Our Printing Inks: Printing Thickener
Crucial to digital print quality is of course high-quality printing inks, but what might be less obvious is the importance of high-quality printing ink thickeners. What exactly is a printing thickener? Printing thickener is a thick substance which imparts stickiness and plasticity to printing inks so that it can be applied to fabric without bleeding or spreading throughout the fabric. This ensures print design accuracy as well as durability, making it imperative to use high-quality thickeners. Below, go over what makes an effective thickener, as well as the quality of our partner mill’s thickeners at Sungmin Textiles.
What makes a high-quality printing thickener?
- Contains specific chemical and physical properties such as viscosity, flow property, and ability to wet and adhere to the printer’s internal mechanisms
- Enough stability to keep long enough for efficient use
- Compatibility with printing ink ingredients
- Proper drying speed on fabric to prevent ink spreading and bleeding
- Molecules should have control over the free water pick-up so as to not carry the ink beyond the boundaries of the print design
Image Source: WGSN Image Library
Sungmin’s Printing Thickeners
Our partner mill, Sungmin Textiles, understands the importance of high-quality printing ink thickeners and therefore uses products that are above the industry standard. To ensure the 100% print design accuracy, Sungmin uses Japanese thickeners made with 100% alginate for PM cottons materials, while most printing mills use less than 100% alginate which cuts costs but also significantly reduces print quality. For all other fabric qualities, Sungmin uses Italian thickeners specifically made to work best with each fabric quality. This is important because fabric qualities differ widely in content, each with its own ink absorption rate. Specific thickeners ensures a high-quality finished product every time, no matter which fabric quality our customers want to use.
Image Source: Post Carbon Lab
Sources: Textile Learner, Wiley Online Library
