DTG Workflow Recommendations - Polyprint Focused

[lryerkerk]

Having a good workflow is a huge key to being efficient with DTG printing. It's one of the larger factors in getting your pieces per hour up. The goal for any DTG is to keep it printing and not waiting. Here is my workflow I use in our shop when running our Polyprint Echo2.

*Note: We typically will pretreat as we go, but some shops prefer to pretreat in bulk the morning they're printing jobs. Pretreating beforehand can be done, but make sure you heat press the shirt for 15 to 20 seconds to remove any excess moisture and help lay the fibers back down before printing.

Workflow:

• Press the Shirt for 15 Seconds Before Pretreating - This helps remove any excess moisture and allows the garment to accept pretreat better.
• Apply Pretreatment - This is best done with a pretreatment machine. I'm currently using the Pearl Elite and really like it.
• Cure Pretreatment at Medium to High Temperature - We are using the Dupont 5003 and Firebird FBX-100 for pretreating dark garments right now. Both work great and have the same parameters for pressing at 340 for 40 seconds at medium to high pressure on an average shirt.
• Press "Print" on the Design in the RIP - It's recommended that you load your designs into the RIP before printing, but you can also do this as you go. Pressing "Print" BEFORE you load the shirt is key. RIPs need to process the image and then send it to the printer. Having this happen while you're loading the shirt will guarantee that the design is processed and waiting to be printed when the shirt goes into the DTG.
• Load the Shirt and Send It - With the Polyrpint Echo2 I like to thread the shirt so managing any wrinkles can be easier. TIP: Use the auto-height feature if this is the first shirt you're printing of this style or first of the day.
• Prepress and Pretreat the Next Shirt - Do this while the current shirt is printing so it will be ready to be printed right when the current shirt is completed. If you only have one heat press, you'll want to try and get two shirts pretreated during this time or pretreat beforehand so you're just needing to do a quick press on the garment to keep things flowing.
• Cure the Shirt - Here's another place where you can really make up some time. If you have a dryer like the Vastex Little Red X3-D you can just send the shirt down it to do the final cure. If not, take the shirt off and put it on the heat press and let the heating element hover while you press print and load the next shirt to print. When you send the next shirt in to print, go ahead and apply pressure to your heat press for the required time.
  • Final Cure Settings for Dupont 5003 and Firebird FBX-100
    • 340 Degrees F
    • Hover for 20-30 secs (This is done while you're loading the next shirt.)
    • Press at low pressure for 120 seconds.
  • For a dryer you will typically want the shirt to be exposed to forced air heat for over 3 minutes around 300 degrees.
    • With the Vastex Little Red X3D I am running it at 2 mins 15 secs because of the design and layout of the heating elements.