Decorated-Apparel Transfer Printing with DTG
Today’s decorated-apparel professionals can dramatically expand their design and product offerings to include direct-to-film (DTF) with an existing direct-to-garment printer.
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Digital Decorating: Heat Transfer
Let’s Get Things Straight
When starting out printing T-shirts, there are a few challenges to overcome. The most common one is correctly positioning the graphic on the shirt. Here are a few tips for getting graphics straight on your heat press platen.
Start out by ensuring the T-shirt is loaded onto the heat press platen straight. Once you have the shirt centered on the platen, it makes it easier to get the graphic in the right place. If you’re threading the shirt and printing it upside down (also known as screen-printing style), pull the shirt taut with the bottom platen so the platen is wearing the shirt the way the customer would and make sure the tag is centered on the platen. If you are not threading the shirt, simply line up the tag with the backbone of the heat press.
Once the shirt is centered on the platen, create a centered line. A crease down the center of the shirt from the fold makes the perfect alignment tool. To be sure the crease is in the center of the shirt, consider this technique before lining up your graphic. Fold the shirt in half, sleeve to sleeve, and press a centered line using your heat press. This provides a crease for centering designs or positioning them properly for a left or right chest print.
If you’re looking for an automated way to ensure complete accuracy, there is no more efficient way to line up graphics than with a T-square, ruler or laser alignment system. A laser-alignment system projects up to four lasers onto the garment and maximizes production efficiency. It also guarantees 100% accuracy of the transfer alignment.
Courtney Kubitza is Stahls’ TV educational content manager. For more information, visit stahlstv.com or stahls.com.
More Heat Transfer News
Finding the Right Heat Press: Part 3
In Parts 1 and 2 of this three-part series, we talked about how the three main variables in heat pressing are temperature, time and pressure. We then went on to look at what to look for in a heat press to ensure you meet these conditions consistently.
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Finding the Right Heat Press: Part 2
In Part 1 of our three-part series on heat presses, we looked at the basic design types and features apparel decorators want to keep in mind when considering a new system. In Part 2 we look at speciality presses for decorating caps and applying shirt labels, and also multi-function presses
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