| Abstract: | With the release of the Aridye system, 46 years ago, the Interchemical Corporation laid the foundations of modern pigment printing with a process characterised by the use of emulsion thickenings and film-forming copolymer dispersions. It is a long way from these beginnings to the high technical standard that pigment printing has reached today. Following a definition of pigment printing, its historical development is traced, the advantages and disadvantages of pigment printing are compared and reference is made to the most important ranges on the market. Four sections describing the product groups used in pigment printing, namely: pigments, binders, thickening agents and pigment printing auxiliaries follow. These deal both with the physico-chemical principles and with the selection criteria for their practical application. The section on thickening agents includes a comparison of emulsion thickenings and fully synthetic thickeners. Consideration of the substrates that are suitable for pigment printing, the different printing procedures and the requirements with regard to pretreatment and finishing complete the review. |
