Screen Printing - June/July 2017 - 15

Before any equipment is purchased, shops should investigate and research their market, competition, pricing models,
marketing, equipment and consumables, and other factors
that could have an impact on their business. This is how you
determine if DTG printing is a good fit for your shop.

Production StePS
There are six critical areas in DTG production. As in screen
printing, certain standards have to be followed to achieve an
optimal outcome. Many shops get hung up along the way with
one or even all of these steps, and then publically denounce
DTG printing as a nonviable print method. It all comes down
to understanding the print platform, really.
n Artwork. Just as in traditional screen printing, a poor
image won't magically improve after production is
complete. The quality of the artwork will always be a
constant constraint for success. There are some preflight
steps you can take to improve what you have. Even
some simple Photoshop Action Commands can be written to produce a larger color gamut and increase the
tonal range of the image before ripping the file. Also, taking the time to calibrate the CMYK workflow from the
printer to the artist's workstation can have a tremendous
impact on success. This is tedious work, but if you want
to have accurate print standards, it's mandatory.
n Garments. Not all garments are DTG-compatible. Yet,
shops still try to print hoodies with big zipper seams,
polyester, or other problematic types of apparel. The
challenge with raised areas on shirts is their potential
for the printhead to strike them, a disastrous outcome.
Some shirt dyes react to the pretreatment in unexpected
ways, too. It's a chemistry-based problem that won't go
away unless you change one of the variables - the substrate (shirt), the pretreatment fluid, or the ink.
n Pretreatment. Pretreatment is absolutely mandatory for printing on dark garments. This fluid sets up
the printed image by giving the water-based CMYK ink
something to latch onto. Dark garment prints often fail
because the pretreatment solution wasn't applied correctly. This process has to be dialed in perfectly. All DTG
systems with the exception of Kornit handle this step in
a secondary process. (Kornit owns the inline pretreatment patent.) This is such a vital step that a market has
developed for pretreated garments that are ready to
print right out of the box.
n The print. Many variables here can influence the final
image success. From the print control interface, most
DTG equipment allows you to dial in the quality setting
for the image based on how much ink will be deposited
onto the shirt. For dark shirts, image quality will be
completely dependent on both the pretreatment and
the white ink deposition. Without accuracy at these two
stages, the image often looks muddy and the shirt color
itself can distort the image.

Curing. Since the inks used for DTG printing are waterbased, 100 percent of the water has to evaporate during
the curing process in order for the print to achieve any
steadfastness. Most print failures occur due to undercured ink. While some DTG users have success curing
with a heat press, I recommend using a conveyor dryer
set at the proper temperature and belt speed for optimal
curing. I've seen shops fail at DTG printing because they
bought a great printer but tried to cure with a heat press.
This only resulted in a tremendous amount of frustration
and undercured prints. You aren't saving money by failing
to invest in a good dryer - you're just asking for trouble.

Machine Maintenance
This sixth production area to control is the Achilles' heel of
DTG printing. What causes most shops to abandon this print
platform? Clogged printheads. Why do printheads become
clogged? Either from a poor maintenance schedule or irregular equipment use (or both). With DTG printing, the phrase
"use it or lose it" definitely applies. This is why making sure
you've built a good sales funnel for your equipment is so
necessary for the success of the platform.
Equipment makers address this issue differently. Some
have a purging system that allows the ink to be removed from
the ink lines, while others have a continuous slow "weeping"
from their printheads to ensure that ink won't get caked up
inside. Before purchasing equipment, it pays to understand
how the machine you like handles this important challenge.
Another factor that can help you gauge your likelihood of
success with DTG printing is simply to review the preventive
maintenance program for the rest of the company. Do you
have one? Does it cover things like air compressors and all of
the other pieces of machinery? When shops already employ
this type of thinking, it's a predictor of success with DTG - a
good canary in the coal mine.
DTG equipment is complicated. I've been to shops where
they have never read and - believe it or not - can't even find the
owner's manuals for the equipment they use every day. When
something breaks, they just call in a technician. This type of
mentality will doom a DTG machine into becoming a very large
and expensive paperweight in a short amount of time.

the Future iS now
There's no doubt that DTG is here to stay in this industry.
This is an exciting time, as manufacturers are busy developing
faster printheads, hybrid DTG systems that will fit into
traditional screen printing presses, and new ink formulations
that will solve the riddle of printing on polyester fabrics.
Whether digital printing is the right production avenue
for your shop is a question that only you can answer, but it
needs to result from some sound thinking and prep work
before you dive in headfirst. You don't want to find out that
your production application is located in the shallow end of
the pool.
june/july 2017

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Screen Printing - June/July 2017