MUGGIT™ 4 DTF - Direct to Film Printing System

The PRESTIGE A4 DTF system is an ideal entry-level system for anyone wanting to get into DTF on a budget. It can transfer onto almost any porous substrate (which means a substrate that will absorb water) with some users telling us their success in printing items which they should not be able to (like diaries).

DTF is the best technology for printing cotton light and dark materials with fantastic detail, bright colours, low costs and amazing wash durability. It’s even being used to replace heat transfer vinyl because there is no cutting, no weeding, no tracing of images and it’s much cheaper to do even counting the maint enance these printers require.

This technology is however NOT suitable for people who will only do the odd print here and there. If your intended volumes are going to be low rather get the material printed for you.

This printer is roll-fed (as this reduces any potential feeding issues while reducing cost). To print A4 costs between R 6 and R 10 depending on coverage and usage (including the ink and film). This makes it the cheapest of all the transfer technologies especially when you factor in that it can also print white. Some bureaus are selling the print alone for over R65.00 without transferring it. A finished shirt looks and feels like a million bucks with exceptional durability (in our tests after 50 washes the print still looked amazing).

This printer takes 5 minutes to print a full colour, full coverage A4 page, while the adding of the powder, curing and transferring takes a maximum of 2 minutes in total. Our systems include the best quality inks and film we can get along with a high-definition powder with a particle size of under 80 microns to ensure all the fine detail in the print transfers (most suppliers of powder sell 200 micron powder which means you lose fine detail). Cadlink DTF raster image processing (RIP) software is included with this system –

There are faster machines but they are suited to production environments so they are larger and around triple the price.  We are currently testing A2 and A2 dual-head machines and will introduce them once we are happy that we can fully support them.

DTF does require some hands-on maintenance so it’s not suitable for people who don’t want to clean print heads, get ink on their hands, change out ink pipes and so on. The printer should be used often to prevent the head from blocking but should it not be used often there is preventative maintenance the user can perform to ensure the heads and pipes don’t block.

The automatic shaker oven is perfect for production volumes. If you are going to do small volumes, you can shake the powder onto the print by hand and use the 50 x 40cm infrared curing oven (optional extras). Infrared is essential to make sure the entire print including areas of fine detail are cured. Some people put the print into an oven or heat press to cure but the results are unpredictable and can result in the shirt having to be thrown away.

The beauty of using the automatic shaker & curing unit is that you can set the printer to print and do something else while the print is being made ready for transfer. This system should not be confused with UV-DTF which is a system that prints stickers primarily for hard surfaces. Some unscrupulous sellers are telling prospective customers that a UV DTF can also print fabrics. This is NOT the case.