Aqueous alternative...

kdw75

Well-known member
I had been looking at ecosolvent and latex to see if they are worth the the extra cost. I currently have Epson 9900s that I use to print trade show graphics on polyester fabric. The client gets these muddy and must be able to scrub them with Clorox wipes, without having the image affected. I currently spray laminate them, but this is time consuming. Being able to match spot colors is also critical.

Surprisingly to me, I was incomes that ecosolvent and latex also require the fabric have an ink receptive coating, just like aqueous.

I was told that latex is a little more durable than ecosolvent.

Thoughts?
 
If you can dedicate a printer to fabric printing along with a post heat treatment then Dye Sublimation would be the most durable. Most printers can be custom modified to a Dye sublimation inkset. MaterialsReproGraphX.com has many products for custom inkjet printing.
 
When it comes to printing on fabric, a lot depends on the individual fabric, but in general, eco-solvent is very dependent on coating. And it makes sense when you think about it. The solvents can't very well bite into the fibers of the fabric, so there has to be some sort of coating for them to bite into.

And, for the most part, it's hard to get good, rich, full color printing on fabric with either solvent or eco-solvent.

As far as latex goes, it again depends a great deal on the fabric, however from my experience -- and unless there's a particular material out there I'm unaware of -- while you can get some pretty nice-looking results out of certain fabrics with latex -- none of them are very durable at all. Certainly less durable than solvent or ecosol.

Bottom line: I don't think I'd even begin to attempt what you're describing with latex.

Ed has it exactly right. For printing on fabric, nothing beats dye sublimation. And you could actually convert a 9900 to do it. What you would need is a heat transfer unit; how large of one would depend on the size of what you're printing.

As far as spot colors go, the ability of any printer to hit colors accurately isn't determined by its ink type. It's determined mainly by the colors in its inkset, by surface of the media, and by the profiles that define to it how it prints.

Mike Adams
Correct Color
 
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We've been using "Fab 6" (woven polyester) on our Epson 9900's. The end result looks good, the only problem is these are trade show posters, and the clients want to be able to fold them up and bring them in their carry on luggage, but the material creases and doesn't look so hot once unfolded. We just bought an Epson s70670 and are hoping to find a more supple fabric product. Any recommendations?
 

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