The inkjet printer printing on textile and non-paper substrates relies on particular ink and media handling technologies. For example, during direct textile printing, the Epson SureColor F2100 uses particle size 80 nm pigment inks and fabric fixators in order to achieve 1440×720 DPI resolution on cotton substrates (150g/m²). Color fastness to ISO 105-C06 standard level 4 (color difference ΔE<2 after 20 washes), compared to traditional screen printing, its cost of small batch production is reduced by 60% (100 T-shirt printing cost is reduced from 50 yuan/piece to 20 yuan/piece), but the speed of printing is slow (only 3 square meters per hour vs. Screen printing of 20 square meters). The 2023 Global textile printing market report shows that the percentage of inkjet technology grew from 5% in 2018 to 18% with top contributors being fast fashion retailers such as Zara choosing an on-demand manufacturing system (order response time from 14 days to 48 hours).
In terms of non-paper media flexibility, HP Latex 800 Series utilizes latex ink (curing temperature 100°C) in water form and can print on PVC banner (thickness 0.3 mm), self-adhesive backing (peel force 20N/25mm) and synthetic leather (tensile strength 15MPa). It enjoys weather resistance for 3 years of outdoor application (UV exposure 2400kJ/m²), but this comes at the expense of 300% higher ink usage compared to the standard paper (12 ml per square meter, costing around 18 yuan). In comparison to traditional solvent-based printing, its VOC emissions are reduced by 95% (from 300g/m² to 15g/m²), as mandated by the EU EcoLabel certification standard. The study highlighted that the adhesion of the metal foil (0.05 mm thickness) inkjet printer needs to withstand the 100-bar test (3M tape peel-off area <5%), hence the Konica Minolta AccurioJet KM-1 possesses a UV curable module (wavelength 395nm, wavelength 395nm, wavelength 395nm. Power 120W/cm²) in a way that the ink crosslinking hardness is 3H pencil grade.
Technical limiting factors include dielectric surface energy control, for example, polypropylene films (30dyn/cm surface tension) requiring corona treatment (up to 42dyn/cm) in order to make the ink contact Angle <15°, otherwise the dot is missing 60% (test standard ISO 12647-7). DuPont’s “microporous coating technology” boosts the water absorbing capacity of ceramic tiles from 0.5% to 3%, glaze penetration depth of inkjet printer to 50 microns (traditional screen printing only 20 microns), and error in the accuracy of the pattern reduces from ±0.5mm to ±0.1mm, but the cost of coating increases by 8 yuan per square meter.
For production applications, the Durst Rho P10 range prints with high-viscosity nano-ink (25cP viscosity) onto glass (5mm thickness) at a gradient of 1600dpi (transition level 256), but are first required to be preheated to 45°C in order not to suffer from ink diffusion (cooling rate 5°C per minute). The capital invested in buying such machinery is up to 2 million yuan, but production efficiency is 400% higher than hand-painting (1000 pieces of glass per day as opposed to 200). Market statistics show that in 2022, world volume of decorative materials inkjet printing was 6.7 billion US dollars (12% per annum increase), 75% of it being used to treat surfaces on custom furniture and building materials.
When it comes to being eco-friendly, the inkjet printer utilizes a 95% utilization of dye on recycled polyester (rPET) (compared to 60% in traditional dyeing), and the waterless process reduces the amount of water utilized per ton of fabric manufactured by 30 tons (the total annual water-saving potential of the global textile industry is 45 billion tons). But for this purpose, it needs to be considered that the non-uniform ink uptake of unpretreated natural fibers like flax will cause 30% color difference (ΔE>5), for which some more investment in plasma treatment equipment (0.8 yuan per meter cost) is needed. At the 2024 Munich Building Materials Exhibition, EFI Reggiani debuted the “Zero coating inkjet solution”, applying ultra-low surface tension ink (18dyn/cm) to print on aluminum plastic panels directly, saving 25% of energy (without drying), but with the first printing speed of only 2 square meters/hour, 1/6 of the conventional process.