Evaluation of pigmented ink formulations for jet printing onto textile fabrics

Recent years have seen a significant increase in the use of inkjet technology for printing on textile fabrics. Typical inkjet printed textile products included curtains, large advertising posters, flags and banners. As a result of the need for such inkjet printed products to have a greater durability, especially for outdoor applications, inks containing pigments as the colourants are gaining more interests. However, pigments may give rise to logistical problems in terms of their dispersion stability within the ink formulation, consequently blocking the nozzles within the inkjet print head. This paper reports methods for the preparation of pigment dispersions and of inkjet printing ink formulations and the methods for the evaluation of the suitability of pigmented ink formulations for jet printing on textile materials. In particular, the suitability of three magenta pigments for inkjet inks were assessed and reported.