Eco Friendly Printing - Direct to Garment
As well as the sustainable fabrics used in our clothing, we also decorate the clothing using eco-friendly processes. Our Direct To Garment (DTG) printing is used for a water-based ink print usually covering large areas of a garment or for complex multi-colour artworks supplied by our customers. This print method is in addition to printing you may have seen before called ‘screen printing’. Whereas screen printing is a little more limited in the amount of colours that can be used, you can challenge DTG with logos with as many colours and as much detail as possible and it looks amazing.
The Machines – ‘Kornit’
We use a brand of machine called Kornit for our Direct to Garment Printers. We believe these are the best and most commercial machines in the world.
Each machine costs well over £200,000, so these are significant investments for any business. The process, the quality and the speed are the reasons we use Kornit, and it helps to separate our DTG printing quality from others.
Waterless Process
DTG printing is a waterless process, which doesn’t require high volumes of water in the preparation and clean down process. This is in contrast to traditional screen printing of garments which would include a large amount of spraying and run-off of waste water in the process of creating the screen.
Direct to Garment doesn’t use screens as it prints clothing in the same way an inkjet printer would print a piece of paper at home. You load up the garment onto the machine. Choose the selected design, press print, and the machine prints the ink directly onto the garment. Magic!
Neo-Pigment Inks
By using Kornit machines, it means only Kornit inks can be used in the machines, which we buy direct from the brand. This allows better regulation of the inks going into each of our prints, as Kornit can control the manufacturing process.
The inks used in DTG printing are non-hazardous and toxin free. There are no animal by-products and they are completely safe for infants and babies, as defined by Oeko-Tex 100 safety applications for infant wear, Global Organic Textiles (GOTS-3V), Residues Standard List (RSL) and the American Association of Textile Chemists and Colourists.
Choosing DTG over Screen Printing
It may seem that both print methods compete with each other, but there is a need to have both. Here are our reasons why you would choose DTG printing over screen printing:
- You prefer a more environmentally friendly print process, which uses less water
- You want to do smaller quantity runs of fairly technical/colourful designs
- Your design has many shades of colour, fading or other special design effects
- You generally prefer a softer feel i.e. the print almost appears to be in the garment fabric
- You are choosing clothing which is mainly cotton based
Banana Moon are B Corp & ISO 14001 certified
Banana Moon guarantees that our production is
- By a supported and empowered team, treated with respect and kindness, built on an award winning company culture
- All in-house and regularly audited to ensure we hit standards in quality and sustainability
- Constantly attaining the highest standard in sustainability and net zero targets
- Serving the interests of not only our shareholders, but our team, our suppliers, the environment, our community and most importantly, our customers.
- Creating products which can be used as a force for good
