Direct-to-Garment printing on performance fabric
Digitally printed 100% polyester performance fabric T-shirt is very difficult and tricky, but we know the techniques and tricks to get our Kornit printers to print on performance fabric. The bright and vibrant colors “pop” off the t-shirt.
This week we are performing extensive ties
ting on the 100% polyester performance fabric the ST 350 from Sanmar. We are running different colors from gold, red, navy, bright orange, and bright yellow. We brought the shirts home and washed them and they came out fantastic.
Polyester Fabric
I’m gonna be giving you the secret sauce how to print a performance fabric teachers use in the Kornit Storm Hexa printers. This formula will make sense if you are in the printing industry, but if you’re an end user like a construction company this will make no sense. So if you are the end user, please give us a call to do all the work.
Printing on polyester is like printing on a multi-color screen print when you have a clash between the colors. Instead of using the flash we lay down the pre-treat and let it so
into the fabric for at least 30 seconds which will prevent the pre-treat from running all over the shirt. After 30 second delay, the Kornit will come back and print the white base plate and again we will wait for 30 seconds. We will pass over one more time with a white plate to give good coverage with white base plates. After the base plates are laid down we will go over with the full-color print heads again we can do a double pass with the colors to give that vibrant print.
- Pretreat: Let it soak in for 30 seconds
- White Base Plate: Wait 30 seconds
- 2nd White Base Plate: Wait 30 seconds
- Lay down the color
Dryer Temperature
Turn the dryer temperature down to 275° and decrease the belt speed. The shirt needs to be in the oven for at least 12 minutes. When the shirt comes out of the oven pick it up look at the print make sure it’s not too sticky. If it is still sticky run it through the dryer one more time. You can’t hurt the shirt by running through the dryer multiple times.
This is how we print performance fabric at Northwest Custom Apparel and if you have any questions give us a call at 1-800-851-3671
