Rheology of gel-like materials in textile printing

Printing of fabrics made of cellulose fibres involves printing pastes mainly containing the dyer and thickeners which are generally polysaccharides. The process is a sequence of several operations in order to obtain the penetration and the fixation of the dyer molecule in the fibre. Firstly, the paste is deposited on the fabric and dried. Then, there is a gelation phase by means of a cross-linking agent. This paper presents experimental results obtained with thickeners used in textile industry. The rheological properties of the thickeners and of the gels are characterised by oscillatory measurements. The influence of the pH and of the presence of salt is discussed.