Printing onto fabric using inkjet printer? Non-toxic Ink? Ink question?

Hi. I'm new here and hoping you guys can help! A lot of people print onto fabric using their home inkjet printer. There's tons of youtube videos showing you how to do this. It involves securing your fabric to an A4 or A5 sheet of freezer paper, putting it into the printer as if it's normal paper and....print!

You can pre-treat the fabric with a treatment to make the ink last longer and be vibrant but I have a query about the ink itself. I want to make dog toys which involve printing my design onto fabric. I make these already but have a supplier who does the printing for me but it's expensive! If I could do this myself I'd save a ton of money.

I have an Epson WF 2850 and I asked Epson about the inks it takes and they said that the inks it uses are not 'non-toxic'. This concerns me a bit because I'm not sure how safe they would be for a dog? Bare in mind though once printed the fabric is washed. Does the ink then become non-toxic, considering that it's pretty much been washed away and all that's left is a stain on the material?

Secondly, if I can't use normal inks where the heck do I buy non-toxic inks to fit my printer? I've looked everywhere and it seems so hard!

 

You can use simply pigment Ink for garment and this Ink "non toxic" and you can use garment directly after printing (before need dry). Toxic Ink - this Ractive or acid for this Ink need special equipment and this solution not for you. You can ask companies in your country who sell Ink for Mimaki, Roland , Mutoh or another printers about this Ink and I think they can help you. About price I mean 1L cost about 100$ USA but it depends on country and local distributor.

 

You don't want to look at pigment ink for doing that process. It's not made for this application and Dye-sub or Latex are probably your better options since you can actually print on that material where it is much safer for toys. Plus, the substrate is more readily available.

Per Epson's site on the WF-2850, they inks are dye-based while the black is pigment (https://epson.com/i/C11CG31201), so I wouldn't use that inkset for that application unfortunately. Dye-based is the formula before pigment came into existence and is supposed to provide more of a vivid look (dye ink sits on top of the media vs pigment that goes into it and provides better longevity). You don't want to put pigment ink in the colors if it uses dye-based, or you can surely mess up the print head; even when using 3rd party inks. I've trashed an all-in-one Epson from 3rd party ink many years ago and never looked back since they aren't made per the same chemical formula to operate properly in the models with the heads made from the manufacturer.

There is a small 24" dye-sub printer available from Epson which is pretty cheap compared to the 44"+ if you're worried about budget. However, you also need to look into a heat press to transfer the ink from transfer paper to the substrate.

Feel free to contact us and a rep in our commercial dept can suggest options that would work for your application. We're located in Chicago, but are happy to help customers around the country with even suggestions.

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Hello emmalolax

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