Discuss the various aspects of direct to garment printing. DTG printers include Brother, T-Jet, Flexi-Jet, DTG Kiosk, Kornit, Mimaki, Tex-Jet and others! Discuss and learn about this up and coming printing technology.
I have a question on the pretreatment
When I print some of my black shirts I see little specs of white showing through the colors some times.
Does this mean to little pretreat or not enough pressure from heat press? I have a phonix phire and the pressure is set to 1.
How can you tell if you pressure on you heat press is too little or too much?
Yes, those would be shirt fibers that were not totaly pressed down, try just a little more pre-treatment and heavy pressure when cuting the pre-treatment.
Dan "HAPPY PRINTING"
__________________ www.DTGInks.com "Where help is always there, just for the asking"
How would "speck of white" showing through be fibers of the shirt when it is dark Or does the pre treatment act as a bleaching agent when mixed with the dyes or inks?
The fibers that stick up are white and when you press the shirt they just show up through the color layer and show up as white.
We need a flat surfice to print on.
Dan "HAPPY PRINTING"
__________________ www.DTGInks.com "Where help is always there, just for the asking"
I hope I don't come across as a smarta$$ I'm trying to understand. The white ink is laid down as a first layer and then the colors are laid down? #1 Isn't the white layer supposed to be somewhat dry before the colors? #2 does the white have fibers in it or are the shirt fibers, colored white by the first printing getting hard and poking through the color layer? And #3, is there any way to like just run a household iron over the white to get any stray fibers to lay down between the white and colored print sequence? Whew, getting finger cramps tryimg to understand this.
I hope I don't come across as a smarta$$ I'm trying to understand. The white ink is laid down as a first layer and then the colors are laid down? #1 Isn't the white layer supposed to be somewhat dry before the colors? #2 does the white have fibers in it or are the shirt fibers, colored white by the first printing getting hard and poking through the color layer? And #3, is there any way to like just run a household iron over the white to get any stray fibers to lay down between the white and colored print sequence? Whew, getting finger cramps tryimg to understand this.
Ok I will try to answer this for you the fibers get white from the white ink, and no it isnt dry before the color is applied. The 2 layers are printed one on top of the other without any drying in between.
The white ink does not have fibers in it. If the pretreatment is not applied properly you will get fibrilation, where the fibers of the shirt will stick up thru the image. The way I handle this is to brush down the fibers once I spray the pretreat on. Then when I dry the pretreatment I press first for 15 seconds with a parchment paper, then I remove the parchment and press an additional 10 to 15 seconds. This assured the fibers are lying down well and leaving a smooth printing surface.
As far as using a iron to iron down the fibers between printing layers, the answer is no That would not work because the white ink is not cured yet. all you would end up doing with this is smearing your image as the ink is wet.
Hope this helps to answer your questions
__________________
Always do right; this will gratify some people and astonish the rest. ~~~Mark Twain BobbieLee
Sunnydayz what type of pressure are you using on your press? I have a Phonix Phire and it has a readout for pressure. Do you have any idea how much pressure you are using? Today I turned the knob approximently 3/4 of a turn down now the reading is 5-6, originally I was using 1. Also when you spay with water then pretreat are you making the shirt slightly white or what.
I dont use the pressure gauge on my press I just set the pressure to a light pressure. I like to keep it light because when curing the ink its important to not have too much pressure or it will push the fibers of the shirt thru the image, which could also be causing the problem stated above. So I keep my pressure light for both the pretreatment and the curing.
__________________
Always do right; this will gratify some people and astonish the rest. ~~~Mark Twain BobbieLee
Thank you BobbyLee. Yes that fully answered my question. Thats the first time I actually got enough answer that I didn't still have to figure out half of what was going on. It was probably the first time I couldn't get my head around the idea without someone holding my hand through it. I just didn't think about the pretreatment causing the fibers to poke through. One more thing.Do you need the pretreatment for all colors or just when doing a first layer of white. Is it the titanium in the white the only/main reason to pretreat?
You need pretreatment when ever you are printing the white ink. The pretreatment is made so the white ink adheres to the shirt once it is heated, basically it makes the white ink bond to the shirt That is why if it isnt done properly, you will see wash out on the shirt.
__________________
Always do right; this will gratify some people and astonish the rest. ~~~Mark Twain BobbieLee
white speckles on colors 
the fibers get white from the white ink, and no it isnt dry before the color is applied. The 2 layers are printed one on top of the other without any drying in between.
