SusdigiTex-Development of a digital printing process with sustainable inks for functional clothing

SusdigiTex-Development of a digital printing process with sustainable inks for functional clothing

Against this background the proposed project aims at developing sustainable, water-based inks for digital printing containing pigments and/or functional particles. It is envisaged that the ingredients of the ink, including colour pigments and binders should be more environmental friendly then what is used today and come from renewable resources. 

The developed inks will be digital printed on polyester and polyamide fabrics. Hence, the proposal aims as well at establishing a digital printing process including an environmentally friendly plasma-pretreatment process. A special focus is the modulation of printing heads with the ink system. 

In order to achieve these aims, a close collaboration between Swedish and German partners along the value chain is needed. Prometho will develop sustainable inks for digital printing on polyester and polyamide. FOV will apply the inks to finish their fabrics in a digital, and hence flexible, and environmentally friendly process. The University of Borås will establish a plasma pretreatment process and design a suitable digital printing line. Hochschule Niederrhein focusses on testing alternative print heads and concentrates on mass customization approaches of digital printing for outdoor and work wear.