Following intense development Impression Technology Europe (ITE) is now ready to launch “The Blizzard”, the latest pre-treat machine, an important part of the process which can be the ‘make or break’ of a good print.
Direct to garment printing 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.
Spray gun
Traditionally this process has been carried out manually using a spray gun but this has three major disadvantages. Firstly you can only assess how much pre-treat is being applied 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. With its fully enclosed spraying area the risk of air-born particles contaminating other areas is solved and, with the fully enclosed garment holding section, garment areas not to be printed are also protected. Although fully enclosed the unit it has a ‘lift-up’ lid to make cleaning simple and efficient. To minimise the amount of pre-treat fluid used the stroke can be adjusted so that only the area to be printed is treated.
Add to this the fact that the amount of pre-treat laid down is also strictly controlled you will immediately see 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 on which it is placed is fully height adjustable so it doesn’t matter whether you are printing a t-shirt or a hoody. Maintenance and cleaning have also been considered with this new model boasting a purging system not only simplifying the cleaning process but also saving valuable time.
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 and it achieves this without difficulty.
On show
The Blizzard’s début will take place between the 9th to 13th January in DTG Digital’s first European show of the year at Souvenir Expo Greece. The United Kingdom will be able to view this machine for the first time between February 24th and 26th at “Printwear & Promotion Live 2013”.
