Earlier this summer Polyprint introduced a new machine, the PreTreater Pro, which is primarily designed for use in conjunction with direct to garment printers.
The basic idea is that pretreating garments can improve the way that the inks interact with the substrate, leading to more vibrant colours and sharper details as well as improving their washability. There’s nothing new to this and there are a variety of methods for applying pretreatment, such as spray guns. But Polyprint claims that this new machine will offer greater consistency and repeatability as users can determine that exactly the same amount of the pretreatment liquid is applied to each garment.
Grigoris Gavrilidis, Polyprint’s head of Research & Development, explained: “Repeatability and consistency are the key to successful production runs. Its auto re-circulation system ensures liquid homogeneity and prevents sedimentation, prolonging liquid life span. Additionally, an anti-corrosion Isolation Chamber (Box-in-a-Box design) ensures that mist is contained, protecting mechanical and electronical parts, thus prolonging the machines lifespan.”
The PreTreater Pro has a spray area of 41 x 60cm but this can be split into different grids of at least 10 x 15cm so that the liquid is only sprayed where it’s needed. The spraying itself is via four nozzles with 53mm orifices. It can be loaded with up to two liquids at a time and switch automatically between them. It uses four 5-litre tanks to hold the two pretreatment liquids, the cleaner and waste, which can be easily refilled and are replaceable.
It’s controlled from a 7ins colour touch screen and users can keep track of the jobs and the amount of liquid used per job to calculate costs. It’s possible to store different job settings and the machine can also read barcodes to select parameters such as the spray area and amount of liquid to be used.
The system automatically cleans itself when idle, roughly every 30 minutes, to prevent any blockages. It uses re-usable filters that can be washed.
It’s currently priced at £3950+VAT. You can find more information from Polyprint’s website here
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