It is important to maintain a temperature range of 60° to 80° Fahrenheit and a Relative Humidity range of 45% to 65% to avoid negatively impacting:
Print quality
Proper consistency of ink and pretreatment
Shelf life of ink, adhesive powder, and pretreatment
Service life of print head
How does the environment impact print quality?
If the humidity is too high, fabrics can absorb and retain moisture, causing ink to bleed. We recommend doing a final heat press on any garment that was previously pretreated to steam out any moisture and remove any wrinkles.
How does the environment impact ink and pretreatment?
The shelf life of our inks and pretreat material is normally one year, but temperatures exceeding 80° Fahrenheit can cause the consistency of inks and pretreatment to permanently change, whether in the equipment or still in their original containers. If this happens the nozzles of the print head or pretreat device may clog, so the material should be replaced to avoid damaging your equipment.
How does the environment impact the service life of the print head?
If the humidity is too low atomized ink can dry on the print head plate and cause clogging. Also, if temperatures exceed 80° Fahrenheit the consistency of the ink can permanently change and result in clogging print head nozzles, potentially requiring that the print head be replaced.
Clogging of the print head due to temperatures or relative humidity outside of the recommended ranges is not covered by your printer’s warranty.
DTG stands for Direct-to-Garment. It is also called Digital Garment or Inkjet to Garment printing. DTG printing is a process of printing graphics onto textiles and garments. It uses modified inkjet technology to print any type of graphic onto t-shirts, hats, bags, masks, pants, jeans and even shoes. DTG printers utilize a platen to hold the garment in place as the print head jets ink onto the textile.
OmniPrint International’s Adult Platen
Typically, the textile is pretreated with a special adhesive that sticks to the garment’s fibers and allows the ink to bond to those fibers. The chemical composition of this adhesive pretreatment material also causes the “underbase” layer of white ink (which is used like a painter’s base coat of primer when printing on colored shirts) to quickly gel. This prevents the CMYK inks from blending with the white underbase and provides great color vibrancy.
The result of this ink infusion is a much more natural feel in comparison to other printing or iron-on transfer techniques.
Direct to Garment printing is very precise and ideal for full color and detailed designs. The process gives you nearly endless color possibilities and can make small details pop. Plus, it’s easy to set up and print any graphic. You simply place your garment on the platen, load the image, and hit print.
Unlike screen printing, there are no screens to prepare or change throughout the process. This makes DTG very cost-effective for one-time or small print jobs, and DTG printing scales well for larger print jobs as well.
