hey guys has anyone tried to print with ordinary pigment inks rather than labelled DTG (white shirts only) ,just wondered as all pigment ink is waterproof whats so special about a textile approved ink ?
Hi, the answer to your question is, No, you can not print direct to garment with an ordinary pigment ink (epson ultrachrome pigment ink in my case). The thing is, ordinary pigment ink are engineered to work on paper, explained in a simple way... take this example: under the microscope, printer paper and fabric surfaces are like comparing a flat land field with a forest devastated by a hurricane.
So, first, printing with ordinary pigment ink will need at least twice as much ink to achieve rich colors, that is because ordinary pigment ink are absorbed by cotton threads. The ink composition is basically: Pigment + Water
second, when the printed fabric (100% cotton printed with ordinary pigment ink, then heat press for 60 seconds) is washed in a regular washing machine, the ink will start to wash out of the fabric at the first wash. This is because of the composition of the ink
the following link contains a picture showing a fabric printed with ordinary epson ultrachrome pigment ink:
http://cl.ly/b0nn
so, why DTG INK?
Because the composition, DTG ink has an additional ingredient, the additional ingredient is a kind of silicon based nano particles that will melt (heatpress for 60 seconds) and bond the pigment particles with the fabric surface, and because this additional ingredient, the ink is more viscous and it is not absorbed by the cotton threats, so, during the heat press process, the heat will evaporate the wather on the ink, and melt the silicon-based particles in the DTG Ink and and bond the pigment particles to the fabric threats.
i'll hope this help you (english, is not my native language, sorry if you find a lot of grammar faults)
