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Comparison of color gamut and fastness properties by

using disperse and pigmented-based ink for

textile inkjet printing

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Presented by: Yi DingFiber and Polymer Science, College of Textiles

North Carolina State University, United States

Research background

• Textile inkjet printing provide new market opportunities for U.S.

• Key components:

– Development and improvement of fabric pretreatment agents

– Evaluation of various colorant sets formulated for Kyocera printheads

– Optimization of the digital printing process flow

• Specific studies conducted to date cover:

– Effects of pretreatment agents on the application of pigment and disperse dye based ink to polyester fabrics for outdoor products requiring lightfastness of 500 hours or more

– Color gamut analysis as a function of substrates, colorants and pre-treatment chemistries

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Research Objectives

• Side by side comparison of pigment/disperse dye-based inksets on polyester

– color gamut analysis

– wet and dry crock fastness

– light fastness

• Support the dot.com, quick response, and short run manufacturing models for suppliers of multinational retail corporation and others implementing digital printing technologies

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• Delphi method is used on decision making, forecasting in technology, 

education and other fields. – “relatively strongly structured group communication process, in which matters, on which naturally 

unsure and incomplete knowledge is available, are judged upon by experts”

• A snowball sampling method effect used to increase the number of 

expert participants– “a person selected for study assists the researcher by identifying other relevant people and 

sometimes, establishing the initial meeting between the researcher and the and the referred person.”

Questionnaires Choose experts Sending questionnaires

Analyze feedbackAgreement?

Final agreement

Analyze general ideas

Next panel

No

Yes

Experimental Procedure

Skulmoski, Gregory, Francis Hartman, and Jennifer Krahn. "The Delphi method for graduate research." Journal of Information Technology Education: Research 6.1 (2007): 1‐21.Richard Sedlack, Social research: theory and methods, 1992

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5

>2/day

1/day

1/week

1/two weeks

1/month

1‐3 years

3‐5 years

5‐10 years

10~20 years

>20 years

Experts’ working frequency Experts’ working experience

• 40 Experts were contacted, 13 of them replied with willingness to participate, including: 

Experts Identification

Color scientist, Printer manufacturer, Textile printing industry specialistsInk manufacturer, Color management experts

Process Model for Color Gamut Analysis

Fabric and printer preparation

Characterization and profile creation

Profile creation

Color gamut analysis

• 2D and 3D gamut visualization

• Gamut volume• White point

colorimetric value• Maximum black• Delta E value 

under different rendering intent

Profile input

Print quality evaluation

Light fastnessDry/wet crock fastnessWash fastnessColor matching evaluationInk consumptionCustomization evaluation

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• MS JP5Evo (Kyocera print heads)

• RIPMaster v11

• X-rite i1Profiler version 1.6.3

• Color Think Pro v3.0.3

• Origin 6.0

Technology

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• Ink comparison between: Inkset A (Disperse-based)

1st generation: CMYK2nd generation: CMYK+Red,

Blue, PurpleInkset B (Pigment-based)

1st generation: CMYK+Red,Blue2nd generation: CMYK+Red,

Blue, Orange, Green

• CTB and ICC profile

• Lightfastness and crock fastness

AATCC standard

Experiment methods

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Individual color comparison

Cyan Magenta Yellow Black Blue Red0

20

40

60

80

100

L*

Cyan Magenta Yellow Blue Red0

20

40

60

80

C*

Inkset A‐UntreatedInkset A‐PretreatedInkset B‐UntreatedInkset B‐Pretreated

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Gamut Comparison Inkset A‐4c & ‐7c

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ICC Color Gamut Comparison

Inkset Gamut volume

A1 (4c) 135,687A2 (7c) 186,533B1 (6c) 152,317B2 (8c) 188,426

Inkset A1Inkset A2Inkset B1Inkset B2

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Gamut Comparison between Inkset A and B (4 colors)

Inkset  Gamut volume

Inkset A‐4c 135,687

Inkset B‐4c 161,305

Disperse Inkset A‐4cPigment Inkset B‐4c

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Gamut Comparison between Inkset A and B (7 colors)

Inkset  Gamut volume

Inkset A‐7c 186,533

Inkset B‐7c 168,825

Disperse Inkset A‐7cPigment Inkset B‐7c

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Crock fastness

D/W ColorInkset A Inkset B

Weft Warp  Weft Warp

D

Cyan 5 5 1.5 2

Magenta 5 5 2 2

Yellow 5 5 2 2Black 4.5 5 2 2Red 4.5 5 2 2Blue 5 5 2 2

Orange 5 5 2 2Green ‐ ‐ 2.5 3

W

Cyan 5 5 1.5 1.5

Magenta 5 5 2.5 2.5

Yellow 5 5 2 1.5Black 4.5 5 2 2Red 4.5 4.5 2 2.5Blue 5 5 2 2.5

Orange 4.5 5 2 2Green ‐ ‐ 3 3

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Light fastness

ColorExposurelevels (h)

Inkset A Inkset B

Cyan160 2.5 4.5300 2.5 4500 2 3.5

Magenta160 3.5 5300 3 4.5500 2 4

Yellow160 3.5 4.5300 3 4.5500 2 3.5

Black160 3.5 4.5300 2.5 4.5500 2 4

Red160 3.5 3.5300 2.5 3500 2 3

Blue160 3 4300 2 4500 1.5 3.5

Violet160 2.5 4300 1.5 3.5500 1 3

Green160 ‐ 3.5300 ‐ 2500 ‐ 1

Conclusion

• Pretreatment enhances fiber receptiveness for the inks, leading to increased color intensity and color gamut.

• The particulate nature of pigments can lead to superior light fastness over disperse dye-based inks; the disperse dye based inksets did not give satisfactory light fastness at 300-500 h exposure levels.

• The inability of pigment particles to diffuse into the fibers during the fixation step can lead to crock fastness problems. Disperse dye inksets provided deeper color shades on PET, the L* of black color was much lower in Inkset A than in Inkset B, which would be helpful in increasing the color intensity for the prints.

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• Selection of ICC profiles, lead to a bigger color mismatch between original design and final reproduced product;

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Current Limitations and Possible Solutions

• Metamerism issue causing by different illuminant source and ink recipe difference.

– Some CMS software are trying to solve those problems by skipping creating ICC profile for the color reproduction, by using innovation ideas of ink recipe for color matching.

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Daylight Fluorescent

Reflectance RGBCIEXYZ

CIELABCMYK

Reflectance CMYK

Current Limitations and Possible Solutions

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• Shrinkage correction

• Spectrophotometer development for textile substrate

• Lack of standard

– The lack of standard for color gamut volume measurement unit; the lack of standard for the textile substrate to specify the performance of ink and printer

• Lots of variables need to be controlled during this process

• The reproduction requirements for the customer are different due to different uses or purposes

– Compromises need to achieve the best print quality for a large scale production, instead of for one perfect sample run

– Maintain a balance between production costs and the print quality

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Current Limitations and Possible Solutions

Acknowledgements

• Walmart US manufacture Innovation Fund

• Instruction from Professors. Freeman, Chapman, Shamey

• Color experts participate the interview or provide contacts

• Technical support staff in College of Textiles and Department of Chemistry of North Carolina State University

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