Glossary → Acid dye printing

Acid dye printing.

the dye class for nylon, silk and wool, printed as a paste then steamed and washed

The dye class that colours protein fibres and nylon, used by immersion or printed as a paste and then steamed to fix and washed to strip whatever did not take. Jacquard's own product page gives the working list, silk, wool, feathers, other protein fibres and nylons, and makes the point that trips people on the name: the acid is the vinegar or citric acid added to the bath, not the dye. It sits beside two entries here that cover the other fibre families, and they do not substitute for each other. Reactive dye printing bonds covalently to cotton, disperse dye needs a hydrophobic synthetic and travels as a gas, and acid dye works where the fibre offers sites it can hold. Nylon turns up on more than one of those lists, which is where jobs go wrong, so settle the fastness the customer expects before the dye class is picked. The steamer and the wash-off line are the real cost: a shop quoting acid printing without them is quoting someone else's plant, and the unsteamed sample that looked right comes back pale from the first wash.

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