that the thicker
parts can avoid any risk of damage when it is cut. When finished, the block has
the appearance of a flat relief carving, and the design stands out. The finer
details, solid cut in wood, are built into strips of brass or copper, which are
curved in shape and driven towards the flat surface of the block towards the
edges. This method is known as coppering. The printer applies color to the
block and presses the cloth firmly and firmly, hitting the back smartly with a
wooden mallet. Block printing by hand is a slow process. But it’s an
interesting thing to do. It is, of course, capable of achieving high artistic
results, some of which are unnecessary by any other method. William Morris used
this technique in a few of his clothes.
Perrotine printing
The
Perrotine block-printing machine was invented by Louis-Jerome Perrot and,
practically the only successful mechanical device introduced for this purpose,
for some reason or another, it was rarely used in England, its value was
recognized almost immediately on the continent, and although With roller
printing replacing all types of block printing to such an extent, protein is
still widely employed in French, German, and Italian works. The functionality of
the machines is as follows: three large blocks (3 feet long. and 3 to 5 inches
wide), the pattern is cut or thrown in their relief and especially tolerated
continuous on three faces are removed cloth after each impression printing
table.
The
faces of the tables are arranged at right angles to each other and the blocks
work on slides placed in the same way so that their carved faces are perfectly
parallel to the tables. Also, each block provides its own colored holes, brush
distribution, and wool color pads or sieves and is automatically supplied with
paint by these tools during the whole period of running the machine. The first
effect of starting the machine is that the color conductors, which have a
redistribution speed, take the color charge from the color passing and the
rollers, specified to rotate in the color trajectory. They then return to their original position between the tables and the printing block, coming into
contact with the distributed brushes, which spread the color evenly over their
entire surface.
Roller, cylinder, or machine printing
This process was patented by Thomas Bell in 1785, 15 years after the use of engraved
plates for printing textiles. Bell's patent was for one machine to print six
colors at once, but it was not immediately successful, probably due to
incomplete development. Can be printed satisfactorily with one color; the six
rollers had difficulty registering with each other. This error was overcome by
Adam Parkinson of Manchester in 1785. With the improvement of Parkinson's that
year the Bells machine was successfully hired by Messrs. Livesey, Hargreaves,
and Bamber Bridge, Preston's company, to print Calico in two to six colors.
Roller
printing was highly productive, with 10,000 to 12,000 yards typically printed
ten hours a day on a single color machine. It is capable of reproducing designs
of every style, ranging from fine lines of copper-engraved engraving to small
repetitions of Perrotine and a wide range of effects of block printing, from 1
to 80 inches of repetition to limited color. It is precise so that each part of wide multiple patterns can be fitted in its proper place without defective
joints in the place of repetition.
Stencil printing
The industry of stenciling on textile fabrics has been around since the time of the
Japanese, and in the late 19th century Europe found increasing employment for
decorative work in certain knitwear. A pattern is cut from a sheet of stout
paper or cut with thin metal with a sharp-pointed knife, leaving the part that
represents the part that will be colored. The sheet is placed on the fabric and
the color is brushed through its intersection. The peculiarity of stenciled
patterns is that they should be held together by bonds. For example, an entire
circle cannot be cut without leaving the center, so its outline must be
interrupted at convenient points by bonds or integral parts. These limitations
affect the design. For single colorwork, the stenciling machine was built-in
1894 by S.H. and was patented by Sharp. It consists of an endless stencil plate of
thin sheet steel that passes seamlessly over a rolling cast alloy-iron
cylinder. The cloth passes the ornament between the two and the color is
mechanically pressed on it through the holes in the stencil.
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| Stencil printing |
Screen-printing
Screen
printing is the most common technology today. There are two types of screen
printing like rotary screen printing and flat-screen printing. Printing paste
is acceptable by opening the screen onto a blade (squeegee) fabric. Screen
printing is a printing technique where a mesh is used to transfer ink to a mesh
substrate except for areas that have become indistinguishable from ink. A blade
or squeegee is moved across the screen to fill open mesh apertures with ink,
and after the reverse stroke, the screen touches the layer for a moment along
the line of contact. Wetting the blade reduces the ink and can be pulled from
the mesh apertures as soon as the screen returns after passing the blade. One
color is printed at a time, so several screens can be used to create multiple
color images or designs.
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| Screen printing |
Digital textile printing
Digital
textile printing is often referred to as direct-to-garments printing, DTG
printing, or digital clothing printing. It is a process of printing textiles
and garments using specialized or modified inkjet technology. Inkjet printing
is also possible on fabrics using inkjet printers using fabric sheets with removable paper support. Today, major inkjet technology manufacturers can supply
special products designed for direct printing in textiles, not only for
sampling but also for bulk production. It is mainly related to visual
communication in retail and brand promotion. Printing on nylon and silk can be
done using acid ink. Reactive ink is used for cellulose-based fibers like
cotton and linen. Inkjet technology in digital textile printing allows for
long-term alternatives to single pieces, mid-run production, and even
screen-printed fabric.
Flexo textile printing
Flexo
printing on textile fabric was successful in China in the last 4 years. Central
Impression Flexo, Rubber Sleeves as the printing plate in round engraved by
laser, and Anilox in Sleeve technologies is applied in the area. Not only the solid
but also 6 to 8 colors in the fine register, higher resolution ratio, and
higher productivity which are the outstanding advantages extraordinarily
different from traditional screen textile printing. Aerospace Huayang, Hell
system, SPG Prints, and Felix Böttcher contributed their technologies and
efforts.
Other methods of printing
Although
most of the work is performed through one or the other of the seven individual
processes mentioned above, combinations are often employed. Sometimes a pattern
is printed partly by machine and partly by block, and sometimes a cylindrical
block with copper rollers engraved on a common printing press is used. In this
latter case, the block is the same in all cases, except the shape with the same
wooden or copper pad block, but instead of dipping in the paint, it derives its
supply from an endless blanket, one part of which works in contact with one
color-decorated roller and the other with cylindrical blocks. This block is
called a surface or peg roller. Many attempts have been made to print multiple
color patterns with single surface rollers, but so far there has been little
success due to irregularities in their operation and difficulty in preventing
them from warping. These defects are not present in linoleum prints where
opaque oil paints are used, paints that do not sink into the body of hard
linoleum and do not tend to cut the roller. Lithographic printables have been
successfully applied to textile fabrics. Its irregularities and repetitions
have limited the difficulty of registration in the production of decorative
panels equal to or smaller in size than plates or stones. Pad printing has
recently been introduced in textile printing for the specific purpose of
printing garment tags and care labels.
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