Identity Printing takes UK’s first Resolute DTF printer
Identity Printing has become the first company in the UK to install Resolute DTG’s new direct-to-film (DTF) transfer printing system for garments.
Purchased direct from Resolute, the R-Jet Pro direct-to-film printer was installed at the Manchester-based company’s site in early May.
Resolute DTG and The Magic Touch collaborated for six months to create the roll-fed Rjet Pro DTF. It combines a 600mm wide PET film with pigmented textile inks.
After printing in Resolute R-Jet Pro DTF the film goes through a unit, which lightly coats it using a hot melt adhesive. The resulting transfer is then cured using an inline ‘Shake & Bake’ unit or a traditional dryer.
The final transfer can be applied directly to textiles or garments with a heat-press, without any pre-treatment.
Identity Printing print room manager Zahid Ali told Printweek: “When we saw the machine we were blown away with the quality of the feel, the handle, and the general look of the transfer itself so we placed an order straight away.”
He stated that the main draws to the machine were the elimination of pre-treatment and the ability print on multiple substrates.
“If a garment’s not the right quality or pre-treat isn’t done right, no matter how good your machine is it doesn’t give you good quality print.
“But the main reason for purchasing this machine is so we can print onto polyester garments. We’ve got our own fashion brand, MisRep, which is end retail. It’s all DTG with embroidery; hoodies sell for about £80 to £120 a piece and t-shirts for about £50 to £60 a piece. It’s a young, trendy market that we’ve done extremely well with.
“But the polyester hoodie is one of the things that was our nemesis, we can’t print onto polyester with DTG machines. Even if you jumped through all the hoops to print on it, the quality wasn’t there, but with this the transfer goes on and it’s got stretchability, quality, and clarity, and it feels really nice on a polyester hoodie as well.”
Ali said the company had found the new machine easy to run, “with nothing complicated whatsoever on it”, and that the business was up and running with it on the same day it was installed.
Five-staff Identity Printing also has three Ricoh DTG printers: an RI 6000, two RI 1000s and four Resolute direct-to-substrate ultraviolet printers. They also have a specialist embroidery kit from Midwest.
90% of its work is for MisRep, two new brands the company is currently developing. The remaining 10% is for walk-in customers.
A complete R-Jet Pro DTF system, incorporating printer, Shake & Bake unit, RIP, inks, films, and powders, is £15,000 plus VAT and includes installation, training, and warranty support.