Water Based Textile Printing Inks

Water based inks for textile printing

• Admin

Waterbased inks are easy on the pocket in comparison to solvent based inks but yet provide the same quality, adhesion, and the gloss of PVC based inks. There is acommon misconception pertaining water based inks, which is that they have justwater. While in reality they comprise of pigments, binders, thickeners, and eco-friendlysolvents. Also water based inks unlike plastisol do not need harmful solventsfor the cleaning process. The screens after printing can be cleaned using water.

Manyconsumers prefer a soft finish where the print soaks into the surface of the fabricand the ink film cannot be felt, which can be achieved with water based inks.However, the screen printing process with water based inks requires analtogether different set of skills, tools, supplies, choreography, speed, andexperiences.

Theshelf life of water based inks longer than the conventional inks thanks tomanufacturers who have devised a technology to encapsulate water in the ink ina way that it does not evaporate until it is printed. Available and sold in thetextile chemical markets just as traditional plastisol like colours orunderbases, water based inks have thicker viscosity yielding greater opacity onfinished prints.

Water based inks have the benefit of being excellent for high speed roll to roll yardage printing. Such kind of printing work is usually undertaken on large advanced equipment with a very big drying capacity. Apart from screen printing apparels like t-shirts, water based inks are preferred for towel printing. Since towels have a high nap fabric which must be printed in a style so that the ink penetrates or wicks through the to the bottom of the fabric for proper coverage, they are just right for such kinds of applications. These inks are also ideal where printing dark coloured inks on to light coloured fabrics is required and for areas where large prints are involved to provide a better texture.

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