How much space do I need?
You can set up your GTXpro printing station in a spare room, garage or just about anywhere that’s convenient. The Dimensions of the printer are 55” (W) x 51” (D) x 21” (H) or 1400mm x 1290mm x 535mm). You’ll also need a heat press and automatic pre-treater. The sizes of these pieces vary depending upon the manufacturer you choose. However the average user can run a full set up in a 4m x 4m room.
What type of environment should the GTXpro be in?
The room that the GTXpro printer is located in should be a clean, climate controlled room. Temperature ranges should stay within 10-35 degrees Celsius and relative humidity between 20% to 85%. When printing, it is recommended to be within 18-30 degrees C and relative humidity between 35% to 85%.
What items can I print on?
The GTXpro uses water-based inks. The substrate being printed on needs to absorb and bind with the ink. Items with open, porous fibers like 100% cotton are ideal. Other items that are not treated or sealed, such as stone coaster, natural wood, raw leather and other items may allow the inks to bind to them as well. New substrates should be tested before going into production.
Can I print on more than the center of the shirt?
GTXpro print heads have a large print head-to-substrate gap that makes it easier to print over zippers, seams, pockets and more. This allows for doing wrap around prints on t-shirts, printing over pockets or zippers on hoodies and even over eyelets on shoes. While other printing methods require the substrate to be flat to get the proper off-contact, the GTXpro print head never touches the substrate.
Do I need to print every day?
The simple answer is no. The GTXpro printer has built in maintenance procedures and tools that allow the printer to sit idle for multiple days. A highly advanced maintenance station incorporates wetting capping stations and a white ink circulation system.
How long does it take to cure the inks?
The GTXpro printer uses Innobella Textile water-based, pigment inks which can cure quickly. These inks need to be cured either using a heat press for 35 seconds at 180 degrees C or a dwell time of approximately 2 to 3 minutes in a conveyor dryer / box at 160 degrees C.
What software comes with the GTXpro printer?
The GTXpro printer can work on either a PC or Mac operating system. Users can print directly from their favourite graphic design software using the GTX print driver. Brother also provides its own software, GTX Graphics Lab, that allows users to layout their designs, apply artistic effects and send them directly to the GTX printer. Supported operating systems: Windows® 7(32 bit/64 bit), Windows 8.1(32 bit/64 bit), Windows 10(32 bit/64 bit), Mac OS® X v10.10.x
What is a print head? Who manufactures it?
A print head is the component that jets tiny drops of the different colors of ink on to the substrate to recreate the artwork that is being printed. The GTXpro printer uses two piezo print heads to jet the CMYK and white inks on to the substrate. Only a small number of companies in the world manufacture print heads. Brother is one of them and is the manufacturer of the GTXpro print head.
What maintenance is required for the GTXpro?
GTXpro is an industrial direct-to-garment printer. Many of the maintenance procedures are automatically performed for the users daily by the built-in features as long as the printer remains powered on.
What is Innobella Textile Chemistry?
With the launch of the previous GTX printer model, Brother created a completely new ink chemistry. Innobella Textile inks provide the GTXpro printer with a large colour gamut to reprint your customers' artwork. Brother also created a new pre-treatment formula to work with the Innobella Textile inks that make it easier to print on more colours of garments. Innobella Textile inks have been tested and certified to be eco-friendly.
How many prints per hour can GTXpro do?
The GTXpro printer is the fastest printer that Brother DTG has ever manufactured. The print time of a design will vary depending on the size of the design and whether it using white ink or not. Click here to contact a DTG Specialist.
What is the cost of a print on GTXpro?
Similar to how the print time of a design can vary depending on several factors, the cost per print can also. The cost of the print is based on the size of the design, whether printing CMYK or CMYK+White inks, the colours in a design, and the cost of the consumables (ink and pre-treatment). When using the GTXpro print driver, the operator can create an .ARX4 file that will let you know the amount of ink used prior to printing the design.
What is the washability of a GTXpro print?
The washability of a properly cured GTXpro print should be very similar to that of a properly cured, water-based screen printed shirt. The Innobella Textile inks have been tested by the AATCC to provide a washability of 4.0 or greater.
Does this work with a PC or Mac computers?
The GTXpro print driver can be installed on both PC and Mac operating systems. The PC operating system should be Windows 8.1 (64bit) or Windows 10 (64bit). The Mac operating system should be macOS® 10.14 Mojave or macOS 10.15 Catalina.
How is DTG printing different than screen printing?
Screen printing and DTG printing are both viable methods of decorating garments. Screen printing typically requires more upfront work (i.e. separating artwork, creating screens for each color in the design, registering the screens on the press, etc) and tends to be a better decorating technique for larger runs or designs with a limited number of colours. Screen printing is not ideal for printing over seams, zippers, pockets, and other items that make a garment not flat. Unlike traditional garment printing, DTG printing jets ink directly onto a substrate without touching the garment and prints higher detail images without limiting the number of colours in a design. DTG printing is designed to handle short to medium size runs; as well as printing photographic quality.
What is pre-treating? When do I do it?
Pre-treating is the process of preparing a garment for printing with white ink that utilizes pre-treatment to prevent the absorption of it into the fibers. The pre-treatment fluid creates a chemical barrier on the garment that causes a chemical reaction when the white ink touches it that gels the bottom of the ink and allows it to sit on the top of the fibers to create a good under base to print the CMYK inks on. Users typically apply the pre-treat fluid to a garment using an automatic pre-treater to get uniform coverage and the correct amount. The pre-treated shirt is then cured on a heat press for 35 seconds at 180 degrees C with heavy pressure prior to being printed.
