Bigger production vs. small runs

[beanie357]

Amazing difference in production quantities. . We have a neoflex, just changed to cmyk only. White just wasn't worth it. Too much maintenace and aggra. The epson heads just ain't there yet for full production quantities at market rates. However, do it at the right price and ohbaby!
Did 300 full fronts with a screen one color back, have 200 more the next two days. Many 50-70 runs as well.
Damm things are slow at high res. 2 min for the 300 print, blah art, but spectacular print. Would have been a 9 color screen job
So- need air heat presses, need at least two epson based dtg's and we use 4 heat presses total with a speedtreater (looking at a viper for more even coverage). The new Grafitees have high white cost (don't let anybody fool you) and we may look at the cmyk version when enough are on the ground to be seen in action, not at a show.
Art still needs to be worked on to take advantage of the hi res.
I don't think most people realize the differences between a production shop of any decorating techniques, and a smaller shop.
Room and client base for both. We have followed the Wal-mart economy theory. At least we're not lacking for business. We just need to finish figuring out how to produce it quickly and efficiently.
Looked at Kornits, but did not like the feel of the print. Rubbery at best. However, will keep them in mind. Anajet torqued me off at ISS Atlantic City, and we discarded them as viable for our shop. Dtg brand is still epson based.

[mk162]

I think that is 1 area where the Brother machines are lacking is the ink cost.  If they lowered the price they would be much more competitive.  We print on ours, today we did over 350 prints.  145 of those were full back prints, the rest were left chest prints.  So while the auto is running, the Brother is running as well, with a much smaller footprint and less utilities.

We will print over 1,000 pcs on the machine this week.  We did around 400 last week.  It just makes money for us.  We do both the larger runs and the smaller runs.  I almost prefer the smaller runs since we make more money off of them per hour.  Just send a new design over and hit print.  The lack of a setup time really keeps the machine profitable.  Also, when I am done just shut it off, no cleaning screens or squeegees, no ink tracked around.

[Coyote71]

For what it's worth, white is happening for me. I learned early on that temperature plays a key role in getting it to lay down correctly. As well as the correct pretreatment appllication. I moved all sources of heat out of the print room and have had good results with white. You could almost use cyan as an indicator. If the temp or humidity is too high, the cyan will start dripping from the head. White starvation is right behind it. With that being said, printing white really slows down production as a second pass is needed. Need to charge extra for it. As well as Epson heads are concerned, no plugging with the ink that I use. Not a Dupont product.

[mk162]

What printer and ink do you run?

[Coyote71]

I run a T2 with Resolute ink. Epson based and not as fast as some others. Been a real workhorse. Resolute ink uses smaller particles and rarely plugs print heads.