Technology has simplified processes, allowing new markets to be explored. This clearly also applies to the world of customisation, where printing and embroidery machines continue to evolve, offering increasingly innovative systems that allow traditional techniques, such as embroidery and screen printing, to coexist with digital. The result? High-quality, high-impact customisation (also thanks to increasingly complex colours and graphics), but also price containment. It is technology 4.0, which allows operators to respond, with internal resources, to an increasingly fragmented demand, without necessarily having to rely on third parties.

It is therefore no coincidence that interest in DTF technology remains high, despite the fact that it is no longer a novelty. DTF technology is available in a variety of machines (many of them Chinese-made) that promise to simplify work while keeping costs down, while guaranteeing impressive results, including opalescent, metallised, fluorescent and phosphorescent variants. T-Shirt Makers, the trailblazer of this technology, offers the latest generation of roll-to-roll DTF printing systems: particularly interesting are the DF35 and DTF60-2N models, with an all-in-one system with integrated oven and plotter, to increase production speed and raise the resolution of printing on a variety of materials, from fabrics to wood, from imitation leather to cardboard and aluminium.

For venues other than clothing, however, a variant of DTF technology known as UV is suitable, which enables transfer printing that can be applied without heat-press, making it ideal for a multitude of products, including those that cannot withstand high temperatures. The Breva UV printer by EmbroideryService is a compact model, entirely made in Italy, capable of performing this function. The company, which historically offers a wide range of machines, from embroidery machines to plotters, as well as yarns and inks, has recently opened an area dedicated to the DTF universe in all its declinations, demonstrating how important the new technology is considered to integrate the offer of everything that can be used for customisation.

Of course, choosing which technique to adopt is not always straightforward: professional advice is needed to carry out a thorough market analysis and identify the right solution for one's needs and target customer base. This advice is also essential when choosing the best medium to use, such as transfer papers and decals for digital printing, in order to characterise and make surfaces of all types and sizes unique. A field in which the company Shock Line stands out, in addition to being a reseller of inks and special papers for communication media, it is on the forefront in the production of transfer films of all kinds, with a focus on quality. The DTF transfer films is one of the novelties, which recently obtained Standard 100 certification from Oeko-Tex.

Tactility, raised effects, colour nuances and resistance over time: embroidery and screen printing have not gone out of fashion. On the contrary, they are confirmed as techniques capable of adapting to the times, always offering new applications, including hybrid solutions that integrate with digital printing (embroidery details on DTF print is an example). Of course, expertise in this field is crucial, it takes competence to get the most out of modern equipment: LV Decors is an example, whose success as a printing service for promotional agencies is based on consolidated experience in the silk-screen printing sector that enables it to always provide new shades and effects, selecting colours to achieve, for example, unique effects on polychrome black jerseys, in a craft process that requires great passion applied to the technique. Intent on broadening its horizons to offer a greater variety of solutions, the company has recently invested in a new production line dedicated specifically to embroidery.