Effects of Binder Solution on Color Fastness of Digital Printed Cotton Fabric

Digital printing of textiles first appeared in early 90's, and its share in total printing market dramatically increased due to developments in the last five years and advantages of technique, but there is still much to achieve to gain a respectable place in the market. Pigments were most commonly used inks in digital printing and they have nearly no solubility in water or no affinity for any fiber, that results in a demand for binders to create a strong bond between pigment and fiber. In this study, 12 binder solution recipes were prepared with various amounts of KEOJET PGT® binder (0, 20, 25, 30%) and Catalizzatore PGT® catalyst (0, 9, 12, 15%), as well as distilled water. Then, binder solutions were applied onto 100% cotton twill fabrics before printing of Cyan (C), Magenta (M), Yellow (Y) and Black (K) colors via ink jet machine, PicassoTex. After a fixation process, color fastness to rubbing, light, washing and perspiration tests were conducted to printed fabrics. Color fastness to washing and perspiration test results were around 4/5, color fastness to light test results were 5 for all printed samples. However, color fastness to rubbing test results were observed between 3 and 4/5. When all of fastness results were taken into consideration, best results were obtained at the recipe which has 25% binder and 12% catalyst.