Roller Printing:
Roller printing is a printing method where printing design is produced by engraved rollers. It turns out color-designed fabrics in vast quantities at the rate of 1000 to 4000 yards an hour. This method of producing attractive designs is relatively inexpensive when compared with any hand method. It is a machine counterpart of block printing. In this printing, engraved copper cylinders or rollers take the place of the hand-carved blocks. Just as there must be a separate block for each color in block printing, so must there be as many engraved rollers in the machine as there are colors in the design to be imprinted. With each revolution of the roller, a repeat of the design is printed. A flowchart of the roller printing process is given here.
Process Flowchart for Roller Printing Process
Engraving design pattern on the copper roller
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Alignment of the rollers
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Engraved rollers come in contact with the companion roller which has been submerged in the dye paste
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Doctor blade scrapes the excess dye from the surface of the roller
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Fabric passes between the engraved rollers and smooth cylinder rollers
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The dye from the shallow areas is pressed on the fabric
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Back grey absorbs the excess print paste
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The printed cloth is immediately passed into a drying chamber
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The printed cloth is passed into a steam chamber
Roller printing also referred to as intaglio or machine printing. The technique dates from the end of the 18th century (Scotland: James Bell) and has resulted in the disappearance of hand printing, which is a time-consuming printing technique. The technique of roller printing is especially used for very large batches but faces great competition from rotary screen printing.
The oldest mechanized method for continuous printing represents only about 16% of print production today and is declining. Roller printing is capable of producing very sharp outlines to the printed pattern which is especially important for small figures. The maximum design repeat is the circumference of the engraved roller.
Author of this Article: Md. Abu Sayed Founder of Textile Apex Pabna Textile engineering college, Pabna, Bangladesh Email: sayed1952@facebook.com Cell : +8801745214773