Hybrid silk screen and direct-to-garment printing machine and process

A hybrid digital and screen printing press comprising:

• an endless conveyor;
• a plurality of object supports connected to the conveyor and spaced from one another and moveable with the conveyor, each of the object supports defining a printing zone having a length dimension and a first width dimension;
• at least one digital-to-garment (DTG) printing station positioned proximate the conveyor and having a print head moveable into the printing zone to engage the substrate and having a second width dimension equal to or greater than the first width dimension, the print head array mounted for movement exclusively along a length dimension of the printing zone;
• a direct to screen (DTS) printing machine for preparing a silk screen for use in the DTG printing station;
• a raster image processor (RIP) electronically coupled to the DTG printing station and the DTS printing machine, the RIP having a processor, and a memory storing computer-readable instructions when executed by the processor takes the following steps:
• store in the memory a digital art file containing an electronic representation of the colors and their locations to be printed on the substrate to produce an indicia;
• sending a first signal to the DTS printing machine representative of a base coat of the indicia;
• and
• sending a second signal to the at least one DTG printing station representative of the cyan, magenta, yellow, and black colors of the indicia.