HY CHEMICAL(KUNSHAN)CO.,LTD
How to Improve Dry/Wet Rubbing Fastness in Textile Printing or Dyeing
Pigment paste printing or dyeing is a widely used textile decoration process. Pigments are dispersed in a binder system and directly printed onto the fabric surface. After drying and curing, patterns are formed. This process has significant advantages in industrial production, but it also has some inherent limitations.
Main Advantages
1. Simple Process, Energy Saving and Environmentally Friendly
The pigment printing process is short and does not require steaming or washing steps. After printing, only baking is needed to complete the product. This greatly reduces energy consumption and water usage, minimizes wastewater discharge, and aligns with green production trends.
2. Wide Applicability and Strong Adaptability
It is not restricted by fiber type and is suitable for cotton, polyester, blended fabrics, heavy fabrics, and even materials such as glass fiber or synthetic fiber fabrics that are difficult to print with dyes. It can also be combined with other dyes to achieve resist printing, discharge printing, and other composite processes.
3. Excellent Weather Resistance
The finished products have good resistance to sunlight, acids, alkalis, chlorine bleaching, and weathering, making them suitable for outdoor products and frequently used textiles.
Main Disadvantages
1. Stiffer Hand Feel, Affecting Comfort
The binder forms a film on the fabric surface, making the printed area harder and thicker than unprinted areas. This effect is especially noticeable in large-area prints, which may negatively affect wearing comfort.
2. Lower Dry and Wet Rubbing Fastness
Pigments only physically adhere to the fiber surface without forming chemical bonds. After repeated washing or friction, fading and whitening may occur, especially in dark-colored prints. Compared with dye printing, pigment printing generally has poorer hand feel and rubbing/washing fastness. In deep or very deep full-pattern prints, the conflict between softness and fastness becomes more prominent. Hand feel, color fastness, and environmental performance are the core challenges of pigment printing.
Traditional pigment binder systems do not achieve the brightness of reactive dyes, have a relatively stiff hand feel, and may have limitations in color fastness standards and ecological performance. However, they eliminate water- and energy-intensive post-treatment processes required in reactive dyeing, reducing production costs and environmental pollution while significantly improving efficiency.
Pigment printing auxiliaries mainly consist of color paste, binder, and a small amount of additives. The quality and compatibility of these components determine the final printing quality. Manufacturers often increase binder dosage to form a colorless, transparent film that does not yellow after heating, and provides good fastness, elasticity, adhesion, and resistance to washing, dry cleaning, sunlight, and aging.
Methods to Improve Dry and Wet Rubbing Fastness
1. Select an Appropriate Binder
A high-quality binder can achieve wet rubbing fastness of grade 4–5, such as Binder 1801H.
2. Increase Baking Temperature and Time
Dry and wet rubbing fastness is directly proportional to baking temperature and baking time.
3. Add Fixing Agents
Adding fixing agents such as Fixer C, 185, 285, or 385 can improve rubbing fastness by 0.5–1 grade.
4. Use Professional Finished Water-Based Paste 329P
Dry rubbing fastness can reach grade 4–5 and wet rubbing fastness grade 3–4. However, the cost is high and it is suitable for printing only, not for dyeing.
Pigment particle size and dosage are important factors affecting rubbing and washing fastness. The required pigment particle size should be between 0.2–1 μm. Fastness significantly decreases when particle size exceeds 2 μm. High-concentration pigment pastes greatly help improve rubbing and washing fastness. For example, Lao An A series pigment paste is a sub-nanometer water-based pigment paste that significantly enhances fastness in printing or dyeing.
5. Post-Finishing Reinforcement Adopting a 'padding softener + calendering' process can not only improve hand feel but also compact the printed or dyed film layer, enhancing surface abrasion resistance.
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