Page 22 - Print21 Nov-Dec 2019

Textile Printing
Top10Tips 1for Textil2e Printing
Michael Cunha, application specialist at Starleaton, says colour fidelity is achievable printing onto textiles, if you follow these ten simple steps.
Monitor colour Manage the environment
Starleaton: end-to-end
textile solutions
John Buitenkamp, product manager at Starleaton, says that textile printing should be within the ability of wide format and commercial printers – for while new skills
need to be learned, the workflow
is similar. He says, “The key is investing in quality hardware and media, combined with a systematic approach to colour. Textiles are not just another type of paper or vinyl, they require a thoughtful approach.”
Starleaton itself is an end-to-
end supplier, which for commercial and wide format printers looking
to enter the textile printing world means one point of contact for the whole workflow. This includes the printer itself – Starleaton supplies the EFI FabriVu dye sublimation roll to roll printer, as well as the direct
to garment Epson and Roland DG printers; it also sells the Klieverik calendar system for transferring the ink from the paper onto the fabric, the cutter, and the finishing systems to prevent potential fraying. Then there is the fabric and the paper, from leading manufacturers like Neena Coldenhove; the colour management with rip and X-Rite instruments
and software; and finally the colour management consultancy, with Michael Cunha and team.
Buitenkamp says, “Printing
onto fabric is a high growth, high margin opportunity. The trend to fast fashion is unstoppable. Soft signage has some serious benefits. Personalised home décor is growing fast. Sports apparel is a huge area.
“Starleaton has a wealth of experience and knowledge within the company to ensure that anyone looking at making an investment in the market is well set up with solutions and media that will do the job, and with the back-up of Starleaton expertise to help them on the way.” 21
Invest in a decent colour monitor like those from Eizo to soft proof the designs with the colour gamut
you are able to achieve. By matching the design into the rip profile you will be able
to tell if what the designer
3wants is actually achievable. of day, or th4e season of the year.
Textiles are even more susceptible to environmental changes than paper. Ideally textile printing should take place within a controlled location, where the ambient temperature and the humidity are a constant. If that is not possible make sure that the environment is controlled as much as possible. Fabrics will respond to the environment, and may change in different locations with your factory, or according to the time
Manage the media
The dye sub paper being used for jobs should
be placed in the environment where it will be pretreated. This means it will not
Pretreat your fabric
printed at least 24 hours before the job. This
is to give the media time to acclimatise. If for instance you take a roll of fabric or paper from a cold warehouse location and put it straight onto the printer, which is likely to be in a warmer room, there may be issues as the media has not had time to adjust.
stretch or shrink beyond acceptable tolerances. If you have media
that has not been pre-treated you may struggle to work within the inconsistencies of fabric, and that takes time and creates waste. Much better to buy already treated.
567
Make sure your fabric has been
Buy quality
Colour Print by
product
numbers
Today’s rips from the
likes of EFI, Ergosoft
and Onyx have specially
prepared colour
management profiles
for textiles. They will
set your printer to
optimum for printing
onto textiles, which is
different to printing
on9to paper or vinyl. by whom it is printed.
Cheap textile from
the internet or China may not have been pre-treated, and may use inferior materials. Good textile may cost extra up front, but you will more than make that back in savings on wastage, time, and
8customer retention. Don’t over ink
Once the ink reaches its correct amount, any more is just wasted. More ink does not affect the colour – in fact, it can create additional problems like colour run.
profiling
Eyeball matching is an inexact science. Its accuracy varies from person to person, and even from the same person. A dedicated textile spectrophotometer such as the new X-Rite I1Pro+3 will give you the actual figures, so the product will match the original no matter where and
Buy good hardware
The Klieverik calendar system has an oil heated drum, which means the temperature is absolutely consistent across the width. If you have a drum heated by elements, temperatures can vary in different parts, affecting the ability to sublimate consistent quality.
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Do all the above and you are good to go.
22 Print21 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2019