On the relationship between ink-jet printing quality of pigment ink and the spreading behavior of ink drops

In this research, we studied the relationship between ink-jet printing quality of lines and the spreading behavior of millimeter-sized ink drops on different types of untreated fabrics. We observed that printing quality depends, to a significant extent, on the spreading behavior of ink, which in turn is influenced by the nature of capillaries present in the yarns. In addition to nature of capillaries, the wettability and bulk structure of the fabric were found to influence drop spreading. Very good correlation was observed between excess line widths of the printed lines and the normalized spreading distance, d/φ* (where d is the drop spreading distance, and φ* is the effective porosity of the fabric). Correlation studies showed that the spreading behavior of millimeter-sized drops can be effectively used to predict the excess line width on transverse threads, which is mainly responsible for poor ink-jet printing quality.