Surface printing has always been an extremely popular option for garment ornamentation, the main reason for which is the creativity it allows with the designs. Every year the complexity of designs in demand is increasing and so has to the technology which supports such sharp designs.
With the advent of digital inkjet printing, the time required and the complexity involved in surface printing were reduced to a great extent. A digital inkjet garment printer allows printing directly from the computer on the garment, without all the setup mess and high cost of traditional screen printing machines. It also facilitates the printing of more complex designs.
Of the many companies offering digital garment inkjet printers, Brother is one company that offers high quality printers. The latest to come out of their stable is the GT-782 “High Powered White Ink” inkjet garment printer which is the successor of the highly successful GT-541, white and light coloured garment printer. With many of their parts and printheads same, GT-782 scores above GT-541 in its ability to print on dark and black coloured garments as it can print white ink too.
This ability to store and print white ink is unique as there are typical problems related to the handling and storage of white ink. The reason for the whiteness of the ink is the presence of titanium dioxide particles in the aqueous solution of the ink, which is heavier than the other particles. As a result they tend to sink to the bottom and form a layer which clogs the printhead. Until the printer has the means to keep the ink stirred, it is very difficult to handle white ink inside an ink delivery system. GT-782 not only counteracts this problem with genuine white ink and ink cartridge system, but also provides sharp and durable designs using white ink.
There are many other features to this new model which makes it desirable, especially so for high volume shops. It has independently controlled dual platen and dual printhead modules, which means that two garments can be printed simultaneously with independent individual design for each. Apart from the normal platen size of 14” X 16”, oversize platens of 16” X 18” are provided alongside for printing on large garments. The machine also features large sized ink cartridges which enable more economical operations. With newly developed print driver software, no separate and costly RIP (raster image processor) is required. This makes the printer flexible for operators to customize white ink print specific features.
The interface required for the printer is Windows Print Driver Interface. Also all major Windows graphic applications are supported. The software can directly interact with most of the popular graphic applications, such as Adobe Photoshop and CorelDraw for seamless white ink prints.
GT-782 has a high print speed of 50-60 prints per hour for light garments. For dark garments the speed is 50-60 prints per hour in the standard mode and 30-40 prints per hour in highlight white mode. It is recommended that the printing be done on 100% cotton or 50/50 cotton/polyester garments for best results. The printer requires a pre-treatment of manually applying and drying using a heat press machine. A conveyer oven is recommended for ink curing to support high productivity of the printer.
What is remarkable about GT-782 is the quality of prints which it delivers and the durability of the prints even after rigorous wash cycles. The wash durability of the prints is excellent and conforms to AATCC 3.00 to 4.00. With such desirable features and the name of Brother, the GT-782 has a good chance to become one of the most useful garment inkjet printers to be around.
