Direct-to-garment printing

Printing process

DTG printers use aqueous textile inks (water-based chemistry) that require a unique curing process. Since D2 inks are water-based, they work best for printing on natural fibers such as cotton, bamboo, hemp, and linen. In addition, pre-treatment is typically applied to the garment before printing. The pre-treatment is heat-pressed into the custom t-shirt causing the fibers of the shirt to lay down. The pre-treatment also allows the water-based inks to bond more fully to the garment. This is especially important when using white ink on dark garments.

Once the custom garment -for instance a t-shirt- has been properly pre-treated, the shirt (or garment) is then positioned onto a platten system designed to hold the shirt in place. The shirt is then digitally printed according to the design in the printer queue.

History

Direct-to-garment printing in the United States began in 1996 with the introduction of the first commercially available DTG printer named "Revolution", developed by DIS of Bradenton, Florida, and based on an invention of Matthew Rhome. Rhome had been working on the DTG project for some years and applied for a patent in July 1996. This patent was granted by the US patent office in August 2000 making it the first DTG patent.

The Revolution printer was offered for sale until 1998 when Rhome left the company to start development of the first Brother DTG printer, which came to market in 2005.

After the release of the Revolution printer, there was a lot of development but not much sales activity in the market until 2004 when Mimaki introduced their printer at the ISS show in Chicago, Illinois and, later that year, when Kornit and US Screen displayed their offerings at the SGIA show in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In 2005, at the ISS Atlantic City show, Brother International introduced the GT-541 Garment Printer to the market making it the first “ground up” DTG printer offered. This printer had print heads, ink, and electronics developed specifically for DTG printing.

At the Chicago PRINT 2013 show Epson introduced the F2000 printer. The release of this printer was notable as it addressed many of the issues prevalent in DTG printing at the time. One of the most important features of the Epson F2000 was its ink set as it had a two-year shelf life and did not have the settling or clogging issues of previously introduced DTG inks.

By May 2019, the North American DTG market was currently valued at over $2.5 billion with a compound annual growth rate of 10.5% through 2021.

References

References

1. Cahill, Vince. (1998). "Introduction to Digital Printing Technology". Screenprinting & Graphic Imaging Association International.
2. "How To Print A Custom T-Shirt".
3. Fresener, Scott. (2016-08-10). "The Death of Screen Printing - written in 1996". T-Biz Network International.
4. "Apparatus for ink jet printing".
5. Sepaniak, Sandra. (2016). "Back to the Future: A Brief History and Evolution of D2 Printing".
6. (October 2019). "Brother GT 541Press Release".
7. "GP-604 Series".
8. "SGIA '04 Recap: The Microcosm Meets the Macrocosm".
9. "Direct-to-Garment Printers".
10. "Direct-to-Garment Printing Landscape Grows Across Commercial and Industrial Sectors".