Thursday, April 5, 2012

"An Introduction To printing styles"


Introduction:


Printing: Printing could be referred to as a sort of selective dyeing that makes an important contribution fabric decoration thanks to the combination of colors and dyeing methods.

Printing involves localized coloration. This is usually achieved by applying thickened paste containing dyes or pigments onto a fabric surface according to a given color design. In particular, the viscosity of print paste is critical. It determines the volume of paste transferred to the fabric and the degree to which it spreads on and the surface yarns.
Printing was originally done by hand using wooden blocks with a raised printing surface, much as children do potato printing.

Printing styles:

Style refers to the manner by which a particular action is performed. Styles of printing mean the manner in which a printed effect is produced.

The different styles of printing are-
  •  Direct style of printing.
  •  Discharge style of printing.
  •  Resist style of printing.
  •  Flock style of printing.
  •  Burn out or Devore style of printing.
  •  Crepon or crimp style of printing.
In broad sense the styles of printing are classified as-

1.      Direct style printing
2.      Discharge style printing
a.      White discharge
b.      Color discharge
3.      Resist style printing
a.      White resist
b.      Color resist

1. Direct style of printing:

In this style the dyes are applied directly at the required places of the fabric, leaving the other portion white, by any printing method like block printing, screen printing etc. so this style is called direct style of printing.  
Direct style involves transfer of paste containing dyes to the appropriate areas of the fabric. After drying the required localized dyeing of the fibers occurs during steaming. Washing follows to remove the paste residue. In case of pigment printing the pigments adhere to fabric surface with the cured binder film. No additional treatment is needed.  




Direct printing is the most important type of printing. It may even take place on a uniformly dyed fabric to produce particular color effect. Such over printing produces are called ‘fall on ‘effects.

Advantages: 

  • It is the easiest printing style to operate.
  • Least expensive.
  • Suitable for the printing of both simple and complicated design and
  •  Color matching with the original design sketch is easy.
2. Discharge style of printing:

Discharge means removal and discharging system means the process which can produce a white or colored effect on a previously dyed ground.

This discharging of color from previously dyed ground is carried out by a discharging agent which is actually a oxidizing and reducing agent capable of destroying color by oxidation and reduction.

The discharging agent’s are-
a.       Oxidizing agent: Potassium chlorate, Na-chlorate
b.      Reducing agent: Rongalite-c, Stannous chloride

Discharge printing is a method where a dyed fabric is printed with discharging agents which selectively destroy the dye. A white discharge is produced.
An alternative method is to print along with discharging agent, non dischargeable dye which gives a colored discharged surrounded by a ground color.

There are two types of discharge style printing such as-

a. White discharge

After dyeing and printing the discharging agent discharges the dye of printed area and leaves the dye of unprinted areas unaffected. So a design is produced on the color ground.


b. Color discharge:
    
 Dye stuff which is strongly resistant to discharging agent are included in the printing paste along with discharging agent.  The discharging agent of print paste discharges the color at the printed area. At the same time the dye stuff of print paste deposits and fixes itself on the ground. As a result of color discharge effect is obtained. In this way one or more colors may be applied.



Advantages:
  •  Large areas of ground of ground color are possible.
  • Delicate colors and intricate patterns possible on deep ground color, excellent depth and clarity possible.
  •  Higher production cost but long lasting unique styles.





3. Resist style printing:

 Resists means to hinder. In this process a chemical is applied to the fabric that will prevent the fixation of any coloring agent employed afterwards on that area.
It is one of the oldest printing style in which two resulting pattern can be obtained.
In resist printing the fabric is first printed with an agent that resists either dye penetration or dye fixation. During subsequent dyeing, only the areas free of the resist agent are colored.  

There are two types of resist printing such as-  
         
 White resist: if no color is added in the printing paste solution along with resist salt, after dyeing the printed areas remains white. This is called white resist.
        
 Color resist: if any coloring material is added in the print paste along with resist salt, after dyeing the printed areas contain the color added to print paste and the remaining areas will contain the color of the dye solution. As a result colored resist effect is obtained.

   
Advantages:

a.      can use white or colored resist
b.      can use dyes of much higher stability than those used in discharge printing & therefore much higher fastness can be obtained.
c.       Non dischargeable dyes can be used for the ground color.

4. Flock style of printing:

 Flock printing is a process in which a flock is fixed onto a cloth by means of adhesive to form printed pattern. It produces a pile or velvet effect on the fabric similar to form a printed pattern.

 Flock is branch of short fiber. In the electrostatic method of flocking the fabric is printed with an adhesive and passes on a moving belt through an electric charge. The flock made from cotton, rayon and synthetic is filtered from the flock hopper on to the fabric and is attracted to the adhesive in perpendicular form. After a backing process the sharp less fiber s are removed. 
5. Burn out or Devore style of printing.  

Burn-out printing is also called Transparence process, Corrosion Process or Carbonization Printing (in Japan). Being printed by the printing paste which is mixed by a kind of chemical. After proper process, one of the fibers in the fabric will be destroyed. Then it comes into being a burn-out fabric of a particular and translucent style.


The production of burn-out printing has a transparent and a concavo-convex feeling. With a natural printing pattern and unique style, it just looks like the organdie which is half transparent, colorful and shiny.







6. Crepon or crimp style of printing:

This style is characterized by the appearance of alternate plain and crinkle stripes in the fabric itself. This effect can be brought about by localized fabric shrinkage with appropriate swelling agent.

              
For example, if cotton fabric is printed in a striped pattern with strong caustic soda, it shrinks in the printed areas and thus causes the unprinted areas to crimp. The greater the shrinkage or contraction of the printed areas, the more pronounced the effect becomes.

  
Conclusion:

Printing, like dyeing, is a process to applying color to a substrate.however instead of coloring the whole substrate as in dyeing; print color is applied only to defined areas to obtain the desired pattern. This involves different techniques and different machineries with respect to dyeing, but the physical and chemical processes that take place between the dye and the fiber are analogous to dyeing.

5 comments:

  1. If the image is streaky you have rolled the ink in a streaky manner- the streaks actually print. This is why I do not use a brush to apply the textile ink as the brushstrokes also print. .....bursting strength testing machine,...http://www.testextextile.com/product/bursting-strength-tester-tf142ab/.....

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  2. Printing AS Colour is also a type of printing. I read here about different types of printing. Thanks

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