Kornit vs brother per print cost?

[Steve Harpold]

Quick thoughts (sorry for the length:not quick)

Pre-treat related:
Several (a lot) of high volume shops send pre treat through a dryer for volume reasons. How it applies

Standard dryer:
Send it through at 2 minutes or so, be sure not to burn the light shirts but will no remove all pre treat from heavier garments.

Press:
10-20 seconds
Makes sure that all garments are complete dry and fibers are laid down.

Pros:
Simple plan that is effective on 100% garments. The fibers are laid down nicely and allow for a good printing surface.

Cons:
The 20 second press is cumbersome. Trim blends, 5050's and light colors tend to leave a unwanted box. Polyesters are even more difficult (rumor is a good poly ink exists!!!)

Fire Fly
Send garment through for 60-75 seconds
Press for 3-5 seconds

Pros:
Simple plan that is effective on all garments. It represents a complete production solution where all shirts are completely dry and ready for production. Fibers are laid down on most fabrics. Process and look are identical. All boxes disappear and triblends, 5050 garments can be run on all platforms.

Cons:
You would have to trust me! And for select items; fiberous  products (ps. Fiberous, Fibulation and several other forms  are not real words) will not look as good as a completely pressed shirt.

Side note:
How to replicate the above results (not production friendly):
Press for 3 seconds and hover the transfer press for 5 seconds until completely dry (same concept) likely 8 - 10 times.

Let me know if this helps! Thanks

[shirtshack]

Another thing we noticed with the kornit is that the finished dried print had a better feel than our brother prints, not so much the hand but brother prints always tend to feel tacky when using a large amount of white, they also tend to crack when stretched which was not the case with the kornit.
I came across a post that talked about ink wastage with the kornit, 30% of ink purchased seems to end up in the waste tank, if true that would definitely be a concern. Maybe the new hexa version of the storm has improved this.
I have also been lead to believe that the pretreat is also considerably cheaper being 10 cent rather than 50 cent a shirt.
The mlink does sound like a good contender with lower ink cost and less wastage than the brother, I will get some samples done at m&r uk to see how they come out.
I wonder if the same DuPont ink would work with the brother, and if there is a way to switch it to bulk feed, they are out of warranty so no issue there. I would probably only need to switch out the white ink if bother cmyk will still bond.

[shirtshack]

Just confirmed that the storm 1000 and storm hexa have the ink recirculating system which is supposed to dramatically reduce ink wastage, ( sales speak or real world fact?) judging by the claim of 85 prints per hour against our testing of 40 prints per hour with the dealer, I have to assume Kornit likes to exaggerate.

[244]

Just confirmed that the storm 1000 and storm hexa have the ink recirculating system which is supposed to dramatically reduce ink wastage, ( sales speak or real world fact?) judging by the claim of 85 prints per hour against our testing of 40 prints per hour with the dealer, I have to assume Kornit likes to exaggerate.

Do yourself a big favor and see Roper for a test ride with the M-Link X. I strongly suggest you do NOT put our ink through the Brother.

[shirtshack]

Probably right Rich, no bulk feeds available for the Brother anyway..
Spoke with Dave and will take a look at the print wear show next weekend hes only got the M-link not the M-link X, will probably make a visit to the showroom to do some testing of my own designs..
I am also going to re visit with Kornit and run some further tests on production speeds as maybe my calculation of 40 prints per hour on the storm hexa may have been off but would also like to know how they come up with a number of 85 p/h.
I figure a few different designs but all similar in size run as many as I can for 15 to 30 minutes and I can work out an average hourly rate.

[Printficient]

Probably right Rich, no bulk feeds available for the Brother anyway..
Spoke with Dave and will take a look at the print wear show next weekend hes only got the M-link not the M-link X, will probably make a visit to the showroom to do some testing of my own designs..
I am also going to re visit with Kornit and run some further tests on production speeds as maybe my calculation of 40 prints per hour on the storm hexa may have been off but would also like to know how they come up with a number of 85 p/h.
I figure a few different designs but all similar in size run as many as I can for 15 to 30 minutes and I can work out an average hourly rate.

Would love to see or possibly have a couple of shirts from these runs.