A fabric has enhanced response characteristics for laser finishing. The fabric can be denim for denim apparel such as jeans. Software and lasers are used to finish apparel made of the fabric to produce a desired wear or distressing pattern or other design. The fabric allows for relatively fast color change in response to the laser, color changes in hue from indigo blue to white, many grayscale levels, and maintains strength and stretch properties. A method used to make the fabric includes spinning, dyeing, and weaving yarns in such a way to obtain the desired enhanced response characteristics for laser finishing.

The present invention relates to a method of dyeing a textile, yarn or strand, in particular for use in footwear or apparel. The method may comprise the steps of: a) exposing at least a part of the textile, yarn or strand to a plasma field and a laser beam; and b) dyeing the textile, yarn or strand by digital dyeing, c) wherein the plasma field and the laser beam are at least partly overlapping to pre-treat the textile, yarn or strand prior to dyeing, and d) wherein the method is performed inside at least one of chamber(s). The present invention also relates to a textile, yarn or strand dyed according to the method of dyeing as well as to a system adapted for dyeing a textile, yarn or strand.

A tool allows a user to create new designs for apparel and preview these designs in three dimensions before manufacture. Software and lasers are used in finishing apparel to produce a desired wear pattern or other design. Based on a laser input file with a pattern, a laser will burn the pattern onto apparel. With the tool, the user will be able to create, make changes, and view images of a design, in real time, before burning by a laser. Input to the tool includes fabric template images, laser input files, and damage input. The tool allows adding of tinting and adjusting of intensity and bright point. The user can also move, rotate, scale, and warp the image input.

A dyeing system includes a transport device that transports a transport unit including a resin body, a transfer device that transfers a dye to the resin body in a state where a base body to which the dye is adhered faces the resin body, a laser fixing device that heats the resin body to which the dye is transferred by irradiating a surface of the resin body with laser light, an oven fixing device that heats a whole of the resin body to which the dye is transferred by the transfer device, a laser-applied transport path through which the transport unit including the resin body on which the dye is to be fixed by the laser fixing device is transported, and an oven-applied transport path through which the transport unit including the resin body on which the dye is to be fixed by the oven fixing device is transported.

The present invention provides a post-fabrication modification approach for the fabrication of colored and chromic materials and sensors using plasma surface modification to covalently bind the coloring agent to the substrate, thus avoiding leaching of the dye. Advantageously, in said methods, said coloring agent is a dye or pigment linked to a radical sensitive functional group, such as an alkenyl or alkynyl functional group, and is applied to the substrate prior to the gas plasma treatment. The methods envisaged herein are generic in nature, which allow the covalent immobilization of various dyes on different materials. The covalently coated materials after plasma surface modification, particularly the covalently coated chromic materials and sensors, can be used in many different applications, such as protective textile and wound dressing applications.

The present invention provides a post-fabrication modification approach for the fabrication of colored and chromic materials and sensors using plasma surface modification to covalently bind the coloring agent to the substrate, thus avoiding leaching of the dye. Advantageously, in said methods, said coloring agent is a dye or pigment linked to a radical sensitive functional group, such as an alkenyl or alkynyl functional group, and is applied to the substrate prior to the gas plasma treatment. The methods envisaged herein are generic in nature, which allow the covalent immobilization of various dyes on different materials. The covalently coated materials after plasma surface modification, particularly the covalently coated chromic materials and sensors, can be used in many different applications, such as protective textile and wound dressing applications.

A garment printing apparatus for improving color fastness and color shadings comprises a production line, a loading station, an unloading station, a plural number of intermediate stations, and a pallet. The loading station and the unloading station are respectively disposed on the production line, and the plural number of intermediate stations are disposed therebetween. The plural number of intermediate stations include a pretreatment station for applying a primer coating on a garment, a pattern printing station for making a pixelated pattern print on the garment, and a at least one plasma treatment station. The at least one plasma treatment station is disposed after the loading station and before the pattern printing station for imposing a plasma efficacy on the garment surface before printing a desired pattern on it. The pallet is mobile on the production line for conveying the garment. A garment printing method is provided accordingly.

A textile printing system includes a fabric substrate, an inkjet printhead in fluid communication with a reservoir containing a UV-curable ink composition to eject a UV-curable ink composition, and a UV-curing energy source positioned to cure the UV-curable ink composition upon being ejected onto the fabric substrate. The UV-curable ink composition includes from 50 wt % to 95 wt % water, from 4 wt % to 49 wt % organic co-solvent, from 0.5 wt % to 12 wt % pigment, wherein the pigment has a dispersant associated with a surface thereof, and from 0.5 wt % to 20 wt % of a polyurethane particles. The polyurethane particles include a polyurethane strand including a polyurethane backbone with a pendant reactive (meth)acrylate-containing diol group and terminal end cap groups, and the terminal end cap groups are independently selected from a monoalcohol, a monoamine, an acrylate, a methacrylate, or a combination thereof, for example.

Novel inkjet ink compositions for forming an image in a form of an elastic film attached to a surface of a stretchable and/or flexible substrate and processes utilizing same for inkjet printing color images on various substrates such as colored and absorptive or impregnable stretchable materials, which are characterized by heightened efficiency in process time, ink and energy consumption, as well as products having durable, wash-fast and abrasion-fast images printed thereon by the process, are disclosed. The novel ink compositions comprise a first part, which contains a property-adjusting agent and a carrier, and a second part which contains an emulsified property-sensitive proto-elastomeric film-forming agent, a colorant and a carrier, such that the second part congeals upon contact with the property-adjusting agent. The second part is digitally applied to the substrate less than 1 second following the application of the first part to the substrate.

The invention relates to a process for manufacturing a multilayer knitted textile by heating a multi-layer knitted textile in the presence of one or more dye compounds, wherein the multilayer knitted textile comprises a fabric outer layer and a fabric inner layer, wherein the fabric outer layer is knit from a first yarn containing a combination of modacrylic fibers and cotton fibers, wherein the fabric inner layer is knit from a second yarn made from 50-90% HBA/HNA filaments, wherein the heating shrinks the outer layer from about 5 to 25% in length, width, or both.