Brother

1 v 1.1 Since the mid 2000s, Brother DTG has participated in hundreds of trade shows globally. At the majority of shows, we are asked about whether printing on dark poly- ester with a DTG printing is ready for the market. And for years, Brother's answer has been we are working very hard on it... but we are not there yet. Printing light garments or CMYK inks only is regularly done with little challenges. So why is printing on polyester any different than cotton garments or natural fabrics? There are two things that make printing on polyester more challenging than cotton. 1) First, is the issue of dye migration. Our industry has struggled printing on polyester for most decorating techniques. Tricks like lowering the curing temperature of the inks and printing multiple layers of a white ink underbase can help minimize the dye migration in some shirts... but may not work with the majority of polyester shirts. 2) Second, polyester is a tightly woven fiber that makes it more challenging for the inks to properly bond to the fibers and provide the same level of washability as cotton. Cotton is an open fiber that allows the ink to make a stronger bond with the fibers... especially when you're printing the amount of ink for dark garment printing. Over the years, Brother DTG has taken a very deliberate approach to when and how it releases products. Brother does extensive testing in-house and in the field to make sure that the process is repeatable. Field testing is typically done by select group of Brother DTG users that are willing to perform the testing and provide feedback to Brother. Due to the current global conditions, the advisement on restricting traveling and limiting interactions, performing the standard field testing is not practical. Brother DTG is now doing an open field test through June 30, 2021 with those Brother DTG users that would like to participate in the testing of dark garment polyester printing. INTRODUCTION

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