ECO-SMART SOLUTIONS FOR HIGH-PERFORMANCE DEMANDS
HYBRID INKS
Washing-off of un-fixed, mostly hydrolysed, reactive dyes in dyeing and printing is the most water consuming process of coloration and most intensive step in fossil fuel energy consumption and CO2 emissions in the production textile chain. With the reactive dye process of Digital printing with POLYZIL’s hybrid inks, no washing-off is necessary, saving about 90% water and an estimated 60% in energy.
POLYZIL’s hybrid inks, can be applied as a reactive ink, the pigments being fixed with steam by by a reactive binder, which is included in the formula, or as a pigment ink, fixed as a pigment with the addition of a cross-linking resin at the end. The pigments are nano-pigments, of a size below 200nm, acting just like a dye with diffusion occurring into the fibres due to its very small size.
The formulation of the ink includes a binder, POLYFIX, a reactive binder specially developed for giving extra binding force to pigments on cellulosic fibres so as to make the washing-off in reactive printing unnecessary, and improve the wet rub fastness.
ABOUT US
POLYZIL, is a University spin-off company founded in 2008 with the name Ecoticket, with the mentorship of Jaime Gomes who later became CEO (2012-2017).
The main products started off by being dyeing with hybrid pigments, based on the technology NANOCOR, a state financed project, where Ecoticket collaborated in the project with the University as the main partner, and an industrial dyehouse as a partner. The technology was awarded a national innovation prize and the sustainability prize in 2011. Later Ecoticket developed functional nanoparticles, namely insect repellent and antimicrobial reactive nanoparticle formulations for textiles and other surfaces. More recently in 2017-2020, Ecoticket developed water soluble polymers, and changed its name to POLYZIL in 2023, accordingly. These polymers are applied as functional polymers, antimicrobial and anti-insect, and as binders for digital inks with nano-pigments.