Textile printing is currently performed with two methods different from each other in terms of their principles, i. e. : - textile is printed as continuous printing and subsequently cut in a cutting room for sections of a garment, or - cut pieces or previously seamed/sewn articles are printed as an individual print (silk print).

Continuous printing is applicable to small-pattern designs and long series, as well as to articles that require little registration in a laying and cutting stage. As a rule, printing is effected on outspread material although, in some cases, printing is performed on a fabric in tubular form. If articles are provided with stripes or large patterns to be registered, it will be necessary to spread the lays manually as single-piece length lays, which slows down the unfolding operation and cutting of a material. In such series, the consumption of a raw material is also generally quite high.

Particularly with cotton-based raw materials, the printing inks comprise either reactive or pigment inks or dyes. Pigment dyes are suitable for printing small- patterned designs, but the abrasion resistance qualities thereof are not even close to those of reactive dyes or colours. In addition, dark colours are harsh regarding the feel thereof. When properly steamed and printing washed, reactive dyes provide good authenticity and

durability properties. Steaming can be effected e. g. at 102°C for a period of about 8-10 minutes or at 135°C for a period of about 3 minutes. Thus, reactive dyes require , a steaming device, in addition to which unreacted dyes must be washed away, the sodium algenate being first dissolved in cold water, which is still followed by a boiling wash. The printing wash is followed by drying the printed fabric to an unrelaxed state as well as by finishing with appropriate agents.

On the other hand, in serigraphic single-piece printing, a cut piece or a previously seamed article is printed with a single design. The type of dyes used do not require printing wash, whereby pigment dyes are used e. g. for cotton articles. Today's printing presses use typically traditional silk screen printing techniques, the printing machines comprising e. g. carousels (a circular track) or oval tracks. At present, there is also a printing track in use, having a configuration which is angular as desired. The pallets used today are either fixed (carousel or oval printing tracks) or separable from the conveyor line. A common feature for all these pallets is that they are only carried along a printing machine's own track, along whose path are print heads, heat treating zones for dyes, various dryers and cooling units. On the other hand, the way that current pallets are used at present is such that just one cut piece or seamed article is printed at a time.

Consequently, current removable pallets are taken off line solely for the attachment and removal of a single piece to be printed.

By virtue of screen printing technique, in particular, articles sewn or seamed in low-wage countries can be made different for providing the articles with designs desired by customers. Series can be small and deliveries go fast as long as the standard products to be printed are available in stock. Silk printing is applicable in

cotton articles for small additional patterns, involving small amounts of dyes. In the printing of synthetic materials, silk printing is very popular, especially in the production of small series or in making conspicuous large designs for previously cut pieces. This technology is used, for example, for printing sportswear with highly multi-coloured and large"fantasy designs". Such large-size designs, which require plenty of colour, cannot be printed on cotton as pigment dyes make the article rather hard and, if printing is effected with reactive dyes, the printed pieces must be. subjected to steaming (generally at about 102°C) and print washing, the machinery adaptable for this having been unavailable thus far.

Regarding the above topic, e. g. the international patent application WO 01/49504 discloses a print technical hardware solution, which is particularly intended for the digital printing of textiles on the ink jet principle. It is exactly the above type of off-line pallets which have been exploited in this solution and to which a textile is fastened. In this case, each pallet is adapted to travel during the course of printing through the action of a separate conveyor system included in the printing machine.

Of course, even the above-mentioned solution does not provide any sort of remedy for problematics regarding the printing of especially knitted or woven cotton fabrics, particularly when it is desirable to apply reactive dye printing most preferred for the above- mentioned materials.

It is an object in a method of the present invention to provide a decisive improvement regarding the above problems and hence to raise essentially the existing state of the art. In order to fullfil this object, the inventive method is principally characterized in that

the textile is transferred, while fastened to the pallet, from the printing machine to its further processing, such as a primary drying machine, a steaming device, a washing machine, a secondary drying machine, a release device and/or the like process device.

The most important benefits gained by a method of the invention should be mentioned the simplicity, operating reliability and versatility of the method itself and basic equipment applicable thereto, particularly in view of currently available equipment and textile articles.

More detailed benefits offered by a method of the invention will be described hereinafter.

First of all, the method enables the production of articles with printing patterns not available in the market at present. The printing design can be adjusted for articles to be sewn or seamed, such that the article becomes a complete entity. A textile article can be turned into a sort of work of art, which in its part contributes to the building of a brand. Hence, e. g. patterns, topics and boards in all types and sizes can be placed on a'finished garment at desired locations.

Thus, the method offers a possibility of designing an original line, which provides freedom also in price setting for a higher profit margin. In addition, the size of a design can be proportioned to the size of an article (e. g. 34-46), by virtue of which the finished product will always be as balanced as possible.

On the other hand, in the process of cutting articles with e. g. lateral or longitudinal stripes and large designs, the cutting waste at present may be as much as 40%-50% of the used material. When cutting e. g. a single-colour material in the form of a large batch, the inventive method enables the minimization of cutting waste to be characteristic of a type of pattern and size distribution, the marker layout waste with large

articles being about 20%-25%. All in all, by virtue of the invention, the material saving is most preferably always 20%-40%. The material saving results e. g. from following factors: - marker making can be done without paying attention to the registration of stripes. or designs on an article, - marker making can be done without paying attention to the direction of cut pieces, - lay planning is done for an entire order without having to pay attention to colour distribution, which in turn reduces the number of required lays. A reduction in the number of lays serves to reduce the total amount of marker and end waste, - lays can be done by using several sizes for further reducing marker waste, - amounts of end waste in rolls are also reduced as the marker spreading is done on a single material instead of several coloured printing designs.

The invention enables a reduction not only in waste of material but also in the amount of work regarding lay planning, spreading operation and cutting work.

Performed in long series, the spreading and cutting time for large pieces is about 1,5 minutes/article. In the process of spreading and cutting striped articles, involving manual spreading work, the corresponding work time is about 6 minutes/article. Thus, time saved by virtue of the invention in this respect is about 4,5 minutes/article. In fairness, this advantage is somewhat diminished by increased labour demand for laying out cut' pieces on top of pallets.

The invention enables also the standardization of a material stock for printable, pretreated, but still uncut fabric, the stock only containing few types of printing material. Printing materials can be purchased from'a low-cost country and have them pretreated by.

subcontractors or they can be self-manufactured, which of course requires a traditional dyeing and finishing line with proper machinery.

The risk of obsolescent printed material is also eliminated as printing can only be performed against orders ; the value of knitwear stocks in a textile factory at present can be as much as 30% of the entire value of fixed assets. Accordingly, the reduced need for capital as well as the reduced risk of obsolescence provide a major boost to the competitiveness of a company. On the other hand, a small supply of cut pieces can be maintained also between a cutting room and a printing press in order to avoid waiting time for the printing press. Unprinted material involves a low risk of obsolescence as the same cut pieces can be printed with a variety of printing patterns, as long as the line is properly designed. These lead to longer series in a sewing room, since an end product only differs from others on the basis of a printing pattern. In this context, there are no actual stocks between a printing press and a sewing room, as printed pieces are immediately conveyed to an assembly room. A small buffer is used to level out a natural fluctuation in printing process. Thus, the amount of unfinished production is small, conveniently worth about one day production rate.

Defective, still unprinted pieces can be discarded and replaced with faultless pieces as early as in the process of laying the same on a pallet for significant savings in terms of dyeing, washing and finishing costs.

Accordingly, the inventive method enables a 100% inspection without extra costs.

In current flat printing, the homogeneous drying of a- material as a post-printing process constitutes a problem, which has led to the development of e. g. movable sets of rolls for storing material between a

printing machine and a dryer. In a printing press used for printing continuous material, wherein a printing machine is immediately followed by a dryer, stopping the printing machine in the middle of a printing process is a problem as the halted material is easily scorched by the dryer. In the inventive method, pallets are advancing independently at a constant speed and such quality problems cannot arise. Thus, particularly each of the printing machine and the dryer is preferably provided with its own separate conveyor.

As a result of eliminating small correction batches, the manufacturing productivity is also improved by assembling, in a sewing room, articles different in terms of printing patterns, yet similar in terms of designs. Articles are diversified by means of printing patterns, whereby the same basic designs are printed with different customer-specific patterns. Although the line or set of patterns covers a wide range, the products passing through a sewing room are similar in terms of working process. This enables the maintenance of high productivity and the development of automation.

On the other hand, a continuous production line enables a throughput from cutting to stock of finished articles.

In traditional continuous printing, the printed fabric must be thoroughly dried in order not to blur the printing ink or dye prior to a steaming process, whereas in a method of the invention, the printed fabric must be dried only to such a residual moisture which is favourable in a steaming process. Thus, unlike the traditional method, there is no need for cooling the temperature of a fabric and a liquid contained therein, which also contributes to saving energy. The washing unit can still use squeezing or pressing to effect dewatering while the printed pieces are e. g. pasted to a pallet. Consequently, water is removed e. g. by pressing with several rolls, since pressing prior to

actual air drying is a more attractive means of dewatering than centrifuging in terms of energy economy.

Preferred embodiments of the inventive method are set forth in dependent claims directed thereto.

The invention will be described in detail in the following specification while reference is made to the accompanying drawing, in which figs. la and lb show optional printing layouts composed by a method of the invention, and fig. lc shows one process configuration made feasible by a method of the invention.

The invention relates to a method for treatment of textile, wherein a textile T is attached to an off-line pallet P, at least for printing the same in a printing machine 1. The textile T is transferred, while fastened to the pallet P, from the printing machine 1 to its further processing, such as a primary drying machine 2, a steaming device 3, a washing machine 4, a secondary drying machine 5, a release device 6 and/or the like process device.

In a preferred embodiment of the inventive method, the pallet P and the textile T fastened thereto are transferred from the printing machine 1 to further textile processing through the action of a centrally controlled and/or automated conveyor system. Thus, the pallet-fixed textile is advanced in one or more sequential operations of its treatment process by means of process-machine specific conveyors la, 2a, 3a, 4a, 5a and/or 6a.

The textile T is attached to the pallet P by means of a fixing system capable of withstanding all process operations applied thereto, such as printing 1, primary drying 2, steaming 3, washing 4 and secondary drying 5, particularly for enabling printing with reactive dyes.

In a particularly preferred embodiment, the textile T is fixed to the pallet P with a chemical bonding system, such as a thermally activated adhesive, a self-adhesive glue, material and/or the like.

In a further preferred embodiment of the inventive method, a printing layout PA is planned for the pallet P in a preparatory stage, which comprises a single cut textile piece (fig. lb) or all textile pieces to be printed for one or more articles (fig. la) and which is printed or applied by means of a suitable bonding agent or material in the designed area of the pallet P consistent with the printing layout PA. In this context, especially in the process of printing large printing patterns relating to a complete cut textile product, the printing layouts PA and/or printing stencils are made according to size, keeping particularly in mind that the printed designs be capable of extending in a finished product from one textile piece to another and/or that the sizes of the designs can be matched to the sizes of the textile articles.

In yet another preferred embodiment of the method, printing 1 of the textile T applied to the pallet P, such as one or more textile pieces mounted thereon, is effected with a single-piece or continuous printing machine by means of printing stencils, with an ink-jet machine or in the like per se known manner. In this context, ink-jet printing naturally does not require the preparation of a printing stencil but, instead, the pallet is registered in a proper alignment with the printing machines 1 conveyor for depositing various colours exactly as desired.

On the other hand, a release 6 of the printed textile pieces can be effected e. g. by means of an infrared heater, the surface temperature produced thereby being precisely adjustable, e. g. according to the applied heat-activated adhesive.

As shown e. g. in fig. Ic, the pallets P progress through the printing machine 1, the primary dryer 2, the steamer 3, the washing unit 4 and the secondary dryer 5.

Downstream of the release station 6, the pallets P are returned either to the laying site of cut pieces or, if necessary, to the removal of heat-activated adhesive and then again to the pressing/application of heat-activated adhesive. The released cut pieces are conveyed to a sewing room and, thus, there is no need to have e. g. a stock of raw material between the printing press and the sewing room. Hence, production throughput time is short.

It is obvious that the invention is not limited to the embodiments illustrated or described above, but it can be varied within the scope of the fundamental inventive concept according to any given printing requirements.

First of all, it is clear that the pallet employed in carrying out the method can be manufactured from most diversified materials, in which case the pallets, constructed for example from a rubber material and/or appropriately coated with suitable self-adhesive bonding materials, must be capable of withstanding all treatment operations of each process, i. e. in practice, temperatures of about 130-150°C. Of course, the pallets enable the exploitation of so-called vacuum or suction arrangements, which do require, however, the use of extra equipment unfavourably different from chemical bonding systems as described above.

The method can be implemented e. g. with a pallet, having a width equal to that of the conveyor belt of a major printing machine (e. g. 200 cm) and. such a length that

all pieces to be printed even for several articles fit in a single large pallet. In addition, the adhesive layout to be pressed or otherwise applied onto the pallet can be made by using a dyed thermally activated adhesive, which facilitates the placement of cut pieces in their proper locations. On the other hand, the size of a pallet can be used for regulating the number of pieces and articles to be printed at a time, the printing screens (stencils) being designed according to the marker layout and domains of colour. Each garment size can be provided with its own pallets and printing screen or a single pallet is used for designing an appropriate size distribution. layout (especially small pieces).