# Best heat cure for DTG printing



## michaellavin (Jun 18, 2007)

It appears most people use heat presses, but what about flash cure and infra-air ovens? Which one is best and why?


----------



## TahoeTomahawk (Apr 12, 2006)

As far as I know, heat presses will deliver the proper heat and pressure required to set the ink. I know there are some tests being done with conveyor dryers, but the prints do not hold up as long in the wash as the ones that were heat pressed.

Anyone else have any updates on this?


----------



## DAGuide (Oct 2, 2006)

From what I have heard, it depends on what type of ink you are using. The Kornit owners all use conveyor dryers. Part of the reason is the speed, but the Kornit machine drops a lot of ink and the dryer is need to fully cure the shirt. Most of the dtg printers in the $20k or below range do use a heat press - mainly because it takes us less space and is cheaper. I know that some people have tried the conveyor dryer on CMYK inks and had good results. When you add the white ink is when the heat press out performs it. The tempertature depends on which ink, how much your dwell time is and the pressure. I believe the recommendation for the Sawgrass DTG inks are higher than the recommendations for the Dupont inks. I know a decent amount of dtg owners that did some testing in regards to time and temperature till they found out the best settings for their shop and stuck with it. This might be your best option. Hope this helps.

Mark


----------



## binki (Jul 16, 2006)

The idea on a DTG printer with water based inks is to remove the water from the print. You can let the shirt sit for a week or two and get the same results as a heat press. If you are in the valley in SoCal like me just setting it outside for a few minutes is probably just as effective!


----------



## michaellavin (Jun 18, 2007)

binki said:


> The idea on a DTG printer with water based inks is to remove the water from the print. You can let the shirt sit for a week or two and get the same results as a heat press. If you are in the valley in SoCal like me just setting it outside for a few minutes is probably just as effective!


This is interesting. It would appear therefore that pressure is not required. Perhaps then a flash cure type unit with fan supplied air would be the best method for drying/curing water based inks in digital printing. Is it possible most people use a heat press only because they already have one and are used to heat transfer technology where pressure is required?


----------



## binki (Jul 16, 2006)

pressure on a DTG water based print will push the ink through the shirt to the inside and even the back side. It only needs to evaporate the water.


----------



## Don-ColDesi (Oct 18, 2006)

The temperature also activates the binders in the ink (most begin to activate at 300' F) so it will effect the washability if you do not heat them. The other main concern is, as you stated, removing the water. Pressure does help to lay down the fibers - especially on white ink, though too much does seem to be counterproductive.

Hope this helps!


----------



## zoomom (Apr 8, 2008)

Sounds to me like a conveyor is the easiest way to go. Thanks for the great discussion.


----------



## TahoeTomahawk (Apr 12, 2006)

We just setup our new Vastex DBII-30 Infared dryer. Our first wash tests on white shirts were pretty amazing. We printed 3 shirts. The first was sent through the dryer 2 passes on the High setting through the dryer. The second shirt was heat pressed with a metal plate inside the shirt at 350' for 60 seconds.
After the wash, I could detect 0 color loss from either shirt while comparing it to the control shirt. 
This is much better washability than we used to get by normal heat press at 325 / 330 for 60 seconds using light pressure. If you look at some of my other posts, I am not a fan of printing on white at all due to the filibration and color loss.

As for the dark shirts, I'm still testing. I may use a combination of Dryer / Heat press as the dryer tends to make the print feel crispy and somewhat similar to a screen print, but after heat pressing for 20 or so seconds it becomes soft again.

I'll post some pictures of the wash tests and keep you guys updated.


----------

