Impressions - January/February 2021 - 45

THE 'STAINING' PROBLEM
Light-colored garments have a tendency to " stain, " which is the
result of an expensive and frustrating mistake. To help avoid this
problem, it's best to reduce pretreatment concentrate and dial up
the spray speed as the color of the garment gets lighter.
Try the following mixtures of concentrate and water and see if it
remedies the issue.
1.

Mix 50% pretreatment with 50% distilled water for black and
dark garments.

For royal blue, red or Kelly green garments, try a mixture of
60% distilled water/40% pretreatment solution.

For light-pink and light-blue garments, try a mixture of 70%
distilled water/30% pretreatment solution.

As the garment color gets lighter and you reduce pretreatment
Shown at the top is a perfect nozzle check,
while the image underneath shows a nozzle
check that indicates cleaning is needed.

To get a perfect nozzle check, you must perform preventative
and scheduled maintenance.
No Nozzle Clogging
Each DTG printer brand has a different maintenance procedure
and protocol. Quite frankly, some printers require exorbitant
amounts of maintenance, and if that's the case, it's hard to argue
whether such a printer is even a viable option for running a
profitable business.
If you happen to own such a printer and find that you're
spending the majority of your day cleaning, diagnosing and
troubleshooting issues, you should research and invest in a printer that actually works. After all, you should want a printer that
actually works as it should.
The concept of DTG maintenance is pretty simple; essentially, keep the white ink from clogging the print head. Again,
each printer has a process to mitigate this occurrence, but if left
unchecked, the white ink in any printer eventually will clog.
So do your scheduled maintenance and keep your white-ink
print heads happy.
Depending on your printer, the first step can be the most
complicated one. Not all DTG printers are created equally and
if you are struggling keeping those print heads happy, equipment
quality - or lack thereof - could be the culprit.
The Garment Matters
The second step is the simplest, but everyone loves to complicate
it.The water-based ink that's used in the DTG-decorating process
is somewhat translucent and vicious.White ink, particularly, is
inherently thick and sticky because it's made of titanium dioxide
- the main component in everything that is white.
In good printers, white ink is specially formulated to flow
through small printhead nozzles. Unlike screen printing, where
a ton of white ink can be laid down through low-mesh-count
screens and flooded onto a shirt, DTG printing uses considerably
less and thinner white ink. Therefore, it must be printed on a
fabric that is most conducive to its application.

concentrate, increase the pretreatment spray speed. Also, quality
garments can be a factor in helping to avoid this problem.

Carded, open-end (COE) cotton is fibrous and loosely woven.
This means viscous ink will have trouble holding fast on the yarn.
Combed, ring-spun cotton is a tight yarn with a tight weave, and
will result in a cleaner print.
Garment dye also has a lot to do with DTG-printing results.
When cured using a heat press, color vibrancy often is lost.This is
categorized as dye migration, where the garment's dye migrates
through the ink and dulls the image.This is common on polyester
garments, but also occurs on budget, blank 100% cotton garments
that often use COE yarn. Inexpensive dye usually is made with
animal byproducts and these inexpensive dyes are notorious for
dye migration - even on 100% cotton shirts.
Combed, ring-spun garments often use a better-quality dye.
The combination of a tightly woven yarn and high-quality dye
will yield exponentially better results when it comes to DTG
printing.
Pretreatment Basics
Pretreatment solution works best on combed, ring-spun garments,
too. To get decent results on poor-quality garments, multiple
pretreatment applications are needed. This is time consuming
and expensive. I prefer to pretreat once and be done.
The general rule for pretreating is to ensure a good spray

The combination of a
tightly woven yarn and
high-quality dye will
yield exponentially better
results when it comes to
DTG printing.
JAN./FEB. 2021

P.45

Impressions - January/February 2021

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