Screen Printing - August/September 2019 - 21

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THE CHANGING OUTLOOK
OF DTG PRINTING
Frank and Marilyn Sliney,
HARRY
foundersKIRA
of Franmar

DIRECTOR OF PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
BROTHER INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION

My career for the past 20 years has been
focused on direct to garment printing.
I've been involved in research and
development related to direct to garment
technologies for a long time, working on
the initial product development team at
Brother International Corporation in 1999
and performing the beta testing of the
GT-541 printer in 2003. I've seen the
industry come a long way.
EARLY INTRODUCTION
Early on, there was great excitement
with this new decorating technology.
The ability to digitally print photographic
quality images directly onto shirts was
very exciting. Although some large
online companies also jumped at the
opportunity, the average company buying
a DTG printer in the early 2000s was a
small business. Most of these smaller
shops were hoping to take advantage
of being able to print a multitude of
colors without going through all the
setup involved in traditional garment
decorating. DTG also promised to be a
technology that would liberate and

empower artists to create artwork - one
that challenged artists rather than
restricted them.
THE CHALLENGES
In the beginning, challenges began to
arise that manufacturers had difficulty
overcoming. Ink chemistry development
was new, and it was hard for the hardware
to meet the high expectations of the
market. In addition, the importance of the
garment material being printed on was
not fully understood, which brought its
own set of challenges. Such challenges
existed in the first few years of the
technology's release, and the excitement
about DTG began to fade out. 
THE POSITIVE OUTLOOK
But things have changed a lot for DTG
since then, and DTG is making a big
comeback. Today, the future of DTG is
an exciting one for sure. Continuing
advancement in technology has made
the DTG process a contender - not just
in small business and short-runs, but
an increasingly valued method for
large-scale production shops. Globally
known fashion brands are offering
custom garments at retail locations.
Large screen printers with automatic
presses, looking to expand their abilities
in sampling, reprints, and short- to
medium-sized runs are adding DTG to
their shops. And even with mobile
operations where the equipment is

transported to an event, DTG is finding
a place.
As DTG continues to help large and
small companies grow, R&D in the
industry will also grow, resulting in
improvements in the technology that
reach beyond just the printer and the ink
chemistry. An expanding array of
pretreating equipment, from small,
single-tank sprayers to large, automatic
conveyer systems like the Synergy are
making the pretreatment process more
reliable and efficient. Improvements are
also being made in the workflow, where
hot folders and barcoding systems
control how much pretreatment to apply
and automatically set the print settings for
the artwork to be printed.
At Brother, our DTG printers are
working hard all over the country and
around the world, in small corner shops
and in huge production lines. We are able
to provide setups tailored to a company's
current needs, as well as implement
strategies for future growth through
our pod system. We've seen a number
of success stories of DTG-focused
businesses starting with only one DTG
printer and growing to over 100 printers,
and we see new stories like this every year.
Brother is working hard every day to
be a leader in the industry, and to
continue bringing innovative solutions
that help businesses grow. To keep up
with the latest Brother has to offer, visit
brotherdtg.com.
http://www.brotherdtg.com
Screen Printing - August/September 2019

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