Martin Gaydarov

DTG and photo pigmented inks are quite similar in their formulation but the binders are different. Yes, photo inks have slightly more penetrants, which in good inks isn't isopropanol. As regards to the UV resistance, that' why I pointed out that DTG yellow is standardly P.Y.155 which has a better light fastness. The other 3 colours have the best light fastness of 8 according to blue -wool scale and they are the same in both inks, not only in our formulations but I guess in  many others. Firstly, I'll try and find a PET film and print on it with our DTG inks and see how this goes.           

11 hours ago, johnson4 said:

Looking at Several MSDS sheets from different manufacturers do confirm that while most inks have a similar make-up, as you have described. For example, Dupont black:

Water Aliphatic Alcohol *Ethylene Glycol Polyglycol Ether Polymers Melamine Carbon Black Pigment

7732-18-5 ** 107-21-1 ** ** ** 1333-86-4

50-94 1-10 1-10 1-10 1-10 1-5 1-5

 

VS dupont White:

Water *Ethylene Glycol Humectant Titanium Dioxide Pigment Polymer

7732-18-5 107-21-1 **        13463-67-7 **

49-79 10-20 1-10 5-15 5-15

 

However, Unavailable to me is the MSDS for the DTF inks.  It would be nice to know the direct comparison between them, Very interesting indeed. I however, Do not recommend blending products without knowing what will happen first in any scenario before recommending doing so. 

Overall though, It seems the cleaning solutions would remain to work the same, I wonder why the ink responds the way it does to water for me. 

Thanks for bringing this information up, I'm in for some reading for sure! 

If you've tested DTG inks and those won't wet the film and print properly, then in order to try and answer the question Why DTG inks act differently, I'd have to get a sample and run some tests and analysis.  I'll see if i can get some in Europe.

My point was different.

If the DTG is working- printing properly on the film, you could substitute it for a much less expensive ink, namely a standard water-based pigmented ink for photgraphic prints. NOT to subsitute DTF for DTG, which makes no sense given they're equally priced.

Properly formulated DTG inks are water-based pigmented inks with sufficient amounts of polyols, which serve as humectants and protect the drying out of the ink and increase the open time. Small amounts of alcohol serve as penetrants and are NOT a main ingredient nor in the ink nor the cleaning fluid. Cleaning fluid would have deionized water, glycols, surfactants and some polyols. If you'd like to experiment, for DTG inks you could make a cleaning fluid from 75% deioznized water and 20% glycerol and 5% pure isopropyl alcohol (not denaturated with MEK or other stuff)   

If the ink is water-based and the powder is acting as a binder for the pigment, I'd just replace the CMYK DTG inks

with standard pigmented water-based inks , which have much lower amount of resins and are much less likely to cause clogging problems even if the printer is not used for a longer time. In general, the pigments would be the same colour indexes, except maybe for the yellow, which for DTG is standardly P.Y.155. Cyan would in both cases be P.B.15:3, magenta P.R.122 and black is P.B.7. However, white would  still be the one for DTG as P.W.6 (TiO2 ), which has a very high density of  4.2 g/cm3, is more stable in this formulation. Cleaning fluid is based on deionized water and a selection of polyols, some amines and surfactants.