Direct to garment printing

DTG Patent Drawings

Direct to garment printing, also known as DTG printing, digital direct to garment printing, digital apparel printing, D2, and inkjet to garment printing, is a process of printing on textiles and garments using specialized or modified ink jet technology. The three key requirements for a DTG printer are a way to hold the garment in a fixed position, an inkjet print head, and specialty inks (inkjet textile inks) that are applied to the textile directly by the print head and are absorbed by the garments fibers.

The history of direct to garment printing in the United States began in 1996 with the introduction of the first commercially available DTG printer named “Revolution” developed by DIS of Bradenton, FL and based on an invention of Matthew Rhome.

Mr. Rhome had been working on the DTG project for some years prior to release and applied for a patent in July 1996. This patent was granted by the US patent office in August 2000 making it the first DTG patent and solidifying Mr. Rhome as the founder of the DTG industry.

The Revolution printer was offered for sale until 1998 when the inventor and patent holder, Matthew Rhome, left the company to start development of the first Brother DTG printer which came to market in 2005. Mr. Rhome is currently employed by Epson America as head of DTG Business Development.

Since the time of the Revolution printer there was a lot of development but not much sales activity in the market until 2004 when Mimaki introduced their printer at the ISS show in Chicago and later that year when Kornit and US Screen displayed their offerings at the SGIA show in Minneapolis, MN. Many DTG manufacturing printer companies have come and gone since the mid 2000’s but the market has continued to grow. The most notable introduction has been by Epson of their F2000 printer in early 2014. This printer has many ground breaking technologies and went on to become the number one selling DTG printer in the world.

A primary advantage of DTG printing is the lack of set-up costs and instant turnaround time not associated with traditional garment printing methods such as screen printing. The comparative disadvantage of DTG is equipment maintenance and ink cost. Ink technology developments have significantly improved ink performance and lowered ink cost. Digital printing technologies are non-contact, meaning that media is printed on without hand contact, allowing for a more precise image. This prevents the image distortion that takes place in screen printing.

Cost per liter of ink and so cost per print varies widely among printing equipment in the same price range. Ink cost and maintenance costs are the 2 areas with the most impact on profitability.

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Wikipedia