# Can I use Direct to garment on sublimated fabric?



## geargurl (May 29, 2008)

Has anyone tried direct to garment printing on sublimated fabrics? I've checked out the Anajet printer website and they seem to be the closest that may be able to do this(especially sounds like their white onto dark is the best). I've heard that sublimated fabrics don't like to be reheated, dtg involves heating but is the temp low enough to make it work. Also if it is doable, would the ink bleed through on the other side? The fabric is 100% polyester and is white on the inside with the sublimation being blue. Any help would be GREatly appreciated!! we are looking to do large volume of this but I can't find anyone who's done it!


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## Belquette (Sep 12, 2005)

geargurl said:


> Has anyone tried direct to garment printing on sublimated fabrics? I've checked out the Anajet printer website and they seem to be the closest that may be able to do this(especially sounds like their white onto dark is the best). I've heard that sublimated fabrics don't like to be reheated, dtg involves heating but is the temp low enough to make it work. Also if it is doable, would the ink bleed through on the other side? The fabric is 100% polyester and is white on the inside with the sublimation being blue. Any help would be GREatly appreciated!! we are looking to do large volume of this but I can't find anyone who's done it!


 Dear Geargirl,

You do not need or want to use polymer coated substrates with any direct inkjet printer.
The polymer used will actually repel the ink.

Recently there has been some developments in ink chemistries that show very positive results (thank you Dupont) when adhering directly to polyesters.

Check out these: Jersey1 Jersey2
 
Please keep in mind that this has zero to due with the machine and is completely dependent on the ink set used. That said some machines will handle various substrates better then others if some mechanical and software provisions are incorporated to handle such.

To date no machine on the market has provisions obtain optimal results on 100% polyester, however research forges on to enable direct to ploy inkjet technology to become a reality.

No matter what you read only a real world test will prevail.

Mark


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## DAGuide (Oct 2, 2006)

Lindsay,

Some of the new types of dtg inks that are either recently released or are being tested now will allow the CMYK ink to adhere to polyester fabric without the bleeding and color loss that the older inks have. However, using white ink will require a pretreatment to be applied by hand and it will leave a heavier hand on the polyester fabric that most people are not going to like. I personally have not done a wash test using white ink on polyester...but I would imagine that it would work. 

If you are trying to find the all-important solution for sublimation on a dark garment, this is probably not going to be the answer. You already mentioned that sublimation does not like to be reheated. To print the white ink, you have to cure the shirt for 2 minutes or more at over 350 degrees (time / temp varies depending on ink/machine). This will definitely re-release the sublimation ink and cause you some color loss due to the extended time under the heat press. Plus as mentioned above, it will have a completely different hand (i.e. touch) that what most people would want on a polyester garment if you are printing white ink.

This is my opinion. Maybe someone else would care to express their thoughts. Although it would be a nice thought.

Mark


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## YoDan (May 4, 2007)

I have shown that DTGInks CMYK can be used on polyester and hold up to washing and I have done this and reported this some time back.
Dan


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## DAGuide (Oct 2, 2006)

Maybe I am reading the first post a little different than Dan and Mark. I fully understand that the new CMYK direct-to-garment inks are doing a much better job on polyester fabric, but it is my understanding that the White ink and pretreatment has not changed. Is this correct?

I believe Lindsay is stating that she wants to use is a combination of a sublimation transfer (which would go down first) and then direct-to-garment print over the top of that. I personally don't see any benefit in doing a CMYK print from a dtg printer on top of a sublimation transfer - because all of this could be done as a light transfer process using sublimation ink in one step. The only true benefit of doing this would be to drop a white ink underbase and print CMYK ink over the top of the sublimation transfer. This would allow someone to take a Dark Red Vapor Apparel shirt and print a photo quality picture on it - which is not possible with sublimation ink because it is a transparent ink - just like the CMYK dtg ink. Thus, the key is applying the pretreatment and white ink underbase without altering the sublimation transfer or the feel of the shirt.

If my understanding of her post is correct, then a test would need to be done that has a sublimation transfer down first --> pretreat the same shirt --> cure the pretreat --> print a white underbase --> print CMYK inks --> cure the final shirt (for usually a couple of minutes). It is a known fact that when you reheat a sublimation transfer, you can have color loss since you are releasing the sublimation inks from the polyester molecules. If that ink is absorbed by anything (i.e. silicone paper, parchment paper,...) or redirected (i.e. by teflon sheet) during the dtg printing process, it will alter the colors of the sublimation transfer. Besides that, the pretreatment chemical that will have to be applied to the shirt in order to print the White Ink will make the polyester fabric feel stiffer than the rest of the shirt.

In my opinion, I would do this type of job by sublimation first and a print-cut technique instead of dtg printing. Yes, the hand on a dark transfer paper done as print-cut is heavier than a dark dtg print, but you are minimizing the overall hand (i.e. feel) of the garment just to the part that is printed using the dark transfer. With dark dtg printing, you can't just isolate the pretreatment to only the areas you are going to print white ink. 

Lindsay, if I am misunderstanding your post... please give us an example of exactly what you are trying to accomplish and we can help you better.

Mark


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## Printzilla (Mar 22, 2007)

I read her post as wanting to take roll material that has been subbed all over then cut and sewn, and then apply textile based direct to garment inks on top of that. I did not see the word "SHIRT" anywhere in her post. This would still have the reheating issue.

Geargurl - as far as the white ink is concerned, everybody uses the same ink(except the Kornit), as well as Epson based machines to print. The differences are in the RIP's, the transport mechanism for the substrate, and then some minor exhaust/heated pallets/ink agitation/other refinements from machine to machine. In the hands of a skilled operator you can get good results from most machines.


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