Introduction to the Top Ten Traditional Clothing Printing Techniques

　　01

　　Water Paste Printing Process

　　Water paste printing is one of the most basic printing processes in the screen printing industry. It can print on almost all light-colored base fabrics such as cotton, polyester, and linen, and is widely used. Its working principle is similar to dyeing, except that it "dyes" a certain area of the fabric to the color required for the pattern. Therefore, this process cannot be applied to dark-colored base fabrics. The biggest advantage of water paste printing is its wide applicability and good pattern fastness, allowing relatively good effects to be printed at a relatively low cost. The limitation of water paste printing is that it cannot be applied to any dark-colored fabrics.

　　02

　　Glue Paste Printing Process

　　Glue paste printing uses a special chemical gel highly and seamlessly mixed with dyes. The dye adheres firmly to the fabric through the gel medium, overcoming the limitations of water paste printing. Its characteristic is adaptability to printing on various colors and materials. It can print on cotton, linen, viscose, polyester, nylon, polypropylene, chlorofiber, and various blended fabrics, as well as on leather, artificial leather, and other materials. It can be used for fluorescent printing, inkjet printing, cracked printing, electrostatic flocking printing, and other printing processes. The biggest advantage of glue paste printing is its wide application, bright colors, and high fidelity, but its printing process is more complex and costly compared to water paste printing.

　　03

　　Foam Printing Process

　　Foam printing, also known as three-dimensional printing, is developed based on the glue paste printing process. Its principle is to add several chemical substances with a high expansion coefficient in a certain proportion to the glue paste printing dye. After drying, the printed area is foamed at a high temperature of 200-300 degrees Celsius to achieve a relief-like three-dimensional effect. Foam printing can produce high, medium, and low foam effects according to the requirements of the substrate, creating a very striking appearance. The biggest advantage of foam printing is its strong three-dimensional sense, with a prominent and expanded printed surface. It is widely used on materials such as cotton and nylon fabrics.

　　04

　　Flocking Printing Process

　　Electrostatic flocking printing is a type of three-dimensional printing process. Its principle is to transfer a high-strength compound resin adhesive containing the desired pattern through a screen onto the substrate surface, then charge the fiber flock with a high-voltage electrostatic field of hundreds of thousands of volts. The flock vertically and evenly "collides" rapidly onto the adhesive, laying a layer of flock on the fabric surface, which is then cured and formed at high temperature. It is widely used in sofa fabrics, packaging boxes, shoe materials, decoration, toys, industrial electrical component protection, and more. The flock covers the object surface without being limited by the shape or size of the plant. Products printed with flocking have a strong three-dimensional effect, bright colors, soft touch, and are resistant to shedding and abrasion. It can be printed on cotton, silk and linen, leather, nylon, various PVCs, denim, rubber, sponge, metal, foam, plastic, resin non-woven fabrics, and so on.

　　05

　　Photosensitive Color-Changing Printing

　　Photosensitive color-changing printing, also known as photochromic printing, originally used photochromic dyes that change structure under ultraviolet light to display different colors. For example, dye A is colorless, but after UV exposure, its molecules open to form dye B with an indigo structure, which is blue. When dye B is exposed to visible light, it reverts to colorless dye A. Now, microcapsule technology encapsulates photochromic dyes in capsules generally 1-10 microns in size, greatly improving light fastness. Currently, photochromic dyes have developed into four basic colors: purple, blue, yellow, and red. These dyes initially have a closed-ring structure, meaning no color when printed on fabric, but under UV light, they change to purple, blue, yellow, or red. Photosensitive color-changing means changing from one color to another by mixing photochromic dyes with regular color coatings in the printing paste. For example, mixing red photochromic dye with blue coating results in a blue appearance on fabric that changes to blue-purple under UV light.

　　06

　　Thermosensitive Color-Changing Printing

　　Thermosensitive color-changing printing, also known as thermochromic printing, initially used thermochromic dyes processed into microcapsules and printed onto fabrics. It includes reversible and irreversible types. Irreversible thermochromic dyes are generally used as temperature indicators. For textiles, reversible types are commonly used. Structurally, they are divided into inorganic and organic types. Organic thermochromic dyes, widely used in textiles, consist of leuco dyes, color developers, and sensitizers (or desensitizers). Currently, thermochromic dyes have developed into 15 basic colors, all of which can be mixed with each other and with color coatings, providing a complete color spectrum. Thus, thermochromic dyes can change from colored to colorless or from one color to another. The temperature range for color change has become more sensitive, from originally over 10°C to now less than 5°C.

　　07

　　Water-Change Printing Process

　　Water-change printing is a latest printing process that uses multiple physical and photochemical principles. Products made with this process show complex instantaneous changes between the raw materials on the fabric and water when immersed, displaying pre-set rich patterns. After the water on the fabric surface evaporates, the original pattern reappears. This process can be widely applied to beach shorts, swimsuits, raincoats, umbrellas, large signs, advertisements, and many other media for printing design, producing a series of "magical color-changing swimsuits," "magical color-changing umbrellas," and other fascinating color-changing products with broad market potential.

　　08

　　Fluorescent Printing Process

　　Fluorescent printing is a new type of special printing process. Its principle is to use a special process to integrate photoluminescent self-luminous materials into fabrics. By absorbing various visible lights, it achieves automatic luminescence, characterized by unlimited cyclic use. The product contains no radioactive elements and can be used for various purposes. It is evenly distributed in various transparent media such as plastics, ceramics, and glass, realizing self-luminescence of the medium and displaying the bright colors of the pigment, providing good low-level emergency lighting, indicator signs, and decorative beautification effects.

　　From the process perspective, there are: printing processes with fluorescent coatings, direct printing combining fluorescent coatings and ordinary coatings, direct printing combining fluorescent coatings and reactive dyes, reactive dye background discharge printing, and phthalocyanine resist printing.

　　09

　　Fragrance Printing Process

　　The fragrance printing process uses a special technique to produce printed products with scented patterns. The processing method is similar to conventional printing, except that the prepared fragrance microcapsules are mixed with a suitable adhesive paste. As long as the fragrance microcapsules, adhesive printing paste, and the fabric substrate are compatible, the process can be used. The printing paste is applied to the fabric surface by screen printing and then dried to complete the process. This not only provides visual enjoyment but also a pleasant olfactory experience. Initially limited to printed fabrics, due to consumer popularity, it has gradually expanded to clothing, bed sheets, handkerchiefs, socks, scarves, and other textiles. Currently, the concept of fragrance printing has evolved into "aroma printing," as it is not only about producing fragrance but also includes various natural scents such as forest aroma, pine resin aroma, and pea flower aroma. These aromas resemble natural scents, bringing a pleasant feeling and a sense of returning to nature.

　　The principle of the fragrance printing process is to use liquid fragrance or other organic solutions so that the fragrance can be uniformly mixed with colored printing coating paste and fixed on the fabric with the help of the adhesive in the coating. Since the fragrance contains many organic components that are volatile and chemically unstable, the composition is very complex. During use and storage, the fragrance easily evaporates, dissipates, or decomposes. Therefore, preserving and controlling the use of fragrance has become a key research and development focus. To protect the fragrance from external environmental factors and to control or extend its scent release period to meet usage needs, the best method is microencapsulation. Microencapsulation technology uses film-forming materials to coat solids or liquids to form tiny particles.

　　10

　　Hot Stamping Gold and Silver Process

　　Hot stamping gold and silver is a traditional decorative beautification method often used on many paper packaging products. However, screen printing hot stamping gold and silver is a new type of process. Its principle is to add special chemical agents to the printing paste, making the printed area display a particularly bright gold or silver color. The color is durable and does not fade, can be printed on many types of fabrics, and costs less than traditional methods, making it an ideal decorative printing process. The gold-tone printing paste with crystal coating material uses special crystals as the core, coated with a brightening layer, titanium film layer, and metallic luster deposition layer. It can be exposed to air for a long time without darkening, has excellent weather resistance and high-temperature resistance, and feels good after printing. Currently, the silver-tone printing paste coated with mica improves the durability of aluminum powder. The mica-coated silver-tone printing paste is basically similar to mica titanium pearl printing paste, except that the temperature during titanium film coating is further increased to achieve a silver-like shine. Different thicknesses of the titanium film coating can diffract different shades of silver light. The mica-coated silver-tone printing paste is highly compatible with chemicals, and after printing on fabric, all fastness properties are good and can maintain a long-lasting silver shine.

|Source: TEXHR Textile Talent Network, Today's Headlines - Home of Clothing Pattern Makers, China Silk Capital Network, Shunde Textile Chamber of Commerce|
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