Defining Digital Apparel Printers

Running Maintenance on Your Heat Press

The kind folks at Geo Knight & Co have been providing their top-notch heat presses to AnaJet for quite a while. We use only Geo Knight presses at our trade shows all over the country and in our classrooms at Costa Mesa.

We asked them recently if they had any best practices or troubleshooting advice. Aaron Knight, Vice President, submitted the following step-by-step guide to maintenance.

The most popular sellers over recent years have been the DK16 and the DK20. We recommend the DK16 with auto-lifter for the SPRINT, and the DK20 with auto-lift for the mPower due to the larger platen size. In fact, if you are running an mPower we recommend no fewer than two presses to keep up with production speed. The need may not be apparent, if you’re just starting a DTG business line, but the day you get your first order for 500 pieces, it will become very clear.

The maintenance document is available in PDF: DK Clamshell Linkage Maintenance

Digital Knight DK16 & DK20 Clamshell Linkage Maintenance

The Digital Knight Clamshell presses are designed for easy maintenance and parts replacement. If the frame loosens or wears over time, it is NOT necessary to dispose of the machine as with other limited life-span machines on the market. A little care & maintenance as described in this document will insure that the press can be kept in “like new” operation indefinitely.

Step 1: WHEN TO DO MAINTENANCE

A key indicator that maintenance needs to be done on the press is if the heat platen is disconnecting and dropping from the frame. The pressure knob runs out of threads because the operator must turn the knob more and more to get the pressure they need. Another indicator of maintenance is if the auto-release hover bracket disconnects from the upper blue handle. This also means the frame is overly loose.

Step 2: INSPECT HOLES
There are 8 black Allen-head shoulder bearing bolts that hold all the blue pieces together. The blue handle, blue side links, and blue arm are all held together by these 8 Allen shoulder bolts. Remove one bolt at a time from the 4 front bolts, and inspect the holes in the handle arm. These holes must be circular. If the bronze bushings in the holes are worn or broken, a new hardware kit is needed (RPK-DKFRMHRD). If the holes are ovaled out, elongated and no longer circular, a new handle/arm/linkage kit is needed (RPK-DK16LINK or RPK-DK20LINK) Purchase these at www.heatpress.com/support.php.

Step 3: TIGHTEN LINKAGE

 If the pivot points & holes that the bolts connect through are in good condition, tighten all 8 allen bolts very tight, and then back them off ½-turn loose. This will insure that the linkage can pivot and move freely. IT IS IMPORTANT TO NOTE that the nuts should be removed one at a time, and Red Loctite Threadlocker (available at any hardware store) should be applied to the nuts. Then tighten the nuts back onto the allen bolts. This will keep the hardware from loosening up after only a short period of time.

Step 4: MOVE PRESSURE KNOB DOWN (Optional)

More pressure knob threads can be moved down to the bottom to give more adjustability and more threads into the heat platen for heavier pressure. Under the black pressure adjustment knob, there are two locknuts around a black square block. Raise the top lock nut as far as needed, and then raise the bottom locknut back up against the black square block.

IHS Printing Demonstrates the mPower

Jason Bryan of IHS Printing takes a moment to speak about his AnaJet mPower mP10 Digital Apparel Printer.  Two years ago Jason brought the idea to add direct-to-garment printing to IHS, at a time when the business was only screen printing. Two years and FOUR AnaJet printers later, IHS is running at $1 million plus in revenues and doing more direct to garment business than screen printing. In this interview, he gives some insight into ink costs (70% less than that of competitors), cost effectiveness, production rates and his overall experience with AnaJet.

View the video here.
Are you a screen printer looking to capture short run business profitably. After you catch the video be sure to visit our main site and request info!

Visit IHS Printing’s Facebook site

Holly Peterson “found true calling” with AnaJet SPRINT

Holly Peterson had been doodling since she was a child, but chose a career in engineering. She has proudly contributed to the education of environmental engineering graduates for the past 22 years. But in the summer of 2011, Holly’s cousin suggested that Holly expand on her doodles.

 Holly rescued a quirky dog named Birke in 2007, who became the subject of her drawings. Holly would design a graphic of Birke, pay an arm and a leg to have it printed on Zazzle.com, and then share it for a laugh with her family and friends. At her cousin’s encouragement, Holly launched a simple website advertising these Birke shirts: https://birke-beinerdesigns.mycafecommerce.com/

After receiving many orders from her website, Holly decided to invest in her own printer and purchased an AnaJet SPRINT in December 2011 with the help of her Regional Manager, Shawn Stender.

Holly says she immediately started practicing and having a blast printing her Birke designs. In mid-January 2012, Holly says she had an “epiphany.” As she started to feel more comfortable with her printer, her imagination took off and she started to combine her Birke artwork and custom printing together into a unique fashion statement.

Holly printed the above design as large as possible on the front, back, and one arm of short and long sleeved shirts. She’s experimented with white, light and dark shirts, and says the results are great! Holly writes that she has found her true calling. And it looks like Birke is happy too.

Cheers!

Tech Tip: AnaBRIGHT Ink Printing Tips

AnaBRIGHT™ Ink Printing Tips
by: AnaJet Technical Support
Revision 1.0
October 5, 2010

Introduction

This post, written by our Technical Support Department for reference by AnaJet owners, contains tips for printing on an AnaJet SPRINT printer with AnaBRIGHT inks. Topics include maintaining the environment, image quality, pretreatment, white ink use, heat curing, and garment washability. If everything in this post is applied consistently, this will result in commercially satisfactory prints and long garment life.

Maintaining the Printer’s Environment
Few factors have more impact on getting consistent high quality printing results with AnaBRIGHT™ Inks than maintaining the AnaJet printer’s environment. Keeping a setpoint of at least 50% relative humidity near the printhead can eliminate issues of poor print quality, spotting, banding, dull or muted colors, and ink coverage. AnaJet recommends all the following to maintain the printer environment:

• Once ink is introduced to the printer it should remain powered on 24 hours a day for the user-set auto printhead maintenance to run. If the printer will sit idle for more than 3 days or for storage or transportation then flush ink out with cleaning solution.
• The printer must remain level at all times, gravity plays a huge role in ink flow and print quality. Use a level tool and adjust the feet as needed. See your User Manual page 3 for more detailed instructions on the procedure.
• Print table must be adjusted to the proper height using the gauge height adjustment block.
• Keep the printer away from heat such as direct sunlight or a heat press. The heat press dries out the air around it.
• Keep the Relative Humidity at the printhead above 50%, 24 hours a day while the printer contains ink.
• Purchase a certified hygrometer to monitor humidity. Inexpensive hygrometers are available at cigar shops or the reptile department in a pet shop. These gauges have an adhesive backing and can be stuck right on the hood of the printer within a few inches of the printhead.
• Air conditioning significantly dries out the air. If the printer is in an air conditioned room a humidifier is required. Having a humidifier though does not guarantee proper humidity. For larger spaces more than one humidifier may be required. We recommend a commercial humidifier with a large reservoir that alerts you when low and will not require refilling over long weekends.
• In especially dry desert climates you can supplement the effort of humidifiers by adding a wet sponge on a dish inside the printer. Be sure to keep the sponge wet.
• Do not place the printer in a direct line with fans, air conditioning vents, exhaust ports from other equipment, or any focused air stream.

Image Quality – garbage in garbage out

• Artwork from websites use low resolution to accommodate download speeds. Thumbnails with 72 dpi are a poor choice for T-shirt graphics – once they are scaled up they become pixilated.
• The AnaJet Digital Apparel Printer prints at a resolution much higher than T-shirt fibers can support so we recommend using TIF or PNG image formats with a resolution of 200 to 300 dpi.
• All images for printing must be prepared as RGB not CMYK. The AnaJet RIP software will perform the conversion for printing.
• Many images are giant squares and don’t make good T-Shirt graphics. If you are a designer we recommend the use of transparent backgrounds to limit ink use and produce better results.
• You can make images look bigger by printing them wider across the garment; this is easily achieved by using the landscape mode of the EKPrint Studio software.
• Did you know? AnaJet Techs are artists themselves who can assist you with your print settings and give advice on artwork designed for printing.

Pretreatment
Proper pretreatment is fundamental to the use of white ink and to get good print results on dark fabrics. Too little pretreatment leaves untreated areas where ink soaks in and fades. Too much pretreat causes ink to stand on the garment rather than curing into the fibers which impacts wash longevity. So how do we get consistent and proper results? Here is a list of tips to help:

• Dilute pretreat 50/50 using Distilled Water; do not use tap water.
• Shake pretreatment well before each use.
• For adequate coverage spray pretreatment evenly from about 12 inches away from garment. Spray until the garment has a wet shiny appearance without the pretreatment running or pooling.
• Squeegee pretreated area firmly in ONLY one direction to push the pretreatment into the texture of the garment and press the fibers flat.
• Hang garments until dry to the touch.
• If the back of the garment will also be printed, after drying, repeat the pretreatment process on the back side.
• Flush pretreat sprayer with hot water after use, periodically disassemble and clean with mild soap.
• If you are having trouble determining the right amount of pretreat to use try this. Pretreat three garments – on the first use the coverage you feel is right, on the second half as much, on the third twice as much. Permanently mark each garment then print and cure using the same settings and wash all three together and observe the results.
• Pretreated garments may be stored once completely dry.

Before printing:

• Use the heat press to fully press the print area for 10 seconds to remove excess water and flatten fibers.
• Do not touch or brush the pressed area or it will risk raising fibers.
• Place hoop over garment and gently tug loose edges downward to make garment flat. Do not pull tightly because stretched fibers slowly rebound over the course of the print causing the underbase and color layers to misalign.

AnaBRIGHT™ White Ink tips
The proper amount of AnaBRIGHT™ White Ink underbase is easy to achieve along with garment longevity. The principle factors are proper pretreatment, ink volume and heat press settings. Here are some tips to printing with AnaBRIGHT™ White Ink:

• Unused AnaBRIGHT™ Inks have a limited lifespan. It is not recommended to use inks beyond their lifespan.
• AnaBRIGHT™ White Inks have a 6 month lifespan. These cartridges are marked with a manufacturing date. To calculate white ink expiration dates add 6 months to the manufacturing date.
• AnaBRIGHT™ CMYK Inks have a 1 year lifespan. These cartridges are marked with an expiration date.
• Print on 100% natural fibers such as cotton, bamboo, and hemp.
• Do a nozzle check before starting a run of prints. If the check is poor, perform a printhead clean and recheck. Repeat a second time if needed.
• Shake AnaBRIGHT™ White Ink cartridges prior to a fresh job run or several times a week whichever comes first.
• If you have not used the white ink for a day or so, before starting a job run print a 4×4 square of white on a waste garment to get the white inks moving.
• Do not flood a garment with ink; use just enough to get a nice white.
• Reconsider any software settings where previously heavy ink saturation was used to overcome improper garment preparation or inadequate pretreatment methods which are covered in this document.
• Excessive ink levels on the white underbase which cause pooling of the ink must have sufficient time to dry before laying down color ink. If the color layer is printed on wet, puddle white ink then both layers will swirl together. On the next print adjust these white levels down so that the underbase is ready to be printed on immediately.
• AnaJet PolyBright™ CMYK Inks can be used on light colored manmade fibers such as polyester, nylon, and rayon. However, there are no AnaJet PolyBright™ white ink options so printing is not possible on dark manmade fibers. Some operators have achieved a measure of success on mixed blend fibers with high natural fiber and only 20%-30% polyester.

Heat press Considerations

• To achieve vibrant colors it is necessary to hover the heat press about a half an inch above the garment for 15 seconds to evaporate some of the water and flash cure the ink before placing the parchment and applying pressure to fully cure the ink. This causes some of the ink to remain on top of the fibers during curing and prevents a phenomenon where tiny ink fissures bubble up through the color layer.
• Use heat press settings of 330˚F for 90 seconds for garments where white ink is used.
• Periodically check heat press for proper temperature, pressure and a flat surface area when clamping down onto the garment. A poorly adjusted or damaged heat press with cool spots will not cure ink evenly. Visit the following link for information about how to fix this: http://www.stahlsinternational.com/downloads/Heat-Seal-Machine-Test-Kit.pdf

Proper Garment Washing

• Read manufacturing labels on garments for special instructions.
• Remove items from garments and empty pockets.
• Turn garments inside out so printed areas are on the inside.
• Avoid color bleeding by separating lights and darks, do not wash together.
• Use gentle stain removers, detergents, and softeners.
• Use short machine wash cycle, cold water, and gentle agitation.
• Hang drying is ideal, however keep in mind wet garments may stretch when hung and colors may fade after short exposure to sunlight.
• Use coolest temperature settings when machine drying.
• Turn Garments inside out to iron and fold as desired.

Meet your Customer Care Representative: Krystal Guzman

AnaJet is committed to offering the best customer service in the digital apparel printing industry. From our hands-on AnaJet University training to our first class technical support team, we’re here to help you every step of the way. In 2011 we added yet another outlet for customers to get support: our new Customer Care Representative, Krystal Guzman.

Krystal is available five days a week to give you the best prices on ink and accessory orders, and to help with non-technical support issues. If you haven’t already heard from Krystal, give her a call or shoot her an email and see how she can personally help your digital apparel printing business today!

Krystal Guzman
Customer Care Representative
714-662-3200 or toll free 877-626-2538
krystalg@anajet.com

Multisystem Technology demos the mPower at Iran Pack & Print expo

Multisystem Technology, authorized AnaJet distributor for the Middle East, recently showed off their AnaJet printers at the Pack & Print tradeshow located in Iran on December 19-21, 2011. The AnaJet printers were a huge hit with attendees, who were blown away by the print quality, speed, and numerous applications such as jeans, glass, canvas and 3D printing.

AnaJet’s newest series of direct-to-garment printer, the mPower, was attracting attention from tradeshow attendees with many different professional backgrounds including screen printing, offset printing, packaging and labeling, advertising agencies, gift shops, and many guests who plan on starting a new business from home.

Multisystem Technology is the authorized distributor for U.A.E., Qatar, Bahrain, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Palestine, Syria, and Oman. Multisystem Technology can be contacted by phone at +971 6 5579929, by email at multisys@eim.ae, or by web at www.multisys.me.