Demystify DTF's Direct-to-Damper Technology - White Ink Circulation Management System

For DTG and DTF printers, white ink has long been a problem. It tends to condense and separate from its medium, clogging the printhead. There are several ways that you can deal with this issue. You might, for instance, try shaking your ink—many people get this idea from seeing paint shaken or mixed at your local home improvement store.

However, paint is not exactly like ink. It might seem counterintuitive, but based on our experience, shaking or mixing printer ink can result in the ink condensing and precipitating faster. On the one hand, shaking your ink can result in a more even mix, but on the other, the particles inside the ink collide and aggregate faster, making things worse.

For best results, you should mix ink very slowly and gradually. To store the ink, we suggest using a tube roller mixer, such as these:  Industrial Tube Roller Mixers (pick the horizontal ones). Set up your rotation time and start to roll the ink around slowly. This is good for storing, but when it comes time to put the ink in the tank, you will need a mixer—and now you understand why the large tank has a mixer.

Understanding Direct-to-Damper

But what about the small tank on top of the printhead? What is it, and what does it do? This smaller tank is a direct-to-damper circulation system. There are actually two different dampers in a DTF system. For standard colors like black, cyan, magenta, and yellow, we use a set load damper, and for white, we use a top-load damper.

Direct-to-damper means that the ink is thoroughly mixed before it reaches the damper. The two lines are feeding from the smaller tank to the damper from the top, so our white ink is mixed with a mixer in the white tank. There’s a line underneath this tank that feeds into the secondary tank. This secondary tank either feeds into the printer or flows back to the white tank.

To mix inside the damper, you have to know the damper construction pretty well. If you need dampers or other supplies, you can purchase them here.

Printer Issues

The problem with most of DTF printers is that they’re not marketed in the US, and the instructions are not written in clear English. The machine itself is built pretty solidly, but I really don’t like to sell it in the US, myself. The reason for this is that I have already modified smaller printers for specialty printing, and each time a customer fails to read the menu and returns the item, it causes a lot of problems for me.

The potential issues only get bigger for a more substantial piece of equipment like this one. If a customer doesn’t read the menu and returns this roughly $3,000 printer, it’s going to be a serious problem for any business. However, if you’d really like to purchase one of these printers, you can find them here, or see other DTF printers on Amazon. I can even introduce you to the manufacturer and you can deal with them directly if you have any issues or concerns after purchasing the printer.

Peace, everybody, and happy printing! I hope this blog answered your questions and helped you resolve your issues.