Mohammad Nurul Alam
eS-Trims Ltd. has been acknowledged as a leading Garments Accessories supplier of a wide array of labels, tags, and packaging items in the Bangladesh RMG industry. Since its inception in 2007 by now it has emerged as one of the sustainable manufacturers of accessories in Bangladesh. In its manufacturing scheme there are Care Label, Woven Labels, Printed Label, Offset Printing, Heat Transparent Labels, etc. have been introduced. As a part of a corporate business partnership Textile Focus features eS Trims Limited regularly, to introduce their new product and venture. Recently team Textile Focus had a discussion and feature of Digital DTF print, a newly established printing technique introduced by eS Trims Limited.
What is DTF printing?
DTF means ‘Direct to Film’ is the most innovative digital printing technique, which allows the manufacturer to print on textiles of any composition or color as well as hard surfaces. It consists of two simple steps.
1) Doing print design digitally on a transfer film. At present eS Trims is providing the service for many of the Bangladesh RMG industry.
2) Then the garments manufacturer must transfer it to the surface of any fabric or complete garment with a heat press machine. Abu Hasnat Md. Rezanur Sohel, Managing Director, eS Trims Ltd said “Automation plays a vital role in the transformation of textile printing and on this concept, eS Trims introduced an updated automatic solution for printing. As Bangladesh RMG industries are facing increasingly complex challenges like rising labor costs and employee turnover, the need to shorten lead times, and increasing productivity – all the above issues can be solved easily by using the digital DTF technique for garments prints,”
How DTF function?
The DTF technology is a fully automated printing device that requires careful handling while operating it. It has various functions as below –
1) Inkjet printer: DTF printing needs 5 ink channels of CMYK +White. Necessary to print CMYK and white-colored layers correctly because the printer would not be able to print in the correct order by itself.
2) Special inks for DTF printing: The characteristic of ink is very elastic which prevents cracking when stretching the garment after printing.
3) DTF film: It is the surface on which the print design is usually prepared for transfer on the garment.
4) DTF powder: It acts as an adhesive between the inks and the cotton fibers.
5) RIP software: RIP stands for Raster Imaging Processor. This software is like the print driver included with a printer but provides much more control and conversion of data.
Abu Hasnat Md. Rezanur Sohel, Managing Director, eS Trims Ltd expressed his views that – “As the analog-to-digital transformation has been started in textile printing so there are many solutions emerged to provide highest level of service in digital printing. Among all the digital print techniques DTF is the most demanding technic at present that retailers are asking.”
Why did eS trims introduce DTF?
“Bangladesh textile industry is now undergoing a transformation from manual to digitalization. But as we have seen from experience no transformation can be done successfully unless proper technical solution. We feel DTF is the best print technique for innovation and transformation in the RMG sector”, informed Md. Rezanur Sohel.
“DTF printing is a technology which is highly flexible and has great potential in the patterning and designing of garments. They can produce high quality, multicolor printing, and smooth print, so we understand this is high time to introduce the technique with the Bangladesh RMG industry”, he further added.
Md. Rezanur Sohel opined “It is crucial to weigh the initial investment for DTF, technical expertise, processing time, and knowledge to understand the environmental impact associated with Digital DTF printing. But very few companies could introduce the print technique in Bangladesh and so we feel eS Trims can give the services properly and take the competitive advantages”.
Advantages of Digital DTF printing
“DTF is simple and inexpensive so day by day getting popular among the tee shirt manufacturers.” Said Abu Hasnat Md. Rezanur Sohel. He also mentioned the advantages in detail –
1) Digital DTF Making the print an attractive option for t-shirt design. It has the ability to deliver vibrant and intricate prints.
2) Digital DTF has especially dealing with performance on fabrics to get better elasticity and bleed resistance.
3) It has versatility across fabric types and durability even after 30 washes. So quality is the big issue that has been resolved by this technology.
4)It has cost-effectiveness for complex designs and so now digital DTF is a valuable technique in the apparel industry.
5) Digital DTF is a perfect choice to print more amounts of variable data.
6) This print technique has given a solution to print small quantities that were initially not possible via screen printing techniques.
7) It has accurate color matching along with the best softer hand feel.
8) A digital DTF printing machine occupies less space when compared with a screen printing setup.
Why is eS Trims best for DTF?
1) To achieve optimal results consistently eS Trims can provide the best DTF printing.
2) DTF requires a learning curve and demands technical expertise that eS Trims successfully managed.
3) The use of specialized software is necessary for digital DTF. So, it needs an understanding of printing techniques and color management. In this regard eS Trims can provide the highest technical support, said its Managing Director.
“To get potential output and customer satisfaction DTF requires the right skills and training that attains high-quality prints otherwise it may pose a challenge, but eS Trims is the pioneer in providing services”, claims Md. Rezanur Sohel.
eS Trims Production capacity and Buyers of DTF
DTF printing requires regular maintenance and necessitates proper ventilation within an Air conditioning environment. At present eS Trims can produce 2.3 million square inches of print daily by its four digitals DTF machines. The machines are made by a world-class manufacturing company informed Md. Rezanur Sohel, MD eS Trims.
“Our DTF printing is gaining popularity because of its excellency over other troublesome and time-consuming printing techniques like screen printing so we have regular orders from all world-class renowned customers”, he added.
He further said, “For DTF print need a computer monitor to conceptualize the design and this is the most crucial process to be done before preparing the print by a skilled operator so as we have the best technical hand for the required service and for this reason DTF printing is getting regular order from the customers.”
Future plan of eS Trims:
From small-scale printings to commercial holdings digital DTF printing machines brought a revolution to the printing industry, so eS Trims is planning to set up more machines to increase capacity Informed Md. Rezanur Sohel to Textile Focus.
“We have also a plan to set up heat pressing and print transfer process on garments directly (DTG technology) so the RMG industry can get ready printed parts from us and no need to collect the print film and then transfer on a garment which is really time-consuming”, he added.
He informed, “We have also plan to set DTG Direct-to-Garment project and soon the machines will arrive and can get into operation.”
