Method for Dyeing or Printing Textile Materials

Abstract

A method for dyeing or printing a textile fiber material is disclosed, which comprises the steps of providing a digital data processing device organizing reflectance curve data which are associated with the corresponding dye recipes, wherein the reflectance curve data are generated by (a) drawing up a requirement profile for the desired dyeing, (b) selecting a group of dyes that meet the requirement profile that has been drawn up, (c) determining within the colour space the colour position of the said dyes for the desired dyeing, (d) segmenting the colour space of the dyes within a depth of shade plane into triangular areas (e) dividing the triangular areas within a depth of shade arithmetically into a grid.

1 . A method for dyeing or printing a textile fiber material, which comprises the steps of 
 (i) providing a printing or dyeing apparatus capable of processing digital data;    (ii) providing a digital data processing device organizing reflectance curve data which are associated with the corresponding dye recipes, wherein the reflectance curve data are generated by 
 (a) drawing up a requirement profile for the desired dyeing,  
 (b) selecting a group of dyes that meet the requirement profile that has been drawn up,  
 (c) determining within the colour space the colour position of the said dyes for the desired dyeing,  
 (d) segmenting the colour space of the dyes within a depth of shade plane into triangular areas according to shade, wherein the corner points of the triangular areas correspond to the colour position of the dyes in question, and the said dyes define a range of shades delimited by the triangular areas,  
 (e) dividing the triangular areas within a depth of shade plane arithmetically into a grid in such a manner that the points of intersection of the grid are distributed evenly over the triangular areas, where the points of intersection of the grid correspond to a colour position and a reflectance curve calculated on the basis of a dye recipe is associated with each of those colour positions;  
   (iii) providing a device enabling the colour corresponding to the reflectance curve data to be rendered visible; wherein    the colour of the desired dyeing is defined by browsing the reflectance curve data organized by the digital data processing device (ii) using device (iii), communicating the data corresponding to the colour defined from the digital data processing device (ii) to the printing or dyeing apparatus (i), in which the communicated data are used to control the printing or dyeing apparatus (i), thereby dyeing or printing a textile fiber material in the defined colour.    
     
     
         2 . A method according to  claim 1 , wherein the printing or dyeing apparatus capable of processing digital data is a jet- or spray-dyeing apparatus or an ink-jet printing apparatus.  
     
     
         3 . A method according to  claim 1 , wherein printing or dyeing is carried out by unwinding a web from a support and passing it through a dyeing or printing unit, wherein the textile fiber is impregnated with at least one aqueous dyeing composition containing the selected dyestuff, before it is rewinded onto another support.  
     
     
         4 . A method according to  claim 3 , wherein the dyed or printed web is subjected to a drying or fixing operation in a drying and fixing unit after having passed the dyeing or printing unit and before being rewinded.  
     
     
         5 . A method according to  claim 3 , wherein the dyeing or printing unit comprises at least one dispensing device, which allows the web to be uniformly impregnated with an aqueous dyeing composition over its entire width.  
     
     
         6 . A method according to  claim 1 , wherein the printing or dyeing apparatus according to  claim 1  comprises a reservoir for each of the dyes selected for segmentation of the color space from the group of dyes that meet the requirement profile according to step (b) of  claim 1 .  
     
     
         7 . A method according to  claim 1 , wherein mixing of the dyes is accomplished by means of an automatic dosing system, which receives the required commands from the digital data processing device according to  claim 1  and, in accordance with the commands received, doses or injects the liquid compositions of the selected dyes into a mixing chamber.  
     
     
         8 . A method according to  claim 1 , wherein the digital data processing device is a personal computer.  
     
     
         9 . A method according to  claim 1 , wherein FTa*b* colour space is used as colour space.