Fespa 2013 may see a Blizzard for the first time as DTG Digital launches its new pre-treatment machine on stand M66N at this show.
As with screen-printing direct to garment needs a white base when printing onto anything other than a white surface. Unlike screen-print though a direct to garment machine does not have the benefit of flash curing and it is here that the pre-treat comes into play. When the white ink hits the pre-treated surface a reaction takes place ensuring that the white ink is dry enough to accept the CMYK.
Disadvantages of spray gun
Traditionally this process has been carried out manually using a spray gun but this has three major disadvantages. Firstly you can only guess how much pre-treat you are applying and human nature generally dictates that you overcompensate. As too much pre-treat can be as bad as too little this is not an ideal situation. Secondly, to ensure that all of the area to be printed is covered there is a tendency to spray a bigger area than is actually needed. Finally there is the problem of contamination. If the spraying is done outside of a spray booth then there is no way to avoid air-born particles being deposited on other surfaces.
New Pre-treat machine
The new Pre-Treat machine from DTG Digital and ITE, “The Blizzard”, takes care of all of this for you. With its fully enclosed spraying area the risk of contamination is solved and, with the isolated garment holding section, even garment areas not to be printed are protected. To minimise the amount of pre-treat fluid used the stroke can be adjusted so that only the area to be printed is treated which, when combined with the control for the volume of liquid used, results in a reduction in the amount of fluid used (when compared with the manual method).
The thickness of garments is not a problem either as the base which holds the garment is fully height adjustable so it doesn’t matter whether you are printing a t-shirt or a hoodee. Maintenance and cleaning have also been considered with the Blizzard which boasts a purging system not only simplifying the cleaning process but also saving valuable time. Although fully enclosed the unit has a ‘lift-up’ lid to make cleaning simple and efficient.
Built using modern materials The Blizzard runs on compressed air, so “no electrical mains” connections to worry about. All in all the New DTG Digital “Blizzard” pre-treat machine has been designed to improve efficiency and quality in the direct to garment arena which it achieves without difficulty.
Roy Burton (Managing Director of ITE) said “We fully appreciate how prestigious Fespa is and we knew that it was a must for The Blizzard. We are really looking forward to seeing the industries reaction to a machine that has been needed for quite a while now”. “If you are involved in direct to garment printing and you are attending Fespa you really cannot afford to missThe Blizzard on stand M66N”
