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Novel printing effects on garments
Recent trends in printing is not just designing, preparing
screens and printing to get designs on the garment, but the combination of different
designs with difference types of printing to make it more and more attractive,
say Laga S K, Chinchwade S S & Upadye V B
 Garments
printing is a field which is given a less attention among various fields in
manufacturing of garments. Earlier days printing was primarily done on kids
garments in order to make it more attractive. But now as trend changes lot of
adults garments is also being printed with various designs which add value to
the garments. And lot of messages are provided on knit garments basically on
T-shirts for the promotional activities of products. Nowadays it has become
common to gift T-shirts which has prints so that their products act also as
their logos. The modern approach to quality and reliability concerns excellence:
excellence where the product is designed, excellence where the product is made,
excellence as the product is used, and excellence throughout its lifetime.
The introduction of laser engraver as the first digital engraving method worldwide
revolutionised textile engraving technology, with the laser engraver flexibility,
speed and quality were raised to a level that had not been conceived until then.
Garment printing is one of most important fields where various techniques can
be adopted for value addition of the garment. Pearl printing, metallic printing,
khadi printing and plastizol printing are some important garment printing effects.
Plastizol printing
Plastizol printing is the latest printing technique for last 5-6 years in India.
The inks contain polyvinyl. Chlorides mixed with resins and pigments these inks
have got a property by which the prints get dried only with the application
of that. They have soft handle and resist cracking when stretched. Main thing
is curing process in plastizol printing.
Fluorescent printing
These are the pigments with bright colours which are striking to the eyes. These
are mainly used on kid’s garments to get bright and attractive prints.
High density printing
This is one of the recent developments in printing which gives thick prints
on the surface of garments which is achieved by using thickener indirect films
used for making the screens. They are available in 100 to 70 micron thickness
and plastizol inks and printing through these screens and cured then you shall
have a thick deposit of the printing ink on the surface of the fabric which
gives a three-dimensional effect.
Metallic printing
Metallic printing consists of a mixture of binder with gold, copper bronze or
aluminum powder and other auxiliaries. Here the fine powders of the above varieties
will give different kinds of shades, silver tone. This is used mainly on ladies
garments to give a rich look.
Khadi printing
This is done on light or dark coloured grounds. It consists of titanium dioxide
with other auxiliaries. The important factor in printing of this is right combination
of titanium dioxide and proper choice of binder will give better fastness and
soft handle.
Puff printing
In this method when the paste is printed and dries it look like normal printing
garments but once it is cured the prints gets raised from the surface of fabric.
Thereby the print will have the embroidered effect.
 Foil
printing
This printing method is based on the use of metallic foil paper of aluminum
or copper one. The print fixation method is similar to transfer printing. This
print method is popular amongst youngsters.
The various plastizol inks used for printing on garments:
Wilflex 90100 fluorescent blue
This plastizol ink is mainly used for fluorescent printing alongwith plastizol
ink. Other auxililaries used were reduced to reduce viscosity and extender to
increase viscosity.
Wilflex I 1000 White Duff colour
This ink is mainly used for puff printing or foam printing. This ink gives raised
effect on to the garments after curing. This ink may be available in various
colours like red, white, pink etc.
Wilflex Sliver Metallic 15055
This is a readymade plastizol ink mixed with metallic powder like copper, aluminium,
bronze this ink mainly used for metallic printing.
Wilflex Bright Tiger 11480 Ht
This is a readymade plastizol ink used mainly for high density printing trends
on to the garment. It is available in white colour.
Wilflex Genesis 19850 Gns Process Black
This is a readyment black coloured plastizol ink mainly used for high density
printing trends on to the garments.
Wilflex Genesis Yellow
This is a readymade yellow coloured plastizol ink used mainly in high density
printing trends. This above gives a raised effect after curing and softens the
print after fusing.
Wilflex Genesis Red
This is readymade red coloured plastizol ink, used mainly in high density printing
trends.
 Cost
of garments printing
Printing cost for garment has been calculated based on amount
of print paste used to produce desired effect. This will include printing cost,
curing and fusing cost.
Cost reduction measures
The following various measures have been employed to reduce the cost of printing.
Cost of printing can be reduced by reducing the consumption of Plastizol colours
required for printing. This is brought about by optimising the mesh size of
the screen used for printing.
Reduction of cost by means of reducing the number of strokes given for round
for a particular design of garment print. Generally five strokes per one round
is given.
Cost saving is possible by means of reducing the amount of metallic powder required
to obtain the metallic printing effect. Usually 90-92% metallic powder is used
in the combination. This is the root cause of obtaining duller print.
Conclusions
Printing cost can be reduced by changing mesh size of screen in case of plastizol
printing. Use of 120 mesh size screen shows maximum reduction in printing cost,
while 300 mesh size screen increases the cost of printing in case of plastizol
colours. Use of 120 mesh size screen for printing with Wilflex, Sericol and
Hindustan colour reduces the printing cost by 34%, 36.96% and 48.88% respectively.
In case of high density printing, one stroke can be saved to obtain the same
brick type effect. Hence the average saving here is 10%. In case of metallic
printing, an average saving of 30% of metallic powder can be obtained in order
to improve the brightness, by adding 20% of plastizol ink further into the print
paste along with the metallic powder. The cost added due to addition of the
plastizol ink is less than the cost saved.
(The authors are with Textile & Engg. Institute, Ichalkaranji)
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