THE DTG COLUMN
Maximising profits with your Direct to Garment printer
Direct to garment printers can be used for so much more than just T shirts. Our resident expert, COLIN MARSH, managing director of Resolute DTG, tells you how to get the most from your machine.
U
tilising equipment to its full potential is a common subject approached by many business coaches when advising companies on how to maximise their profits.
The process is successful in a high percentage of businesses including garment decoration – especially direct to garment printing.
If you own or are thinking of purchasing a direct to garment printer, one important thing to remember is that you can produce much more than just T shirts. The theory behind direct to garment printing is to simply print ink onto fabric, light or dark colours, with no visible hard lines or background; in effect a similar product to a screen printed garment except there is no setup cost and you can print one-offs.
As long as your direct to garment printer has the correct platens you can print a variety of promotional items utilising the printerʼs full earning capability. Some of the most popular promotional items produced have very low unit costs
for blanks and generally take up little room to store. A good example is something more commonly associated with transfer printing or dye sublimation, the humble mouse mat. They can be purchased for less than a £1 and will generally sell for £10 and above for small quantities. If we look at the process on a direct to garment printer it is easy to see the production is much simpler.
Affordable
You can print a mouse mat with a solid image directly for as little as 10p in consumable ink costs in around a minute. With no transfer paper to print the process does not generate any waste. Using the same ink for garment printing means it is necessary to use only one printer and this reduces your carbon footprint. Small points but every little thing we do to help the environment counts. Moving on from the mouse mat, other popular items being produced on direct to garment printers are pre-wrapped
canvases, coasters, golf towels, bar towels, aprons, babygrows and many more.
With advances in water based inks it is also possible to print hard non porous surfaces, glass, metal, wood, plastics, tiles and just about anything that will fit into the printer can be decorated. This is all done, of course, with no pre- treatment printing directly on the product that will self-cure in a matter of minutes. Offering a wider range of products is a sure fire way to increase turnover and profits without having to invest in extra equipment.
That said, when looking for a direct to garment printer your research should include the printerʼs capability to produce a wide range of products to enable maximum earning capabilities. n If you have a general enquiry or question about direct to garment printing contact: Resolute DTG Ltd, Unit 2, Turnoaks Lane, Chesterfield S40 2HA. Tel: 01246 202686. Email: info@
resoluteink.co.uk;
www.resolutedtg.com
Quick printing tips from Resolute DTG Printing zipped hoodies
T
he zipped hoodie or zoodie is one of the most popular high earning products to print in low volumes using direct to garment technology.
Not all hoodies are suitable and you need to make sure you look out for some of the pitfalls with this product. The first point to remember is once you have printed your zoodie you will of course need to cure it. Make sure you do not use a zoodie with a plastic zip.
This will melt and is practically impossible to protect during the cure as the most impressive and popular prints will go straight across the zip.
The second point to remember is the polyester content in the fabric; the usual specification is a 60% cotton/40% polyester mix being the maximum recommended. Normally, any higher and you could suffer poor durability in the wash. However the Heather AWDis zoodie at 50% cotton 50% polyester prints very nicely and wash tests proved to be more than acceptable on this product. The AWDis retro hoodies at 80% cotton 20% polyester also give excellent results.
All specifications and test results are based on Resolute DTG products and we recommend that you always perform your own tests.
| 42 | March 2013
www.printwearandpromotion.co.uk
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