T-Shirt Forums banner

UV ink on T-shirt printing?

7K views 2 replies 3 participants last post by  Ghoster32111 
#1 ·
Hello,
I want to start a small business with personalized T-shirts and dresses (cotton) for children and personalized scarves (silk). The T-shirts and the dresses will be printed on the whole surface. The DTG printer will be equipped with 2-4 platens for already-made products (e.g T-shirt etc.) which can be changed with one printing area (one platen, vacuum system) at least 60cm*90 cm for dresses.
I found an ad for an UV printer, using UV ink, with a print surface of 1.3 m * 1.5 m. The materials that can be printed are any kind of textile materials, wood, metal, ceramic etc. (?!)
I have some questions for you:
1. I read that for textile materials is used a water-based ink. Is it possible to print textile materials with UV ink? And it is possible to use the same printer for so many types of materials?
2. The eco-solvent ink is properly for textile (cotton and silk)?
3. What DTG flatbed printer for textiles with a print size of at least 60 cm * 90 cm could I get for max. 15.000 Euro?

Thank you very much.
 
#2 ·
I haven't looked into UV printing very much. However, one day while out riding around I stumbled across LogoJet. So i stopped in and got a tour of the facilities. Very impressive, but also quite expensive. But they do have refurb models that come with 1 year warranty.

Anyhow, I got an e-mail from them advertising their new printer that you switch out the inks and do DTG with it. I also remember seeing a video of them doing small left chest printing on a polo. And I see that one of their printers also uses edible inks.

Here is their YouTube channel. I hope it helps.
 
#3 ·
I do plenty of DTG and I used to have a logojet back in the day when I did UV. The problem with UV is it is highly toxic it is not something you want to be wearing. Most UV ink cannot even be put down the drain because it has extreme toxicity to marine life and the ink itself is a carcinogenic also if you get it on to your skin it will literally burn you like an acid burn. I have many scars from a small drop of uncured ink landing on my hand (part of the reason why I got out of the UV gig). Not something you want to be wearing for an extended amount of time. There are rumors that there are companies in China offering UV ink for textiles but there regulations are pretty lax compared to most companies. With that said that doesn't mean there is not a company out there that is not working on this issue. But if your going to be printing onto textiles I would look into DTG printers over UV.
UV printers are awesome for printing onto stuff like phone cases, and other rigid items just not so great on textiles (so far)
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top