Silk fabric printing is expected to be an early production application of ink jet technology. A variety of silk fabrics have been printed with a TOXOT continuous ink jet printer using a pigmented ink with sub-micron particle size polymer latex resins. Inks with pigment loading of 5-9% and resin content of 15-20% could be successfully jetted. Printed samples were thermally cured and were tested with no wet post processing. Bending rigidity, air permeability and fastness properties were obtained on all printed samples. Acrylic resins with glass transition temperatures of -10 to -20 degrees C gave good fabric hand and acceptable wet and dry crockfastness properties. Pigmented polymer latices with sub-micron particle size appear to be a promising and cost effective approach to ink jet printing of a wide variety of textile substrates.
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