SHAKE IT UP BABY
The Beatles said it best in their song “Twist and Shout” that you should “Shake It Up Baby”. This applies not just to keep your body in shape (and have a good time) but to all White DTG inks on the market.
White inks are formulated to help hide the shirt color and give a good, solid white base on which to print. The very nature of the inks that provides this base also has some interesting side effects that every DTG user must take note of and ensure that they keep in mind. The biggest side effect is the “settling” of the inks. Settling occurs when the ink sits for any period of time and the components in the ink start to “sink” to the bottom. This results in white chunky monkeys found in the bottom of the ink bottles.
There are two types of “settling”. One is a “hard” settling while the other is a “soft” settling. We designed the Image Armor inks to “soft” settle. This means that those chunky monkeys in the ink bottle can be re-shaken back into solution. This is often why you hear people recommend that end users shake their ink bottles and cartridges daily. This keeps all of the “heavy” components in the ink suspended in solution and the ink working properly.
The “hard” settling is another issue. Hard settling will not go back into solution no matter how hard or long you shake the ink. This is a standard problem with some inks and can cause serious performance issues, even damage to print heads and other printer components.
Image Armor is committed to bringing the best products to the industry to help our end users. One day we will find a way so that you don’t need to worry about ink settling, but for now, get into the groove, Shake It Up each morning and get that white ink moving!
