Discharge Printing Process

What Is Discharge Printing?

In most cases, fabric is dyed with solid colors before printing begins. So when that happens it makes printing a lot more difficult and those looking to print need to turn to discharge printing. Discharge, when it comes to printing, means the removal and discharging system can produce a white or colored effect on a previously dyed material. Discharge printing is a style of printing that can accomplish this task. Discharge printing can also extract printing.

Ultimately, discharge is a printing process that will result in removing the original dye from the dyed fabric on which the design is printed. With this process, a new color is fixed on the same exact spot where the previous color got removed. This results in a double action of removing, or discharging, one color and fixing it with another at the same time during one single process.

The designs for discharge printing are prepared and printed on colored backgrounds mostly in medium and dark colors. When there is a medium or light color in the background, you can use additional darker colors along with discharge. The production costs are high with discharge printing, so it is not a very common printing process.

The Discharge Printing Process

With the use of the discharge printing process, the color is destroyed by one or multiple colors. This process is usually done on cotton, since synthetics and blends are not suitable for this printing process. The dyes for the printing must be suitable for discharging, too, and a proper recipe needs to be prepared. This discharging of color from previously dyed ground is carried out by a discharging agent. This discharging agent is actually an oxidizing and reducing agent that is capable of destroying color by oxidation and reduction.

Before the discharge printing process, the background color of the print is applied to the fabric first. The application of the background color can be applied by exhaust batch dyeing or by the continuous dyeing processes. Then there is the use of a print paste, which contains a reducing agent. This paste is applied to the local areas of the fabric to help with the design and ensuring it is done correctly. The paste is very important to the printing style, since the background color is produced from dyestuffs that can all be discharged and by discharged we mean destroyed by a chemical reduction in order for the pattern to be displayed after the printing of the discharge paste.

The chemical reaction during this printing process leaves a white image on the colored background. The end result are deep, rich background shades. In the end, it is possible to create an "illuminated discharge" by incorporating a dye into the discharging paste. The dye or pigment in the paste needs to be resistant to the discharge chemical that is present. This is so the dye remains on the fabric when the illuminated discharge paste is printed. Illuminated discharge paste destroys the background color of the print, however the "illuminating" color will remain. And ta da! Discharge printing on denim!

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