# Pre-treatment solution for DTG



## payet-tees (Aug 14, 2008)

Could anyone tell me if the "pretreatment" spray for darks - on the market ALL the same "OR" is it made specific to each machine, ie, Kornit, MS, Anajet - etc. 

The one I buy from my manufacturer is so expensive and I see it online with others so much cheaper - 

Please advise - thanks!


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## DAGuide (Oct 2, 2006)

The white ink pretreatment is made by the white ink manufacturer. So you have the following:
- Dupont White Ink (Anajet, T-Jet, DTG Digital, Flexi-Jet, Mod-1, Veloci-Jet,...)
- Brother White Ink
- Kornit White Ink
- Sawgrass White Ink

Those are the main ones in the market. From what I have heard, you can't mix the different pretreatments from other ink manufacturers as the pretreatment is specifically designed to match their own white ink. Thus, Kornit pretreatment (which I believe they call wetting solution) will not work with the Dupont white ink.

Hope that clarifies things. Maybe other people know white ink pretreatment from other manufacturers.

Mark


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## payet-tees (Aug 14, 2008)

Yes! This helps tremendously! The website I found that had a pretreatment said - Works on ALL darks which would make you think ALL shirts 

Thanks again! Happy and safe 4th!


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## zoom_monster (Sep 20, 2006)

One thing I might add, is that you might check how a supplier recomends diluting their product. Some is more expensive, but after you add distilled water, you are paying less for shipping and getting twice the product. No use in paying for extra water. Also, there are pretreatments for light shirts(that still need white ink) and dark shirts. If you use the pre-treatment for darks on say a grey or light blue shirt, sunlight will tend to yellow and stain them. If you make sure you get "3rd generation" dark pretreatment you should be fine.


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## Robert72 (Aug 12, 2006)

Humm, so 3rd generation dark pretreatment doesn't trend to get yellow when exposed to direct sunlit, right?

I so, you could use only 1 type of pretreatment with different water dillution proportions if it's dark, middle or light colored t-shirt.


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## silverarrows (Mar 13, 2009)

DAGuide said:


> The white ink pretreatment is made by the white ink manufacturer. So you have the following:
> - Dupont White Ink (Anajet, T-Jet, DTG Digital, Flexi-Jet, Mod-1, Veloci-Jet,...)
> - Brother White Ink
> - Kornit White Ink
> ...


Hey Mark, have you ever tried to pretreat a shirt with Kornit's wetting solution and printing it with an Epson machine? Or do you know anyone who tried this before?


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## DAGuide (Oct 2, 2006)

Have I ever done it personally, no. But I have seen it applied many times and it looks and acts completely differently than the Dupont pretreatment. I have also been told by other people that used to have a Kornit that they have tried it and it did not work. One of the main differences with a shirt when it comes off the Kornit is the amount of liquid on the shirt compared to a print from an Epson printer. In order to evaporate all the liquid from the shirt (i.e. in order to properly cure the garment), it needs to go through a textile conveyor dryer. Several of the Kornit owners that I know will actually run it through the dryer twice.

If someone is willing to test it and post the results, that would be great.

Mark


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## silverarrows (Mar 13, 2009)

thank you for quick reply and this valuable information Mark


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## equipmentzone (Mar 26, 2008)

As part of our testing procedures we did try the Kornit pretreatment with the DuPont white ink. We tried various coverage levels of the Kornit pretreat. It did not work at all with the DuPont white ink. 

Ink companies normally design their products to work together. Every ink has its own unique properties and the pretreatment for that ink has to be designed to work with those properties. So it was no surprise to us that the Kornit and DuPont products were not compatible, seeing as how these ink systems are very different from each other.

Harry
Equipment Zone


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## terrydolin (Mar 31, 2008)

Harry, Will the pre treatment that you have work with other printers? both light and dark.


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## equipmentzone (Mar 26, 2008)

terrydolin said:


> Harry, Will the pre treatment that you have work with other printers? both light and dark.



Our pretreatments - both the White Pretreatment and the EZ FastBright - work with all the Epson printhead based printer brands such as T-Jet, DTG, I-Dot, Freejet, Belquette, Flexijet, MS, Anajet, and, of course, our Veloci-Jet.

Harry
Equipment Zone


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## cgsd858 (Jul 26, 2011)

All the information here is very valuable to my problem today. I have purchased a DTG pretreat.com that I am unsure will work with the Dupont Inks. Has anyone ever tried this pre-treatment before I open the bottle and cant return it? Any help is very much appreciated.


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## DAGuide (Oct 2, 2006)

cgsd858 said:


> All the information here is very valuable to my problem today. I have purchased a DTG pretreat.com that I am unsure will work with the Dupont Inks. Has anyone ever tried this pre-treatment before I open the bottle and cant return it? Any help is very much appreciated.


The pretreat from DTG Pretreat - Light Garment CMYK Direct-to-Garment Pretreat for Polyester, Blends and Natural Fabrics will work with the Dupont CMYK inks. It is designed to print on most light garments - 100% cotton, blend garments (i.e. 50/50) and 100% polyester. You will want to have an additional type of pretreat fluid if you are printing using white ink on 100% cotton. 

All types of pretreat fluid have their unique application settings / instructions. The light garment pretreat fluids tend to be easier to apply, but you still want to make sure that you follow the instructions still. I recommend using some type of parchment paper when curing the light garment pretreatment to make sure none of the ink stuck to the bottom of the heating element will transfer to the garment.

Hope this answers your question and a little bit more.

Mark


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## TheImagingPlace (Aug 23, 2012)

Hi Mark - i'd like to print on a kelly green t-shirt and a yellow (daisy) shirt but I'm not sure if they should be treated with a light garment or dark garment pretreatment. I don't plan on requiring white ink for the design so would the light treatment work ok? can a rule of thumb be if there will be white ink used, dark pretreatment is required and if no white ink is used, light pretreatment is used? I'm running a neoflex with the dupont textile inks. Thanks in advance!


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## 23spiderman (Jun 26, 2008)

white ink = dark pretreatment

no white ink = light shirt pretreatment


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## DAGuide (Oct 2, 2006)

Sean is correct. The pretreat fluids made for light garment printing don't have as much chemical solids in them to hold the large amount of white ink that is printed. That is why when you pretreat with the white ink pretreat, it has a heavier hand - more chemical solids to hold the white ink on the top of the garment.

Mark


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## FulStory (Jun 5, 2013)

DAGuide said:


> Sean is correct. The pretreat fluids made for light garment printing don't have as much chemical solids in them to hold the large amount of white ink that is printed. That is why when you pretreat with the white ink pretreat, it has a heavier hand - more chemical solids to hold the white ink on the top of the garment.
> 
> Mark


How if I do not use pre-treatment at all or I just use pre-treatment(dark), the quality will be ok?


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