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The global market for custom t-shirts printing is expected to witness considerable growth alongside the consumers requirement for personal edits, and customisation. As the world’s population rises, global affluence is increasing in-line with the income level of households globally, and with a further shifting trend predicted towards the purchase of fashionable, trend driven customised garments.
The combined DTG sector in North America was valued at over $2.6 billion in and is expected to achieve double-digit growth (10%+) on an annual basis.
Mass customization, increased personalization, and the consumers awareness of environmental sourcing and its eco-friendly benefits are fuelling the growth of short-run print on demand direct to garment printing across multiple markets, with significant growth also predicted for the luxury sector.
There are two main ink-sets used in DTG T-Shirt and Apparel printing, and these are Dye-Sublimation and Pigment.
Pigment DTG printing is a one step process, lending itself to mass production, with excellent wash fastness and migration properties, and has the advantage that products made from virtually any fabric composition can be printed. Cotton, Poly-Cotton and Polyester can all be successfully printed using the DTG pigment route of production.
In contrast: Dye sublimation has the pre-existing advantage of being an established entry level option for small quantities. However, Dyes Sublimation has a number of significant drawbacks. These include cost per print, washability, dyestuff migration and a narrow fabric range. Dye sublimation prints are also labour intensive with a high labour cost per print, as well as a practical limitation to achieving industrial production performance. Additionally, some technologies facilitating Dyesub DTG printing have issues with poor washability and dye migration, with migration happening up to six months after the product has been sold.
Finally, and importantly, Dyesub DTG printing is confined to only articles made from Polyester yarns and cannot successfully print either cotton or polyester blends.
DTG pigment printing is widely accepted to be the most eco-friendly and sustainable method of printing.
DTG printing using eco-friendly, certified inks, uses little water and has a minute energy requirement, these inks are absolutely free of heavy metals, formaldehyde and Alkylphenol Ethoxylates (APE), making them non-hazardous, non-toxic and biodegradable. They provide a waterless printing system, using biodegradable ink and energy saving processes, making DTG Pigment the eco-friendly printing solution.
Dye sublimation DTG printing in contrast, using the transfer process, wastes as many meters of paper as it prints to textiles and the paper it wastes contains traces of developed inks that require special disposal.
DTG Pigment printing can comfortably handle a wide spectrum of fabric types, these include, 100% cotton blends, poly blends (50% cotton/50% polyester), and tri-blends.
Dye sublimation transfer printing can only print 100% Polyester fabrics, which in the T-Shirt Market where Cotton is the predominant fibre used, constitutes a significant disadvantage.
The consumer demands ever more sophisticated and complex fibre blends for garment performance. Predicted growth within the market sectors of customised sportswear and athleisure offer exponential commercial opportunities.
Unlike other ink sets, pigment printing enables instant color-matching and design approval on the machine as it prints.
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At the management approval stage, the print can be seen as it will appear after fixation and further processing, as opposed to dye sublimation, where the print is seen only on paper and has to be developed by a heat press to view the final product. This makes for a difficult practical environment for product approval, whereby a dye sublimation sample has to be transferred and then approved prior to production commencing.
Pigment ink printing, despite its still low popularity, has already permanently entered the textile industry, becoming an integral part of it. The share of this particular method of dyeing and printing fabrics currently amounts to around 3% on the textile market, but this does not diminish the advantages of pigment printing. What are the strengths of this printing process?
Pigment ink printing is one of the four digital textile printing methods. Digital printing is divided according to the type of dye used, and this group includes pigment ink printing, dye-sublimation printing as well as acid dye printing and reactive dye printing.
See also: Fabric printing methods – which printing technology to choose?
A wide range of applications spanning from textile dyeing to pattern printing makes the pigment ink process more and more popular on the market. One of the reasons for its success is that it removes many of the existing printing constraints. For example, it enables printing on both printed t-shirts and fabric bolts with a pattern – original or selected from a catalogue.
Although it still accounts for a small share of fabric dyeing and printing methods used today, using pigment inks is in many cases the most desirable way to print on textiles. It enables us to create unique patterns on a wide assortment of fabrics, made of various fibres, although, of course, it has its limitations. In practice, printing on cotton textiles is predominant, though this does not exclude the use of fabrics made from polyester or cellulose fibres such as lyocell or Tencel. On the other hand, waterproof fabrics or eco-leather are not suitable for pigment ink printing.
Printing on fabrics made from cellulose requires a complex finishing process for such textiles to preserve their colouring effect. This procedure requires both water and chemicals. It also involves increased production costs, resource consumption and environmental pollution, so not every digital fabric printing house offers to print on, for example, viscose. For the present, printing using reactive dyes remains the best method of printing on cellulose fibres.
Digital fabric printing allows, above all, retail customers to display their talents. It is not just large clothing companies that can produce unique sewing textiles now. Thanks to digital fabric printing houses, anyone can do it. You can design your pattern from a drawing or a photo or choose a ready-made design from a catalogue. There are many options and even more ways to use such fabrics. From the perspective of small entrepreneurs, it is also an appealing alternative to having to order entire bolts of fabric and storing them in warehouses. Nothing stands in the way of creating a short line of patterns to create limited pieces for the collection. Even the creation of sample textiles does not have to involve ordering at least a few running metres of fabrics.
For the amateurs of textile printing, the main advantage of pigment ink printing will certainly be its low cost. Digital pigment ink printing eliminates the need for expensive printing plates, as in the case of screen printing, so that the sole cost of the printing process is not enormously high. Besides, the customer is not limited by the minimum order size. In the case of digital pigment ink printing, it is possible to create even a few centimetres of printed fabric.
At CottonBee you can order a sample print in size 20 cm x 20 cm or a 48 cm x 48 cm size.
No need for printing plates also affects the order fulfilment time. Fabric printing houses that use dye-sublimation or reactive dye printing processes only accept large projects, usually several months in advance. In such a case, the order fulfilment time may be significantly prolonged. As far as using the services of an Internet textile printing house, you can have a ready order at home in up to 5 working days. You are also not obliged to place orders for several or several dozen running meters of fabric.
Digital pigment ink printing process allows only the surface colouring of the fabric. Therefore, the colourful pattern is on top of the fabric, while the underneath remains in its natural, usually white, colour. The inks do not seep into the fibres, as in the case of reactive dye printing. This is also connected to the longevity of such colouring, which is shorter compared to the dye-sublimation or reactive dye printing processes. As a surface printing method, pigment ink prints are vulnerable to more rapid washing out. After many washes, the patterns may lose some of their intensity. Pigmented fabrics do not tolerate rubbing very well, especially when wet.
Digital pigment ink printing allows printing from a very wide range of colours and provides excellent tonal transitions. Nevertheless, it has some constraints in terms of colour reproduction. Bright colours are very difficult to achieve using this method, while special colours such as metallic or fluorescent are not achievable at all. Also, it is a technology that favours bright, pastel prints. Although recreating deep black is not a problem, pigment ink printing will not be the best choice for printing predominantly black patterns with white elements.
See also: Digital fabric printing: what awaits in the future?
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