Anyone use one of the large UV Flatbed printer for doing print all over cotton shirts

[videorov]

They can print on many diffrent types of material looks like but wonder
if they could print all over cotton shirts that you would lay down on the bed. Do any of these flatbeds have vacuum tables or something on the bed to make things sit still.
Im thinking about buying a large one since they can print on many diffrent materials and wondered about the cotton shirts too.
Im going to ISA in Orlando to check some out and see which one I want.
I know they are not cheap but I have the funds.
Im not really going to use it for signs but for my own artwork and other stuff.

 

[J Hill Designs]

a) must be nice
b) doubt it

 

[videorov]

Hmmmmm

Well I hope there is a large flatbed that will do it and more.

 

[SignManiac]

You should have no problem printing on fabric but I would question the durability for long term exposure...

 

[J Hill Designs]

I was doubting printing on cotton

 

[StarSign]

We have done this, however I would not recommend it.

 

[CentralSigns]

There is a machine you can put the shirts on a special holder that carries the shirt into the printer. They are nice and print direct to the shirt. Too slow to be a money making machine.

 

[videorov]

There is a machine you can put the shirts on a special holder that carries the shirt into the printer. They are nice and print direct to the shirt. Too slow to be a money making machine.

Yea the auto silkscreen machines with a large platter for all over prints
is fast once things are setup. I was just wondering if there was something
to do it all. I really don't need big volume for this custom artwork special
runs anyway. But I do need it to last for a bit. I will have to ask some of
the companies about how long they would last, when Im at the show this
next month in Orlando.
I need to do some large things, thats why Im looking at the large flatbeds
over say a 16 color auto silkscreen for now.

 

[Aklaim]

UV Inks are skin irritants. I would highly advise to not attempt to make clothing with them.

 

[ThinkRight]

Check these out
http://www.anajet.com/news/pdf/whats_new_dtg.pdf
http://www.equipmentzone.com/direct-to-garment-packages.html
http://www.omniprintonline.com/
http://www.dtgprint.com/

 

[artbot]

here's a flatbed that has some t-shirt jigs. i'm using an encad to build a flatbed right now. also there are lots of diy dtg sites. many of the forum members do builds for people that do not want to hack a printer them self. search under diy dtg.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xEBdjvtCP8

 

[sowinski_t]

At a previous shop I ran an OCE 250GT and we ran tests on basically every material we could get our hands on, including a variety of fabrics. This flatbed has a vacuum table to hold down the substrate, as well as a roll to roll option. However, what we found on MOST fabrics is that the ink would flake off because a cotton tshirt has a certain amount of stretch to it, and the ink has effectively. This might be different on other machines running different inks, maybe somebody else can chip in with their two cents.
Long story short, we didn't have very much success printing on cotton tshirts. Or anything that didn't have a "solid" surface like carpet for example. We had pretty good success printing on everything from wood veneer to mirrored glass to brushed aluminum...

 

[videorov]

here's a flatbed that has some t-shirt jigs. i'm using an encad to build a flatbed right now. also there are lots of diy dtg sites. many of the forum members do builds for people that do not want to hack a printer them self. search under diy dtg.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xEBdjvtCP8

Yes that is interesting.

 

[artbot]

i like how they hacked the IR paper load sensor with an external shining down on a piece of aluminum. ...note taken.

 

[the graphics lab]

I have made a few on a 2504 HD. The ink doesn't fade at all nor does it irritate the skin. I built a platen to lay on the table and it works great. The biggest concern is getting the head height right.

here is an old video just taped to the bed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcnLBLJ6WpU&list=UU21eEltLEr07yOF5SlWCE9Q&index=11&feature=plcp

 

[jnataros]

We UV flatbed print shirts all the time, but our printer has an oven to cure the soaked in ink not reachable by UV light. This step has been important to us.

We use a WP digital Virtu RS 25 w/oven option mounted underneath