DTF Or Direct To Film and Its Demand In The Market
The textile printing process has been on the cusp of rapid growth and transformation over the past few decades. It refers to decorating fabrics by applying dyes, pigments, and other materials used for printing. Before the arrival of digital printing technology, the textile industry relied on the screen printing process.
With digital printing technology undergoing rapid development in recent years, you can see more textile manufacturers shifting to the digitized process by adapting direct to film (DTF) technology. There are several processes and advantages of DTF printing.
Here are some reasons why Direct to Film is taking the on-demand market by storm.
Why Is Screen Printing Not the Right Choice for Your Textile Business?
Every entrepreneur should be aware of how his production methods are affecting the environment. Hence, every textile manufacturer needs to consider the sustainability of the printing method used to protect the environment.
Screen printing uses lots of water, and the inks used in the printing process are not biodegradable. Sellers who order screen printing give bulk orders. These sellers send the finished garments as the order pours, which means there is always a risk of overproduction.
- Slow Process
Another drawback of screen printing is the high entry costs and slow process. It can take hours or days to set up jobs with color amounts which increases set-up costs. Due to the high entry costs, screen printing is not ideal for short runs, so you cannot order five t-shirt pieces with certain graphics.
- Poor Reproduction of Colors
The effective resolution of screen printing is also low as there is a limit on the number of dots you can put in a specific area of fabric. Hence, the reproduction of printed fabric with accurate photographic colors is a challenging task.
Is There a Good Alternative to Screen Printing?
Direct to garment is a new technology that has been around for two decades. The DTG printing has been commercialized in the last 7-8 years to replace expensive and slow screen printing technology.
The DTG printing is more sustainable than screen printing, and there is no set-up time. It means textile manufacturers can fulfill print orders at short notice. Direct to Garment printing needs special DTG printers and specialized printing inks that increase the printing costs. Besides, ink consumption is also high, which makes printing less economical. The high costs of DTG printers are also a big drawback that prevents textile manufacturers from embracing this new technology.
Direct-to-Film printing can be a better alternative to Direct-To-Garment technology. The Direct to Film printing technology overcomes all drawbacks of DTG and provides textile and garment manufacturers with economical, environmentally friendly, and fast printing technology.
DTF – Revolutionizing Textile Printing
Direct-to-Film is a revolutionizing textile printing technology. Unlike DTG printing which needed special printers for the job, the direct-to-film printing is done with basic six tank color printers like Epson L800, L805, and L1800? The reason these printers can be used for digital-to-film printing is they have six color tanks. The CMYK DTF inks go into standard CMYK tanks, while the white DTF inks go into LC and LM tanks.
Direct to Film, DTF printing is fast, and there is virtually no time required for set-up. The new printing technology allows for short runs, which means you can also fulfill print orders of small batches and still get good profits. Sellers are also happy with the arrival of direct-to-film technology as they can order on-demand, and the profits are not reduced due to overproduction.
Advantages of Direct-To-Film Printing
Direct-to-film printing has made textile printing a lot easier. It is also cheaper as there is no pretreatment required, and it uses a lot less ink. For example, DTG printing uses 80% color ink and 200% white ink. On the other hand, DTF printing uses 60% color ink and 20% white ink. The white ink used in textile is costlier than color ink which makes DTF printing less expensive.
DTG printing needs pretreatment of fabric before printing. Just imagine how much time is wasted to pre-treat one shirt and wait until it dries before it can be sent for printing. It will take 5 minutes per shirt to spray the pretreatment liquid manually and put the shirt through the roller.
There is no pretreatment required with DTF, which means no pre-treat boxes or vinegar smells in your printing room. Just imagine, you save 5 minutes per shirt in DTF printing. How much would you save in a day printing 100 shirts?
To sum up, there is no doubt DTF printing is the technology of the future that will allow the textile industry to cut costs, reduce the use of chemicals, and provide customers with customized designs while maintaining profitability.
