Ink and Drying/Curing Technology Advances


Roller squeegees offer the potential to operate presses at much higher speeds than is currently possible. So inks must be modified in order to transfer consistently and curing equipment must be introduced that will dry prints effectively at these speeds.


The rapid ink transfer demanded by high-speed printing requires the development of inks to match the quality demands as speeds continue to rise. It is seen that this occurring as a natural development of existing ink technology, not a change that requires new inks to be for in tandem with ink development is the need for enhanced drying/curing technologies.


My roller-squeegee experiments were conducted using a modified cylinder press, UVinks, and a dual-lamp UV curing unit. Even when the curing system was operated at maximum power, it could not fully cure the prints at the press's maximum operating speed. For high-speed printing with roller squeegees, flash-cured UVinks show the greatest potential. Uses of ink technologies that dry by evaporation of solvents are highly limited because of the minimal time available for drying (or by the extraordinary length of the dryers that would be required). After printing blanket moves back underside of the machine and printed fabric moves on to the drying unit. The speed of the blanket and drying unit of blanket is synchronized by means of photovoltaic cells [8].


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About the Authors:


Mr Pavan S. Chinta is an M.Text Scholar (TextileChemistry) at the D.K.T.E.'S Textile Engineering Institute, Ichalkaranji.


Prof. S.K. Laga is an Assistant Professor of TextileChemistry Department of Textiles at the D.K.T.E.'S Textile EngineeringInstitute, Ichalkaranji.


This article wasoriginally published in the "New Cloth Market", June, 2012.