Textile printing: An integrated view of processes, properties, and future prospects

Textile printing processes consist of the localised application of colour on textile substrates to obtain well-defined designs and patterns. Currently, there are many textile printing techniques; however, the limitations and selectivity of these techniques still keep the printing method of rotary screen printing the most important and used among them. One of the advantages of rotary printing is its excellent application versatility, which can be used for any fabric and non-wovens, fibre, or mixtures, with high production speed, quality, colour fastness, and definition. However, due to its high complexity, rotary printing requires great technical knowledge. Rotary printing requires specific application care depending on the fabric structure, fibrous composition, grammage, and type of intended effect. Regardless of the technique used, printed articles need to ensure that the colour remains attached to the substrate, either by direct dye–fibre or indirect pigment–binder–fibre bonding, to resist the conditions of use, that is, light, abrasion, stretching, and washing. The rise in recent publications reflects the search for economic and sustainable textile printing alternatives, focusing on screen printing variables. Based on this, this review aimed to present a comprehensive guide containing all the care and essential technical information for processes based on rotary printing.