Properties of UV-cured pigment prints on textile fabric

This paper studies and evaluates the UV-curing of pigment prints on textile fabric using a prototype UV scanner. A printing paste comprising synthetic thickener, emulgator, binder, pigment dispersion and photoinitiator was applied using a flat screen printing technique onto the cotton fabric, then dried and exposed to heat or UV-radiation under a mercury vapour lamp (200 W cm−2). The characteristics of cured prints such as paste add-on, colour properties, colour fastness to washing and dry/wet rubbing were evaluated, together with fabric stiffness. The effects of UV-curing were evaluated by Attenuated Total Reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR). The properties of the UV-cured pigment prints were compared with those of the thermal cured prints. Analyses of the obtained results helped to define the optimum composition of the photo reactive pigment paste, and the UV-curing conditions under which satisfactory results were obtained, comparable with those from the thermal curing method.