Digital Pigment Printing is the process of printing one or more colors on a surface. Why: Because there’s only one dye involved: Ink! One ink serves each color: Cotton, polyester, silk, rayon, polyamides, and others. Digital pigments provide high-quality printing results with a wide gamut of color combinations. Digital pigments are also taking over conventional printmaking processes, making your printing process easier than ever. If you’re in the market for printing services, consider using digital printing for all of your needs. A Pigment Printing Machine is most useful for Bedsheet, Curtain printing, etc.
What’s the secret to the success of the digital pigment printing process? The key is high-performance printing inks with complementary dyes that are capable of producing striking color effects and accurate tonal qualities. When combined with a lamination process and a quality printing press, the resulting print is durable and can last for decades. Here’s how the process works.
In order to start the digital pigment printing process, the manufacturer or developer must load a stencil or mold onto the surface that will be printed. This is typically done with a transfer paper or other drying media. Next, the print head and the inks must be loaded into the system. In earlier systems, this entailed a roll process where the printer would load paper and then punch stencils onto it. With most modern systems, it uses laser or electric induction printheads to feed the ink into the appropriate inks.
Most manufacturers are utilizing roller processes for loading the inks into the equipment. They use a roller to apply the ink, followed by manual rubbing or shaking to spread the ink to a wide range of areas. This method of printing provides consistent results and is considered to be more economical. However, it is also the slower process, which limits the ability to create very complex designs or to apply gloss or matte finishes to the images. In addition, the time needed for printing using a roller machine is generally much longer than those using a hand printer or inkjet system.
Once the ink has been loaded, the system will be run through an imaging process to generate the required design. The inks are exposed to a fine jet of water, which helps to adhere them to the stencil. During the imaging process, if any bleeds occur, they can usually be repaired in the printing process, although this is not always the case with digital textile printing.
After the printing process is complete, most manufacturers will include an instruction booklet that explains the proper care and maintenance of the digital textile printing equipment. Careful attention is given to cleaning both the ink and the print heads to remove any excess pigment in the inks and to keep the inks from becoming contaminated with bacteria. Since digital textile printers typically generate a higher volume of print, it is important to regularly backwash the units to prevent excessive wear of both the printheads and the inks.
In order to achieve the fastest speed possible, high quality pigment inks must be used during digital printing. Since the process is designed to produce thousands of prints, it is critical that high quality pigment inks be used to ensure a consistent level of quality throughout the runs. This is especially true for long runs, where even small variations in color and shading can produce dramatic differences in the final print. In addition, the uniformity of the colors produced by the system will ensure good image quality throughout the run. Since speed is essential, pigment inks should be printed in steps to achieve the best quality.
