The Big Interview
Is this the future of digital print?
P&P editor Melanie Attlesey speaks with Jim Nicol of TheMagicTouch and Colin Marsh of Resolute DTG to find out more about direct to film printing – the new garment decoration technique that is flooding the market right now.
F
or my fi rst trip out of the offi ce since the pandemic hit in March 2020, I had to make sure the visit was going to be a good one.
And what better way to spend the day than seeing a new technology in action. A technology which is pegged as an exciting addition to garment decoration that cannot be ignored.
TheMagicTouch and Resolute DTG have spent the past year beavering away behind the scenes to collaboratively bring to the market the R-Jet Pro DTF printer and automatic fi nishing unit, which utilises the newest in garment decoration technology. One of the fi rst things that Jim says to me on arrival at TheMagicTouch in Dunstable is that direct to garment printing is dead. Certainly, a bold claim to make. However, it is a claim that is seconded by Colin when I later speak to him.
Is DTG dead?
As Colin later says to me: “We have been in the DTG market for the last 12 years and have just watched it fall of a cliff in the last year. Anyone that has come in to view our range of DTG printers have seen the DTF printer sitting in the corner, asked for a demo and are then no longer interested in DTG.” The reasons for this will become clear later on. Direct to fi lm printing is an alternative process to DTG printing. Using a specially formulated water-based ink, a 60cm wide roll of PET fi lm transfer is printed using two eight channel Epson print heads at a rate of 20sq m per hour. Once printed, a hot-melt adhesive powder is applied to the ink to set the print. The transfer is then heat cured using infrared bulbs ready for storage or instant use. The transfers can be heat applied to garments or other substrates using a traditional heat press at 150˚C for just 15 seconds using medium pressure and warm-cool peel.
| 42 | November 2021
Jim Nicol and Colin Marsh at the launch of the DTF collaboration
TheMagicTouch’s journey to this point began in the summer of 2020 during a videocall with Chris Pisani, CEO of TheMagicTouch USA, when talk turned to this new technology that was emerging out of China. Jim explains: “Chris had been watching YouTube videos where Epson printers had been converted to print transfer fi lm. He was amazed by the technology.” Intrigued by the possibility,
TheMagicTouch purchased an Epson desktop printer and Nathan Newbury, head of technical, spent three months converting it to make it print transfer fi lms. The fi rst modifi ed printer took an average of 28 minutes to produce an A3 print, so it was clear that more work was needed to increase the speed to make it a viable alternative to methods currently on the market. The more Nathan tinkered with the concept the quicker the prints came out of the machine.
Having worked with Resolute DTG on previous projects, Jim approached Colin to start the ball rolling on producing a DTF system built from the ground up. Unbeknown to Jim, Colin had also been intrigued by this technology that was emerging out of China and was already in conversation with his manufacturer about developing a DTF system.
“We were about to launch a new DTG printer to the market and had placed an order for X number of units when our manufacturer said ‘have you seen this new technology? It doesn’t need pre-treatment’. We asked for some samples and when we saw them, we thought we’ve just wasted a whole load of money on a printer that is going to become obsolete in a year’s time,” explains Colin.
Utilising Resolute DTG’s knowledge of the DTG market and TheMagicTouch’s knowledge of the transfer market, the result was the R-Jet Pro DTF. It is one of the fasted fully automated systems available in the UK.
Three key advantages The best thing about the DTF set-up is that no weeding and no pre-treatment
The R-Jet Pro DTF printer
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