Innovative yarns | Ecofast™ inks

Ecofast™ is the latest advancement in digital printing technologies; using high-definition Durst Pigment Inks to print ‘multi-colour’ performance fabrics suitable for indoor and outdoor use.

The water and energy consumption of Ecofast™ benefits the environment on a local and global scale. While digital reactive printing uses 30 - 40 litres less water per metre than conventional printing, digital pigment printing uses 70 - 80 litres less water per metre than conventional printing.

As well as being much better for the environment by using far less water and energy than is used with conventional printing, Ecofast™ uses pigment ink. The chemistry behind pigment inks allows beautiful colour to be combined with excellent light fastness results.

Pigment inks are sprayed onto the surface of the cloth and effectively baked on. This creates a mechanical barrier as opposed to reactive inks, which are soaked into the cloth but fade much more quickly when exposed to UV rays.

James Dunlop’s Toile de Jouy and Sakura draperies are digitally printed with Ecofast™ pigment inks onto a soft, pure linen base cloth while Komodo Dragon is printed onto a cotton blend base cloth.

Using pigment ink allows vibrant colours to be used confidently, which is an incredible advantage given the extreme and unavoidable levels of damaging UV in Australasia. These designs achieve exceptional results of 6 - 7 out of 8 during blue scale testing for lightfastness.

Learn more about the blue scale test and light fastness in our previous article about colour fastness.