The influence of washing treatment on screen printed textile substrates

Abstract

During exploitation period printed textile products are usually exposed to various influences. One of the most common influence is a washing treatment. The washing treatment causes modification of textile fibres and change of colours reproduction on materials. This paper presents the research of influence of washing treatment on print quality parameters of screen printed textile, i.e. cotton substrates. Besides the influence of series of washing treatments, the influences of printing screen mesh count and characteristics of printed material was also considered. The research includes analysis of basic print quality attributes: colour reproduction and macro non-uniformity. The results of the research point out that increasing the number of washing treatments causes significant colour differences between treated and untreated samples. Colour differences caused by printing screen mesh count were also noticed, as well as the influence of the washing treatments and substrate characteristics influence on macro non-uniformity of printed samples.