Printwear Direct to Garment Pre-Treatment Article by Paul Green
Product manager Paul Green is featured in this month’s Printwear Magazine – link to the full digital edition or download the article only (PDF, 1MB).
Paul discusses at length the right and wrong way to pre-treat shirts, how to attain the best results and troubleshoot if things go wrong. The goal is always to get the best possible print for the least amount of effort and hassle, with minimal waste.
In the article are actual shots of our production setup. Yes, we frequently use the large Viper pre-treatment machine because it delivers the most consistent results. It requires a little more maintenance than a Wagner sprayer but because we ship out thousands of samples every quarter, we need to maintain consistent quality and cost control.
Remember that Paul will be presenting one or two Education Station sessions at NBM Indianapolis, next week! Come and see Paul and our product array at booth #201. JP Hunt of InkSoft will also be talking on how to use online design, custom web sites and e-commerce to grow your garment decoration business.
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I need to know if I can print on 100% cotton t-shirts. I am interested in this type of printing. But I will be doing high volume printing, and I need to know more specifics of the printing capabilities of your printers.
100% cotton is the preferable fabric. AnaJet has several archived webinars where Adam Tipre discusses the specifics of our printers including the potential daily output. If you need more info, go to the commercial web site and complete the “Request Info” form. On one hand, when you are producing a thousand single-color prints and you have plenty of lead time for setup, nothing can beat screen printing. On the other hand, when you have customers who want short runs, digital graphics, or no lead time, nothing can beat direct to garment.
Where is the dividing line? Some of our customers who own rotary presses actually prefer direct to garment on the mPower mP10 over screening because it can out put 500 or more shirts in a day – which frees up their screen printing schedule for bigger jobs. But eventually you have to figure out what is comfortable for you and what will serve your market the best.
As a screen prtenir from the mid 80 s I can say the Direct to garments work very well. Plastisol will always be the best for long term durability (it is all plastic). Fibrillation is the main problem, but we’ve just started using the Hanes Tagless 6 oz and they wash and look great even after multiple multiple washes. In reality the ink doesn’t fade its the fibrillation just like some screened shirts do I have seen
Some garment decorators might differ with you on the durability of plastisol versus inkjet/digital garment printer inks. When the plastisol ink doesn’t adhere well, it can fall off the garment in big chunks and it’s not really part of the garment. Water-based inks printed on 100% cotton become part of the fabric, not that this reduces fibrillation on a cheap shirt, but it can produce superior results.
Great two machines and a lot of money to make. OK, I’ve got a few qutonises, lets start with can I get the AnaJet in the U.K. (England) and if yes would I have your support with the machines maintenance, as no machine is built without the need for maintenance and my other qutonises are does the machine clog up and do I have to clean it often? And for good print quality what does the resolution print image need to be to get that bright, vibrant colour? And what is the resolution of the AnaJet?
Yes, we have a distributor in the UK. Please follow up directly with the company, their information is listed on our Distributors page. http://www.anajet.com/mpower/distributors/distributors-western_southern_europe/
u have done well. i really want to try it.i want to buy the printer and also want to be a distributor.