WPE: 311

Wet Processing- II

Part-A: Textile Printing

Chapter-4: Printing method or techniques

Mohammad Shohag
Lecturer, DoWPE
BUTEX
Email: sheikhshohagtex@gmail.com
Chapter-4: Printing method or techniques

Block Printing Roller Printing

Screen Printing Transfer Printing

 What is Printing method?
Printing is carried out with different instrument, tools or machine, this mechanical
aspects is termed as method of printing.
Different method are used to produce impression on fabric. Methods of printing
depends on the demand of user also on the material type, style type and
purpose of end product use.
 Different types of methods
The following methods can be applied for textile printing operations:
1. Block printing.
2. Roller printing.
3. Stencil printing.
4. Screen printing.
a) Flat bed screen printing method.
b) Rotary screen printing method.
5.Transfer printing.
a) Flat bed press transfer printing
b) Continuous transfer printing
c) Vacuum transfer printing
6. Ink jet/digital printing.
7. Burn out printing
8. Flock printing.
9. Metallic printing.
10. Rubber Printing.
11. Crepe or Crepon printing.
Market share of printing by its annual production

3% 2%1%
4%

25%

[PERCENTAGE]

Rotary Screen printing Flat screen printing Transfer printing

Hand printing Digital Printing Others
 Block Printing
Block printing is the process of curving patterns, shapes and designs into a “block”.
The block may be made of wood (from sycamore, pear or lime tree), acrylic plastic
sheet, linoleum or metal.
In the first step, the required design are chiseled on to the hard, smooth lower surface
of block. Normally a fine chisel is used to cut away the nonprinting areas to a depth of
about 1cm, thus design is curved on smooth surface. In second step, the raised
surface of the block was smeared with the prepared thick dye paste, and the
impression of the design obtained by stamping the block smartly by hand on the cloth.
Finally the design is transferred on the fabric as the cutting design on block.

 For multiple color in a design required multiple block.

 Simplest method of printing with hand made art.
 Tedious and time consuming process with lower production.
 Irregular color shade may obtained.
 Curving of block is difficult and laborious.
Block Printing
 Roller printing
Roller printing also referred to as intaglio or machine printing. The technique
dates from the end of the 18th century. Roller printing is the most economical
and fastest way of printing. The output of this can not be surpassed by any
other method of printing. Design with up to 16 colors present no problem in
roller printing.
Roller printing is a printing method where printing design is produced by
engraved rollers. It turns out color-designed fabrics in vast quantities at the rate
of 1000 to 4000 yards an hour. This method of producing attractive designs is
relatively inexpensive when compared with any hand method. It is a machine
counterpart of block printing. In this printing, engraved copper cylinders or
rollers take the place of the hand-carved blocks.
 Roller printing
Machine view:
 Roller printing
Constructions:

1. Pressure bowl (A)

2. Resilient covering or lapping (B)
3. Endless blanket (C)
4. Back-grey (D)
5. Fabric (E)
6. Engraved copper cylinder (F)
7. Steel mandrel (L)
8. Furnishing roller (G)
9. Color box (H)
10. Color doctor or cleaning doctor (J)
11. Lint doctor (K)

Fig: Two color engraved roller printing machine

 Roller printing
Working Procedure:
 To protect the lapping from color paste, an endless blanket used that also provides resilience in
order to achieve perfect transfer of color to fabric. The blanket should washed and dried
continuously before returning to the point of printing.
 A back grey is used between blanket and fabric to absorb excess color paste as well as maintain
dimensional stability of the fabric to be printed.
 Fabric to be printed is placed on the pressure bowl cylinder which is located on the center of
machine. The pressure cylinder comes in contact of engraved roller by rotating the forward.
 As the copper roller rotates, a furnishing roller being partly immersed in a color box, is transfers
print paste into the engraving part as well as on the smooth surface of the designed copper roller.
The surface color is almost removed by steel blade called color doctor.
 Only the Print paste deposited in the engravings of copper roller transferred on fabric as per
printing design on copper roller.
 After transferring its color to the cloth and before returning to the furnishing roller, the engraved
roller is cleaned by a brass blade known as the lint doctor. This removes any loose fiber that may
stuck to the surface of the roller.
 After color transfers by all the printing rollers, the printed fabric is separated from the back grey
and blanket and carried on to the drying section of the machine.
 Roller printing
Advantages:
1. It is robust and very durable . A properly maintained machine may run 40-50 years.
2. Suitable for large batches or large scale production.
3. Useful for very fine printing.
4. High quality design due to not joint mark.
5. Possible to print in complex weaving design.
Disadvantage:
1. There is limit of the width of the cloth to be printed.
2. The repeat size of the design is limited to the circumstance of the copper roller.
3. Engraving the printing roller is an expensive operation that raises the prices of roller
printed fabric.
4. Time lost in pattern changing due to need to handle the heavy rollers and
associated accessories.
5. Not economical for small scale production.
6. Horizontal stripe and large blotch design is difficult to produce.
 Faults of Roller printing
1. Scumming: Soiling of the cloth by one or more colours due to insufficient scrapping of the
print paste from the engraved portion.
2. Scratches: Gritty particles in color paste cutting the surface of the roller deeply enough to
show them when printed.
3. Snapper: Loose threads from the cloth escaping under the lint doctor, bits of the dried up
paste and other hard particles cause snappers, which are large double stripes of color
running along the length of the cloth.
4. Lift: These are also called as minute snappers, occurring usually at regular intervals,
which are normally caused by some hard particles like a metal piece getting embedded in
the engraving of the roller.
5. Streaks: Fine lines parallel to the selvedge may be caused due to scratches on the
engraved roller or a cut on the colour doctor edge because of some grit in the color paste.
6. Scrimp: Creases remaining in the cloth while printing give rise to the defect of non-
printing underneath the fold.
7. Uneven printing: Uneven pressure due to faulty lapping or improper feed of the print
paste, too much polishing of certain parts to eliminate scratches, give uneven
impressions.
Faults of Roller printing

Scumming Scratches

Snapper Lift
 Stencil Printing
The process of applying color to fabric by brushing or spraying through open spaces of
a pattern cut-out from a flat sheet of metal or any waterproof material/sheets of paper.
A waterproof sheet of plastic, laminate, cartridge paper or metal may be used to make
stencil. The required design is drawn on the selected sheet. The design is cut out with
the help of a surgical blade. Thus open cut spaces make up the design on sheet.
Then stencil is aligned with the place where the design is to appear on fabric. The
stencil is held in place with scotch tape/pins/clips or weights. Color paste is then
brushed through the open spaces of stencil with a brush. The stencil sheet then lifted,
which exposes the design on the cloth.

 For multiple color on design required multiple stencil.

 No investment and very low budget.
 Less versatile and limited design.
 Stencil Printing
1 2

3 4 5
Stencil Printing
 Screen Printing
• The idea of screen printing came from stencil printing, which originated in
Japan during 17th and 18th centuries. In the second half of the 19th century,
woven silk fabric was used as a continuous support instead of paper stencil
to improve its durability. For the best result, support fabric was stretched
across a frame, the combination became known as screen. From this
onwards advantage of screen printing became increasingly appreciated.
• Printing of textile materials using a screen is either done manually or it may
be mechanized.
 Frame Used in Screen Printing
• A screen frame must be strong, sturdy, reasonably light in weight, cheap to make
and must be accurately made so that it will lie flat on the printing bed. A frame with
internal dimensions of 24 inch x 54 inch is preferred. It may be three types metal
frames, wooden frames, combined metal and wooden frames.
• Metal Frames: These are made from iron or light metal. Closed profile tubes gives
better result than open profile tubes(hollow). It can be of different shape as square
or rectangular, trapezoidal, trilateral or sectorial. Sectorial cross section gives best
result due to less contact surface.
• Wooden Frames: Mostly used now in sample print. Light, well seasoned wood such
as pinewood is used as raw material. Shape of frame can vary from square to
quadrant. Depending on the size of the screens, strip boards of 4 to 8 cm height or
width are linked together in the sturdiest possible manner. One problem is frame
tend to bend.
• Combination of wooden and metal frames: By inserting wooden ledges in the
open u shape metal and screwed into the metal. This combination reduces the
previous frames limitations. Strength is most out of them.
 Mesh or Screen Cloth and its geometry
• A screen consist of a square or rectangular hollow metal or wooden frame on
which a light cloth is mounted, this is screen cloth or mesh fabric made by
weaving technology. Meshed fabrics of different origin can be used such as:
– Silk fabric.
– Nylon fibers.
– Polyester fibers.
– Metal filaments or threads (phosphor, bronze, chromium, nickel, steel) or glass
filaments.
Screen mesh has two geometry:
• Mesh count: Mesh count is specified as the number of thread per inch.
• Thread diameter: Thread diameter is a nominal value referring to the
diameter of single thread.
 Mesh count and some factors
Mesh count: Mesh count is a measure of how many threads of polyester
(previously silk, centuries ago) cross each other per square inch of the screen.
The two most standard sizes are 110 and 156 mesh.
For example: A 110-mesh screen would have 110 threads crossing per square
inch. The higher the mesh count finer the holes are in the screen.
 Choosing a mesh size as per design detail. If the image has extremely high
design detail, a low mesh screen simply wouldn’t hold the detail, the fine line or
dots in the image would simply fall through the holes in the mesh, creating a
poor representation of the image. If one has a low detail image and too high
mesh count, one will run into issues of not getting enough ink to lie down on the
fabric.
 Mesh count and some factors
 Choosing a mesh size as per thickness of the ink or paste itself: Thinner ink,
such as water based ink, generally require a higher mesh count. If too low of a
mesh count is used, then the thin ink could potentially flood through the larger
holes, soaking the fabric with more ink than required. Flooding of paste would
make the image blurry as ink bleeds. On the other hand thicker ink such as
plastisol or white inks, consider lower mesh counts. Too high of a mesh count one
may run into an issue with inks not easily pass through the mesh, which could
lead to opacity and coverage issues.
Geometry of a Screen
 Mesh count and some factors
Q.1. Which mesh is of low mesh count? [0.25]
Q.2. What are the mesh count of this two mesh? [0.25]
Q.3. Where the thread diameter is more? [0.25]
Q.4. Which mesh is the presentation of courser hole? [0.25]
Q.5. Suppose you need to print a complex design which mesh you will choose?
And why? [0.5]
Q.6. How many openings are in a 10x15 mesh screen? [0.5]

A B
 Screen Preparation Process
The making of a printing screen is a delicate and lengthy multiple process. The steps are as
follows:
1. Selection of a design.
2. Print the design on a transparent film.
3. Selection of screen cloth or mesh and attached the selected mesh fabric with the
suitable frame.
4. Preparation of photosensitive emulsion chemical which includes two chemical- PVA
emulsion and diazo light sensitizer.
5. Application of emulsion coating on both side of screen fabric.
6. One side is covered with the transparent design film and another side covered with black
rubber sheet to protect from light passing.
6. Exposed to the UV light for a particular time.
7. Remove the transparent design film and wash the mesh fabric.
8. Finally the screen with designed mesh fabric is produced.
Factors affecting the amount of print paste passes through the screen

1. The mesh (thread per inch) of the screen fabric, generally coarser mesh
allows more paste to pass through than a fine mesh.
2. Amount of open area in the screen fabric.
3. Hardness and cross section of the squeegee blade, a hard rubber squeeze
with a sharp cross section is suitable for outlines, whereas a soft, rounded
blade applies more paste and suitable for blotches.
4. Hardness of the printing table, if the table is firm, a soft squeegee is
probably needed, whereas with a resilient table surface a harder squeegee
is preferable.
5. Viscosity of the print paste, thinner paste passes more quickly.
6. Number of the squeegee strokes two to four strokes are usually applied.
7. The angle, pressure and speed of the squeegee stroke.
 Classification of screen printing

1. Flat bed screen printing.

a) Hand or manual screen printing
b) Semi automatic screen printing
c) Fully automatic screen printing
2. Rotary screen printing.
 Hand screen printing

Material required:
 Screen
 Squeegee
 Fabric
 Back grey
 Printing table
 Adhesive gum pins
 Drying system under table
 Steaming arrangement
 Washing
 Dryer
 Hand screen printing

 Printing is carried on a flat, solid table covered with a layer of resilient felt and
a washable blanket (made with neoprene rubber).
 The bleached or dyed fabric is selected and fixed on the table in creaseless
condition under slight tension using adhesive or pins.
 In this process a viscous color paste is forced through the open design area
of the screens with a flexible, synthetic rubber squeegee. Generally two
strokes are given by the squeegee that is drawn steadily across the screen
with a constant angle and pressure. If the screen is too wide to allow one
operator to reach all the way across it, two operators may work together, one
on either side of the table.
 Then the screen is lifted and printed fabric is allowed to dry on the table.
 For drying the printed fabric heat may be provided under the blanket or by
hot air fans above the table.
 Steaming is carried out to fix the printed colors. Various types of steamer
may use, Boiler-fed-star agers are known to give the best results.
 Hand screen printing
 A back grey fabric is provided in between the layer of printed fabrics during
steaming to avoid staining of the non printed portions. The back grey also
absorb the excess moisture during steaming.
 After fixation fabric is thoroughly washed to remove the gum, residual
chemicals and the unfixed dyes. Here cold wash, hot detergent wash and
again cold wash given.
 Finally fabric is dried in the drying machine and sent for finishing.
 In case of pigment printing, instead of steaming curing is carried out at 150-
1800c for 3-5 minutes. No washing is necessary after pigment printing.
 Fully automatic screen printing

In a typical automatic flat-screen machine, all the screens for a specific design
(one screen for each color) are positioned accurately along the top of a long
endless belt known as a blanket.
A machine intended to print traditional furnishing designs might have space for
15 or more screens.
The endless blanket coated with thermoplastic adhesive. Such adhesive, often
based on acrylic copolymers, can withstand the washing necessary to remove
excess print paste without becoming detached from the blanket and remain
serviceable during printing up to thousand meter of fabric.
 Fully automatic screen printing
Machine view:
 Fully automatic screen printing
Constructions:

P1 P2 P3 P4 P5
Printed Fabric

S1 S2 S3 S4 S5
Dryer

A B
C
Fabric
Feeding

D E
Fig: 5 color Fully automatic flat screen printing machine

P1-P5= Supply of print paste S1-S5= Screen

A & B= Central roller C= Endless blanket
D= Adhesive application E= Washing device of blanket
 Fully automatic screen printing

Features:
1. The machine consist of a fabric feed unit and endless conveyor belt to bring
the fabric onto the table under the screen
2. 5 screens functioning with a special mechanism for loering on the required
place of fabric
3. Squeegees are driven by motor.
4. An arrangement for gumming the fabric on conveyor belt by a driver.
5. Special arrangement under table to collect extra paste
6. Speed 15-20 m/min.
7. Fully automatic flat screen printing method may be called a semi continuous
method of printing.
 Fully automatic screen printing
Working procedure:
• when the fabric comes in contact with the blanket with the help of a hot metal
at the entry end, the adhesive get tacky and the fabric get stuck to the
endless blanket.
• The fabric moves along with the blanket in an intermittent fashion, one
screen distance at a time.
• All the colors in the design are printed simultaneously on fabric by squeegee
through screen while he fabric is stationary.
• Then the screen are lifted and fabric and blanket move on, when the fabric
approaches the turning point of the blanket, it comes in another contact with
hot metal blade. The fabric is pulled off and passes into a dryer.
• The soiled blanket is washed and dried during its return passage on the
underside of the machine.
 Fully automatic screen printing

Advantages:
 Mostly used for sarees.
 Easy and very cheap to prepare screen
 The color have a transparency, purity and richness.
 Upto 14-16 color can be produced in one pattern.
 Since the whole width of fabric is printed at a time, its faster than block printing.
 Comparatively cheap than roller printing.
 Wastage of printing paste is less.
Disadvantages:
 Joint marks at the repeat often precipitated.
 For high production a large number of tables have to be used requiring huge space.
 Fine mesh screen used for sharp design are often chocked.
 Production is less than roller printing.
 Rotary screen printing

Rotary screen printing is a continuous method of printing in which perforated

cylindrical screens are used to apply color. Color is forced from the interior of
the screen onto the fabric.
In this type of printing, the screen is wrapped on a metal cylinder. The solution
of the color is inserted from one end of the cylinder. This roller rotates by
mechanical method. When the cloth is to be printed then this cylinder will sit on
the cloth and starts to rotate, so that the entire screen on the fabric is printed as
per design on screen.
 Rotary screen printing
Machine view:
 Rotary screen printing
Constructions:
P1 P2 P3 P4 P5

Printed Fabric

S1 S2 S3 S4 S5

Dryer

A B
C
Fabric
Feeding

D E
Fig: 5 color Rotary screen printing machine

P1-P5= Supply of print paste S1-S5= Screen

A & B= Central roller C= Endless blanket
D= Adhesive application E= Washing device of blanket
Interior of a Rotary printing screen
 Rotary screen printing

Features:
1. Continuous printing method where the continuous rotation of cylindrical
screen in contact with the fabric ensures continuous production
2. A perforated cylinder or spherical screen.
3. Each screen is independently driven, Printing paste is fed into the inside of
individual screen by reversible gear pump.
4. The printing paste level inside the rotary screen is automatically and
constantly controlled by electronic level controller.
5. Transfer of printing paste through the perforations of the screen into the
fabric is governed by specially designed squeegee blade.
6. Speed 10-100 m/min.
7. An arrangement for gumming the fabric on blanket
8. Special arrangement under the table for washing blanket.
 Rotary screen printing
Working procedure:
• The fabric to be printed is placed on the blanket/conveyor belt through
feeding system.
• The conveyor brings the fabric continuously under the 5 rotary perforated
screen.
• As the screen moves over the fabric, the printing paste is applied by a
squeeze which forces the paste through the screen on the fbric.
• After printing the fabric goes to the drying section for drying, finally steaming,
washing and finishing is done.
• The blanket is washed and dried under the table. Washing unit consists of
circular brushes with constant water feed, drying unit uses hot air.
 Rotary screen printing

Advantages:
 Highest production as compared to roller printing and automatic flat bed
printing machine.
 As many as 24 color can be printed by this machine.
 No joints marks in rotary printing.
 Half tone effects (stripe design) and vertical line effect can be produced
successfully.
 Free from smudging effect.
Disadvantages:
 Not economical for short run fabric
 Cost of engraving the screen is very high
 Size of repeat is of the design is limited to about 65 cm.
 Rotary screen Squeeze system

1. Metal blade squeeze system

2. Magnetic rod squeeze system
3. Air flow squeeze system

1. Metal blade squeeze system: With thin

metal squeeze, the squeeze will bend more
with the increase in pressure. In this
system the curvature of the blade and the
angle of contact between the blade and the
screen controls the amount of paste will be
transferred.
 Rotary screen Squeeze system

2. Magnetic rod squeeze system: With

magnetic rod squeeze system color
transfer controlled by magnetic rod. With
a larger rod, magnetic force and thereby
the penetration of color will be higher.
Very small color pool can be maintained
behind the squeeze because squeeze
rod are very small in size.

3. Air flow squeeze system:

Magnetic rod squeezes and blades are
supported by air/sacks by which print
paste is passed through screen.
Due to pressure of air, required amount
of paste is pressed against fabric.
 Screen printing Faults

1. Lighter print:
 On one selvedge and gradually deeper towards other.
 In the middle and deeper towards the selvege
 While using large amount of foam.
 Due to uneven application of gum.

2. Deeper print:
 May be obtained irregularly throughout the fabric
 Throughout the cloth in the direction of the weft
 Due to soft squeeze used on a hard table surface.
 Deep stripe along the warp.
 Very small specks of color on the ground.
 Difference between Flat bed and Rotary screen printing
Rotary Screen printing
1. Continuous method of printing.
2. Rotary screen rotates in its position.
3. Large width fabric can be printed (70’’)
4. Suitable for printing continuous warp wise
stripes but not longer repeat.
5. No joint mark on print
6. Printing blanket may be shorter because
cylindrical screens occupy less fabric
length.
7. Screen should be cleaned more frequently.
8. Printing speed higher up to 100 m/min
9. 14-16 color possible.
10 Production 3 times higher than flat bed.
Flat bed screen printing
1. Semi-continuous method of printing.
2. Flat screen moves up and down.
3. Small width fabric printed only(40-50’’)
3. Suitable for printing large repeats but not for
continuous warp wise stripes
5. Joint mark on flat screen print
6. Printing blanket should be larger because
flat screens occupy more fabric length.
7. Screen should be cleaned less frequently.
8. Printing speed is lower within 20m/min
9. 6-8 color possible.
10. Production capacity lower.
 Transfer Printing Technique
Transfer printing is the term used to describe textile and related printing
processes in which the design is first printed on a flexible non-textile substrate
and later transferred by a separate process to a textile. In transfer printing, paper
is first printed with volatile disperse dyes. The printed paper is heated together
by forming a sandwich with a textile material in a thermo-press at up to 2000c for
30 seconds. Under this conditions, the dye vapor is diffuses into the gap
between paper and fabric, condensate on the fabric surface from where diffuses
into interior of the fibers. The transferred dyestuff has a good washing fastness.
 Key factor in Transfer printing
1. Printing paper: 60-80 GSM paper, glazed that possibly ligneous provided on
both side with a light starch coating can be used. Papers are printed by inkjet
printer and should be crease free condition. Polymeric film on the transfer
paper carrying the design is transferred from the paper to the garments/fabric
by heating on its back side. Paper do not have any attraction towards dye.
2. Dyes: Volatile disperse dyes is used to print design on the printing paper.
This dye has no affinity to paper but have attraction to fabric.
3. Fabric: Polyester is most widely used and suitable for transfer printing. Also
nylon, acrylic and triacetate can be printed.
 Transfer Paper Printing Method
There are four process:
1. Gravure Printing: Intaglio method of printing where design comes from cells or
wells etched into a copper plated cylinder. The unetched surfaces of the cylinder
form the nonprinting section of the cylinder. Gravure method gives perfect transfer,
especially with solvent-based inks.
2. Flexographic printing: A rotary web letter press method of printing, characterized
by raised image flexible rubber plates and fast drying ink. Very fine half tone dots
are not possible.
3. Rotary screen printing: In rotary screen printing machine the design carrier is a
tubular copper or nickel screen, which is mounted across the bed of the substrate
to be printed. Ink is mounted inside the mounted screen and squeezed through the
screen by means of a squeeze.
4. Lithographic printing: printing from a flat plane metal plate where the design on
the plate is offset or transferred to a rubber blanket from the surface of which it is
applied to the fabric. Offset printing requires solvent-free inks of very high
viscosity.
 Transfer Printing Method
Transfer printing printed process are following:
1. Sublimation transfer: An inert substrate like paper is printed with sublimable
dyes. When it is sandwiched with the fabric and heated to a particular
temperature, the sublimation of volatile disperse dyes from by adsorption of
the dye vapors by synthetic fabric (Polyester). As a result the fabric gets
printed.
2. Wet transfer: Water soluble dyes are incorporated into print paste and
design printed on a paper. The design is transferred to a moistened textile
using contact pressure. The dye transfers by diffusion in aqueous phase. The
use of water as the medium through which dye diffuses in passing from the
paper to the fabric.
 Transfer Printing Method
3. Melt transfer: As the name implies, melt transfer involves solids becoming
liquidified, rather than turning into volatile gas, as in case of sublimation
transfer printing. This method principally uses wax, resin or oil based
substances as carrier for the ink or dyestuffs. The design is printed on paper
using a waxy ink, and a hot iron applied to its reverse face presses the paper
against the fabric. The ink melts on to the fabric in contact with it.
4. Film release: This method is similar to the melt transfer with the difference
that the design is held in an ink layer, which is transferred completely to the
textile from a release paper using heat and pressure.adhesion force are
developed between the film and the textile which are stronger than those
between the film and the paper. This is very useful for cottage printers who
can purchase release paper from the market and print directly on garments
as per their chosen design. No wash is required of the printed fabric after
printing.
 Transfer Printing Process
Classification of Transfer printing are following:
1. Flat bed process transfer printing
2. Continuous transfer printing
3. Vacuum transfer printing
 Flat bed process transfer printing
Working Principle:
• At first fabric to be printed is loaded to endless blanket.
• Fabric comes to print bed and pre printed paper is placed keeping design
portion in contact with fabric
• Pressing is given by a heated cylinder plate, temperature at cylinder is 180-
2200c and time 30-40sec.
• The heated plate is then lifted and blanket moving forward to unload the fabric.

A= Print bed, B= Press bed or heated plate, C= Endless

blanket.
 Continuous transfer printing
In this machine design is transferred from printing paper to fabric. After printing by this
machine no need of fixation or wet treatment.
Working Principle:
• In this machine, since preprinted paper and fabric contact to each other passes
through, design is transferred to fabric which is done in a biggest heated cylinder.
• Here cylinder is heated at 2200c internally and design is transferred due to the
pressure of cylinder and preprinted paper.
• A tension device is used for pressure of printing paper to fabric
• Required time for printing is 15-60 sec.
• Backing paper is used for uniform pressure on
fabric and transfer paper.
• The speed of machine varies between 6-15 m/min
depending on the diameter of the heated cylinder.
 Vacuum transfer printing
Working Principle:
The steel mantle of the drum is covered with a heat resistant padding material. The paper
ususally extends about 1 inch beyond each selvedge of the fabric. The projecting edge of the
paper are sealed off by adjustable perforated Teflon tapes which reject the dyestuffs and

Printed Fabric
protect the drum edge from getting soiled.

Used Paper
Heating is done by infra-red heating,
filled in a special reflecting chamber.
The drawing of dye in to the fabric
from the printing paper is achieved by
means of vacuum produced in a
cylinder. The cylinder is manufactured Cylinder
from a finely perforated steel mantle
with surface profile and perforation. Transfer Paper
Due to this even vacuum the paper Fabric
and the fabric are wrapped around the
cylinder. Fig: Vacuum Transfer Printing Machine
 Advantage of Transfer printing
 Capital cost of he equipment is low.
 Space requirement is also small.
 More cost effective for smaller orders.
 Easy to print images containing multiple colors and complex designs
 It gives good prints on well prepared knitted goods.
 Process is clean and environmental friendly due to water free process.
 Steaming, washing, drying are not necessary.
 It allows excellent dye penetration into the fabric as transfer takes place at
very high temperature.
 As the design transfer on textile is a dry process, delicate designs can be
successfully transferred to textiles. It may not be possible to print such delicate
designs by direct style of printing.
 Disadvantage of Transfer printing
 Only suitable for some synthetic fibers and can not yet be used for natural
fibers. Particularly successful with polyester, acrylic, nylon 66 and triacetate.
 Low rates of production.
 Only limited dyestuff can be used for transfer printing.
 Once printed can not be corrected.
 Sublimation fastness is very low.
 Storage of paper over prolonged period of time is a risk.
Problems:
1. What are the available methods of textile printing?
2. What is mesh count? what are the effects of mesh opening on the quality of printed
fabric?
3. What is mesh count? How can you control printing quality by using screen printing
methods?
4. What is screen?
5. What is mesh fabric? How a printing screen can be prepared?
6. Illustrate the photochemical technique of printing screen preparation.
7. Draw and Describe a flat screen printing techniques for a 3 color design.
8. Illustrate the features of a 5 color fully automatic flat screen printing machine with
sketch.
9. Describe the printing mechanism of a fully automatic rotary screen printing machine
for a six color with sketch.
10. Differentiate between flat bed and rotary screen printing machine.
11. What are the advantage of screen printing process?
12. Differentiate between screen printing and roller printing. Mention the problems of
roller printing.
13. Write short note on transfer printing.