Making a digital fabric printer
Mojisola
to it's own discussion group as some people seem to be interested in
this subject. I've copied and pasted the discussion so far below.
Essentially it's about how we can make a digital fabric printer,
perhaps using a large conventional ink-jet paper printer and how the
fabric can treated so that it's washable afterwards.
The problem I want to get around is:
1) the cost of commercial printing- a bureau service is expensive and
commercial printers can cost $12k
2) paper printer size (most printers come as just A4 or at best A3.
Suggestion on printers.
3) the print needs to be fixed in some way so that it can be
repeatedly washed and worn - steam setting, chemical settings have
been mentioned
4) it would be great to get repeatable prints to achieve one length of
fabric, not restricted to paper size
5) it would be great to print with conductive inks
Here are a few links I've found so far:
http://blog.ponoko.com/index.php?s=diy+dtg+printer
http://www.dharmatrading.com/html/eng/3446-AA.shtml
http://www.instructables.com/id/Inkjet-Printing-on-Fabric/
Any thoughts, ideas and referrals gratefully received! Perhaps we can
create one together?
------
previous discussion thread...
> > Perhaps not a question for this group but I'll ask anyway. I'd like to do
> > some digital printing onto fabric but the bureaus are all rather expensive
> > for my project idea. i found a link via google a while back where someone
> > used a conventional Colour paper printer to print onto fabric. I'd love to
> > do something similar but using a large printer (A3+). Does anyone have any
> > thoughts on this please? It's for clothing so needs to be washable.
---
Marjolein van de Donk
> > A friend uses exactly that (on an A3 printer), he is in Hackspace too,
> > but maybe not this group...
> > It looked good and professional! He was happy with the result. Do not know
> > about washable, but I think it is...
> > I would go for it! I have done a lot of digital printing, and the result
> > is amazing, but very pricey indeed. It looks the same as the printed
> > version, however limited in scale, as far as I could tell.
>
> > Hope it helps!
>
> > bye
---
> Thanks Marjolein, any chance you could put us in touch pease??? To save
> carrying on the conversation is this group (others might not be interested)
> my email is rac...@mojisola.co.uk. Exciting!
>
---
Billy bi...@billycomputersmith.com via googlegroups.com to London
Start a separate thread in the thread-space google-group.
I'm interested.
The idea of fabric printers appeals to me. As for water-washable, try
re-filling an ink-cartridge with fabric dye instead of ink.
The variability of the fabric's behaviour compared with the relatively
uniform flatness of paper, makes it an interesting engineering
problem...
> > Thank you
Adrian Godwin
http://www.spoonflower.com/welcome a while back - might be useful for
some projects.
-adrian
Mojisola
they're based in the USA.
Works out a bit expensive for my needs as once international postage
and import duty are added the price per metre rocks up! Delivery can
also take quite a while from the USA as it needs to clear customs too.
There's also Fabpad at UEL. Again pricey for what I need to do, but
speedier and local.
Anyone know of any other more cost-effective services please let me
know!
On Dec 14, 4:37 pm, Adrian Godwin <artgod...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Not exactly what you're looking for, but Gia posted a link tohttp://www.spoonflower.com/welcomea while back - might be useful for
> some projects.
>
> -adrian