Textile Inks

AnaJet Digital Textile Inks

A direct-to-garment printer’s performance depends much on the textile ink used. The quality of ink affects the ink flow, level of printer maintenance, color fidelity and vibrancy as well as print longevity.

AnaJet provides only the best state of the art, highest quality textile inks. AnaJet’s highly acclaimed closed-loop ink delivery system, ink chemistry and printing software have all been harmonized to achieve the highest level of graphic quality and ink flow performance.

Both the AnaJet mPower and AnaJet SPRINT Digital Apparel Printer models use the same ink delivery system and chemistry.

AnaBright® and PowerBright Inks

AnaBright® and PowerBright Inks have a high optical density to assure vibrant colors that resist fading. The new generation of white inks are the whitest inks offered and provide long lasting prints, wash after wash. The SPRINT model uses AnaBright Inks and the mPower mode uses PowerBright Inks.

• 100% cotton, cotton blends, specialty paper, general textile and non -textile materials.
• Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black and White Inks.
• Print on white/light and black/dark garments.
• Water-based, pigmented inks are safe for people and the environment.

How Much Ink is Used per Print?

One should not be overly concerned about the ink cost, as the gross margin is so large in the direct-to-garment decoration business. The better ink flow of the AnaJet system also helps reduce ink wasted from system maintenance and helps reduce total ink cost. But because the ink consumption rate is a concern of many, AnaJet Inc. did a full scale study of ink usage rates in March 2008. Here is a quick summary of the AnaJet ink cost study:

Representative Image Size: 10″ x 8.5″
White Shirt: ~ $0.40 ($0.60 at heavy ink setting)
Black Shirt: ~ $1.50 ($2.25 at heavy ink setting)

You can download the Ink Use Study Summary or for the full report, Ink Use Study Report.

White Ink and Direct to Garment Printers

Currently, all direct-to-garment printers’ white inks are based on Titanium Dioxide (TO2). TO2 is a heavy mineral often found in white paint, and starts to dry immediately when it comes in contact with air. AnaJet’s closed-loop ink delivery system ensures that white ink does not come into contact with air until it is released from the print head, and the mPower’s robust ink charge process easily eliminates any white ink that dried directly on the print head.

Still, all direct-to-garment printers using white ink require maintenance, though the mPower automates most daily requirements. A weekly cleaning of the maintenance station, frequent printer use, and gentle shaking of white ink cartridges is sufficient to maintain your mPower’s printing functionality.

Formaldehyde in Pretreatment Liquids

The health effects of formaldehyde in AnaBright™  and PowerBright Pretreatment Liquids on the garment wearer is an item of concern to AnaJet. Recently we revisited this issue and released the following Technical Bulletin on this subject. AnaJet customers will be happy to see the results in the following summary of our findings. For details, please download the pdf file.

Summary : The amount of residual formaldehyde on a dark garments printed with an AnaJet system is significantly below the maximum limits established by domestic and foreign government agencies. In short, the residual formaldehyde level is about 14.7PPM while the most stringent governmental standard allows 70PPM (or 20PPM for babies).

To download the report, please click here.

CPSIA Law Certification for Children

The Consumer Product Safety Information Act of 2008 regulates that children’s toys and childcare articles are not to contain above certain levels of lead and phthalate contents. CPSC does not consider children’s apparel to be a toy, but certain apparel items (used for sleeping and eating) are considered to be childcare articles.

To the best of our understanding, the operators of AnaJet printers will be largely unaffected. The exception would be if you produce items intended for a child 3 years of age or younger that are specifically to be used during eating or sleeping. This would include items like baby bibs, blankets and infant pajamas. Such items need to have less than the specified maximum parts per million of Lead and Phthalates. To our knowledge neither Lead nor Phthalates are added to AnaJet textile inks or the ink’s constituent parts. But the certificate has to be represented by the garment printers, as AnaJet ink is only a part of the final product. Please download the full information from AnaJet by clicking here.