A study of quality factors for cotton fabrics in ink-jet printing

This research focuses on the effects of paste pre-treatment, concentration of sodium alginate, steaming conditions for colour yield and outline sharpness of ink-jet printing. The results show that (a) coating is a better method than padding for paste pre-treatment of cotton fabrics; (b) 102ºC × 12min is the best condition for steaming; (c) pattern sharpness is better when the concentration of sodium alginate increases; and (d) color yield diminishes when the concentration exceeds 20g/L. In other words, when the optimum concentration of sodium alginate is 20g/L, the amount of ejected ink can reach as much as 260%. In this study, four reactive dyes (i.e. cyan, magenta, yellow and black) of different chemical constitutions were used, and the colour fastness results against washing and light reveal an acceptable rating above grade 4.Institute of Textiles and Clothin