One of the questions that we get asked frequently from direct-to-garment (DTG) users is whether it is really necessary to perform a Print & Wash Test on garments they have never printed on.  The answer is simple – YES!  When you look at all the cost (including your labor expense) that goes into printing a garment using a dtg printer, it is easy to tell how the risk of printing on new garments far exceeds the cost / time associated with doing a Print & Wash Test. Below is a short story from a customer that explains what happen when a wash test was not performed on a garment that had a post-coating on it.

We have used your light garment pretreat fluid in the past with success on several different brands of polyester garments.  We recently received an order for a very popular brand of polyester shirts and printed on them using the pretreat fluid like we typically do.  However, the prints faded more than usually when the customers washed the garments.  We later learned that the polyester shirts were coated with a chemical that prevents stains and other items from sticking to them.  Had we done a wash test, we would not have provided the customers with this garment as an option.  Lesson learned.  We had to reprint the order on another garment for free in order to keep our reputation with the customers.

Since we released the DTG Pretreat fluid back in 2009, we have provided dtg users the ability to download our Print & Wash Test log.  You can do so by clicking here.  This log will help make it easier for your team to keep track of the test results and remind you of the steps that you should follow in the future.

For additional information on Print & Wash Tests, read our article that was published in the Printwear Magazine April 2011 edition – http://www.printwearmag.com/article/digital-direct-to-substrate/wash-test-for-d2-prints.