The differences between DTF printer and DTG printer

DTF printers and DTG printers both belong to clothing printing equipment and they play a significant role in the clothing printing industry. With the advancement of technology, using printers has become increasingly simple. Whether you are male or female, and regardless of your age, you can use a clothing printer to start your own business. This is also the business path for many entrepreneurs.

The usage process of the DTF printer

1. Design Pattern: Firstly, professional design software such as Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator should be utilized to meticulously create or import the images that need to be printed. The designer needs to make detailed adjustments to the images based on the size, style of the target product, and the individualized requirements of the client, ensuring that the parameters such as image resolution and color mode meet the printing requirements.

2. Printing: The DTF printer uses special DTF ink to print patterns onto the DTF transfer film. DTF ink typically consists of layers of cyan, magenta, yellow, black, and white inks. Among them, the white ink provides an opaque background for the pattern, effectively preventing the interference of the fabric base color on the pattern color, ensuring that the image color can be presented truly and vividly.

3. Drying the printing film: After the printing is completed, the next step is to apply powder. A thin layer of heat-melt powder is evenly spread on the printing film. When heated, the heat-melt powder will quickly melt and firmly adhere to the image, forming a strong bonding layer. To ensure better combination of the heat-melt powder with the ink, the film is usually placed in a oven for heating, which helps the heat-melt adhesive fully melt and firmly adhere to the ink, enhancing the adhesion between the pattern and the fabric.

4. Transfer pattern onto fabric:After drying the printing film, the pattern can be transferred onto the T-shirt using a Heat Press Machine. During this process, the heat-melt powder plays a crucial role, ensuring that the image can firmly adhere to the fabric. Even after multiple washes and daily wear and tear, the pattern will not easily come off or fade.

5. Remove the film: After the transfer is completed, allow the film and the fabric to cool naturally. Once they have cooled to the appropriate temperature, carefully remove the film. At this point, the exquisite pattern is perfectly retained on the fabric surface, and a finished product using DTF printing technology is thus created.

The usage process of the DTG printer

1. Fabric pre-treatment: Since most fabric surfaces have a certain degree of hydrophobicity, directly printing ink is difficult to adhere evenly and is prone to smudging. Therefore, it is necessary to pre-treat the fabric first. Use a special pre-treatment solution and apply it evenly to the fabric surface through spraying, soaking, or roller coating. Then, place the fabric in a drying device and usually dry it for several minutes at a temperature of 80°C - 120°C to allow the pre-treatment solution to react fully with the fabric, changing its physical and chemical properties, making it easier to adsorb ink, and improving color saturation and printing clarity.

2. Importing printing patterns: The designer or operator will edit and optimize the design files (such as patterns, text, etc.) that need to be printed using computer software (such as Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, etc.), adjusting parameters such as image resolution and color mode (usually CMYK or RGB), to ensure that the design meets the printing requirements. Then, the processed files will be imported into the computer system connected to the DTG printer.

3. Printing Preparation: Check the ink level of the printer, replenish CMYK, white, varnish and other inks in time; at the same time, check the status of the printhead and perform cleaning and calibration operations on the printhead to avoid deterioration of print quality due to printhead blockage or misalignment; finally, adjust the printing platform to the appropriate height to ensure the proper distance between the fabric and the printhead.

4. Fabric fixation: Place the pre-treated and dried fabric flatly on the printing platform of the printer. Use specialized fixtures, adsorption devices or adhesive pads and other tools to ensure that the fabric does not move or fold during the printing process, and to prevent the printing pattern from being misaligned or blurred.

5. Start printing: On the computer, select the printing command. The printer's nozzle precisely sprays ink onto the fabric surface according to the information in the design file. During the printing process, the printer's control system precisely controls the ink spraying volume, the movement speed of the nozzle, and the distance between the print head and the fabric to ensure the printing quality.

6. Post-processing: After the printing is completed, remove the fabric from the printing platform and place it in a drying device for high-temperature drying (generally at a temperature of 120℃ - 150℃, for about 5 - 15 minutes). This allows the ink to fully penetrate and firmly adhere to the fabric fibers, enhancing the washability and durability of the pattern.

Summarize

The above describes the working processes of DTF printers and DTG printers. During actual operation, appropriate adjustments need to be made based on your products and materials. You can also contact the technicians of your products for operation guidance.

If you have sufficient funds, you can choose between two printing methods, and this will also result in different customer acquisition channels for you. For beginners, you can make printing choices based on market demands. DTG is suitable for single-piece clothing printing and is more in line with personalized customization needs of customers. The DTF printer is suitable for large-scale production. The printing effects of the two are also different, and the applicable fabrics will also vary. Therefore, the profits you obtain will also be different.

The field of digital printing for clothing is awaiting your participation. Disen is also willing to collaborate with you to jointly explore more mysteries of clothing printing.