Around 2000, direct-injection digital printing began to appear in China. From the printing speed of one meter per hour, which can only be used for proofing, to the current normal production speed of 4200 meters per hour, the digital trend of traditional printing methods (including flat screen, rotary screen, manual table, roller printing, etc.) is unstoppable. Especially with the normal application of Single Pass machine, the digitization process of printing and dyeing has been greatly accelerated.

In China, the first single pass machine was installed in 2016, with more than 10 installed in succession. Over the years, the high-energy disperse direct printing solution has been popularized on scanners, and more customers with high-quality requirements have already applied this solution skillfully. Domestic Single Pass applications are mostly focused on the application of printing heat transfer paper. Due to its strict requirements for ink and the complexity of cloth surface, there is no precedent for the application of Single Pass in China.

Historical Breakthrough

Single Pass High-energy Disperse Direct Printing Starts to Operate

This time, Hongsam HOTME® high-energy disperse dye ink overcame many technical difficulties and it's the first time in China to run stably on a Single Pass digital printing machine, creating a precedent for the application of the domestic Single Pass high-energy disperse direct printing solution.

At first, in 2016, this machine was designed to print paper and used for heat transfer printing. The processing fee was 4-5 yuan/m at the beginning, but because of the internal competition of heat transfer market, the processing fee is getting lower and lower. However, the requirements for fastness and penetration of processing orders are getting higher and higher (the heat transfer process has the characteristics of grinning effect, low ironing fastness and low color migration fastness). The added value of processed products is extremely low, and customers cannot get profits.

At the beginning of 2020, customers decisively chose high-energy disperse direct printing solution. After the cooperation between Hongsam Digital, Hope Tech and the customer, it was decided to use Hongsam's HOTME® high-energy disperse direct printing ink at the end of 2020, and and was officially put into operation in early 2021.

After a year of running in, at the beginning of 2022, it has been officially put into operation. From hundreds of meters and thousands of meters to the business volume of 40000 to 50000 meters for a single order in recent two months, customer have successfully completed the transformation from cheap heat transfer processing to high quality and high fastness high energy disperse direct printing. Of course, this process can not be separated from the stability of the equipment. From 2017 to 2021, the equipment has continuously printed heat transfer paper for more than 4 years. After turning to high-energy dispersion in 2022, over one million meters of printing has been completed so far. The equipment’s print head is still in good condition, and the durability of the whole machine has also been recognized by customer. Now the factory has two shifts, and the machine are running at full capacity. This solution is leading the trend of disperse printing.

This is the first domestic Single Pass machine successfully applied to high-energy disperse direct printing ink. It overcomes the drawbacks of the heat transfer solution and reaches the market leading level in terms of printing accuracy, permeability and color saturation. This is also the crystallization of the cooperation between Hope Tech and Hongsam Digital, and also the outstanding contribution to the printing and dyeing industry and digital printing industry.

Introduction of Single Pass High Energy Disperse Ink Direct Printing Solution

Printing Speed: highest 60m/min

Printhead Model: Starfire 1024

Printhead Number: 224

Print Width: 1.8m

Printer Manufacturer: HOPETECH

Ink Colors：K/C/M/Y/VM

Ink Model: DC 248100 HOTME® high-energy disperse dye ink

Ink Manufacturer: Hongsam Digital

High-energy Disperse Ink VS Conventional Disperse Ink

Large-scale

Large-scale: Compared with digital printing, the biggest advantage of traditional printing is speed. For a long time, textile digital printing machines have been unable to match rotary screen printing machines in terms of production capacity. However, with the emergence of Single pass digital printing machines, large-scale production of digital printing has emerged.

Green

Compared with the traditional rotary screen and flat screen printing of polyester fabrics, high-energy disperse direct printing digital process realizes on-demand inkjet, less floating color, and only a small amount of water is needed in the subsequent washing process, which can save a lot of money compared with traditional printing of water resources.

Digital/Flexible/Personalized

Fully automatic cleaning and maintenance, changing patterns in zero seconds, without stopping the machine, no MOQ limit for printing. The pattern is not limited by color overdye, fineness and pattern, making polyester fabric printing products more diverse and expressive.

Shorter process

Digital printing does not require color separation, screen making, color matching, pulp mixing, and other processes. The entire process is short and the cost is low.

Color Fastness

High energy disperse dye ink has excellent color fastness, etc., which can solve the problems of heat transfer printing process that not resistant to high temperature and poor color fastness to migration , avoiding huge losses caused by color matching and other situations.

Permeability

The high-energy disperse direct print digital solution is to spray high-energy disperse ink directly onto the polyester fabric. The ink can penetrate into the fabric well, avoiding the whitening of the yarn, and improving the problem of color shading in heat transfer printing.

Hand-feeling

High energy disperse ink adopts the form of direct printing, which does not affect the texture of the fabric, while heat transfer adopts the form of high temperature pressing, which greatly affects the feel of the fabric.

Ink Recommendation

Hongsam® HOTME High-energy Disperse Ink

01 Suitable printheads

Starfire, Ricoh, KM, Kyocera, Seiko, Epson heads.

02 Colors supply

K/C/M/Y/VM/LVM/LC/GY/R/OR/B/FM/FY/FOR

03 Matching auxiliaries

Disperse direct print priming DP-03/DP-04

04 Application

All polyester fabrics

HONGSAM Digital was established in 2001. It is a national high-tech enterprise focusing on the R&D, production and sales of inkjet inks. Inkjet industry China listed company (stock code 430616). Since its establishment, HONGSAM Digital developed and produced functional and environmental-friendly inkjet inks that adapt to the advancement of digital inkjet technology, and provided customers with overall digital inkjet printing solutions and services.