Who Wrote the Standard?.
Who decided that 330°F for 90 seconds is the standard DTG cure?
The question: Who decided that 330°F (165°C) for 90 seconds is "the standard" DTG cure?
The "standard" cure comes from one vendor blog whose own table disagrees with it. The same habit shows up in "fifty-plus washes" and in Delta E of one, whose best controlled test was done on teeth. Plus two verdicts: the neck tag and the 65 per cent polyester line.
Show notes and sources
The standard cure
330°F (165°C, as the source page gives it) for 90 seconds comes from one vendor blog. Its own table lists Image Armor at 350°F (177°C, converted) for 35 seconds. Partly true.
Image Armor's own page
Image Armor's page gives 356°F (180°C, converted) and 35 seconds for white ink. The gap to the blog's table is 6°F, about 3.3°C (6 × 5/9, no offset), which is our arithmetic. Confirmed.
Fifty-plus washes
The claim comes from one curing article with no wash protocol. The ink maker's data sheet gives a fastness grade of 4 to 5 out of 5 and no wash count. A grade is not a count. Partly true.
Delta E of one
Vendors treat a Delta E of one as the point where a difference disappears. The best controlled study found, on tooth shades under D65 lighting, put the threshold at 2.29 for dentists and 2.27 for patients. We found no repeat on textiles; that is a negative from our own searches.
The neck tag
Replacing a blank's neck tag with your own label does not leave you a reseller. Under Article 15(2) of Regulation (EU) No 1007/2011 a distributor who markets under its own name, or attaches the label, counts as the manufacturer. False.
Sixty-five per cent polyester
SanMar says sublimation dye does not bond properly below 65 per cent polyester. Confirmed.