How many have or will have a DTG press this year?

[Dottonedan]

How many have or will have a DTG press this year?

[Frog]

I voted no (the second option, not the last)
But want to point out that I use the process through someone else whenever a job's demands and time frame allow me to.

[jason-23]

im likin the brother graffiti a lot...

[tpitman]

I do some work in Daytona and occasionally (like this morning) part of it is on the Brother 541. They have one of the earliest models. It does good work, especially gradients and very light tints, but I don't think DTG compares with screen printing in terms of brightness or richness of color, including CMYK screen printing, and certainly not spot color work. Really short run quick turnaround stuff if you've got the customers. JMHO

[alan802]

If someone can make one that is as solid as the 541 that prints on darks, then we might consider it, but as of right now, no way in hell.

[beanie357]

We have a neoflex.
We bagged white life got good.
We pretreat white and get killer prints.
Downside slow.
Their rip rocks. Just did head and dampers after one year.

[islandtees]

If someone can make one that is as solid as the 541 that prints on darks, then we might consider it, but as of right now, no way in hell.

This is what the Brother GT782 was made for. It has been replaced by the graffitte line. The 782 is 2 541 put together and will print white ink.

[Inkworks]

I worked at a shop with a GT541 and a GT782, they definitely have their place in a busy shop. Up here (BC Canada) Kornit has quite a few machines, and they have some good advantages too, the built in pre-treat is a huge asset, but the brothers also do some things very well. I'll add one to my shop at some point.

Colour density is still not what screen printing can do, but for small-med run multi colour they are a great tool. We've seen people doing huge runs where screenprinting would make more sense. I've seen jobs horribly under-dense for colors when it was just run at a faster setting to save time, We've seen jobs wash out from being under cured, we've seen some shirt colours show staining from pre-treatment.

Right now I find it tough to compete with subbing out the digital printing, I haven't found an inexpensive sub contractor that I have confidence in their product being opaque and not washing out. I have one shop that does good work, but their prices don't leave room for me to mark it up to my customers and still get the jobs if they shop prices around.

Right now the Graffiti is close to being a game changer, but it still means pretreating by hand or buying a pretreatment machine.

I'd waiting a few more years for the technology to improve and costs to come down, but then I think shops that don't embrace the technology will get left behind those that do.

[Prosperi-Tees]

Yeah I think if you didn't have to pre treat it would be great. I think the best bang for the buck is a used 541. Can be had for under 8k. I entertain getting one but just don't have the space to run

[shirtz]

We have had a brother gt541 since 2005 and it has it's place in a screenprinting & embroidery business. It shines on quick turn small runs,
and when customers need to have 1 or 2 more shirts  after the screen have been reclaimed.
I have been waiting for a printer that prints white and is as beefy and as low maintenance as the gt 541, and in my opinion they are not there yet.
We went to the Orlando ISS this spring with full intention on pulling the triger on the new brother, but came away less than impressed with the cost of  and time needed to maintain.
I agree the best bang for the buck is a used gt541

[ZooCity]

Not for us.  I see their value but all a dtg would do is increase the type of work we aren't looking for.

[Homer]

Not for us.  I see their value but all a dtg would do is increase the type of work we aren't looking for.

this X2. . in a mall @ Christmas time - I'd bet you could do ok..But the prints just look so damn lame, like an iron on transfer. Another 10 years, I will review it again I'm sure.

[ZooCity]

Not for us.  I see their value but all a dtg would do is increase the type of work we aren't looking for.

this X2. . in a mall @ Christmas time - I'd bet you could do ok..But the prints just look so damn lame, like an iron on transfer. Another 10 years, I will review it again I'm sure.

I just can't wrap my head around the front end work for someone's single T shirt being worth it.   Sure, you could crunch and punch their crappy jpeg through the DTG rip and just bang it out but then your shop has a rep for this kind of crap work.  To keep things solid, you're looking at X amount of time in image clean up and prep on every one of these orders, not to mention the labor time mentioned above just to print 'em. 

Yes, the place in the mall with the hand stretched wood screens and metric crap piles of heat transfers should be using one of these machines, it would be a perfect fit for an operation like that and I would send them tons of work I'm sure (actually I wouldn't b/c the mall store has blatantly infringed on my trademarks so their on my sh!t list) but you get the idea. 

[Inkworks]

You guys are ignoring the forest in favour of a tree or two. It's only about 1-offs if that's what you make it. There are multiple shops in my area that have gotten rid of screenprinting all together and are producing small to medium runs on Brothers and Kornits all day every day, most don't touch 1-10pcs. unless they charge enough to make it make sense, just like screenprinting. I have yet to see a print that looks or feels like a transfer, in fact most seem to have a softer hand than many plastisol prints.

- Do they have some drawbacks? Yes

- Can the average Joe get much better resolution/detail for multi colour on a DTG over screening? absolutely

- Does the average print take longer than screenprinting? Yes

- Are the prints durable? Absolutely, if properly cured.

- Are the colours on darks as vibrant as screening? Not quite, but close enough if done right to not be a deal breaker for many jobs.

Do you want to crank out 5000pcs on a single head? probably not.

Do you want to do 30-100 (200, 300...?) pc. multi colour on them rather than sepping art, printing film (or DTS) drying, blocking out, setting up, mixing inks, printing tearing down and reclaiming? Probably worth a look if you do enough of it. there is a very real crossover point where DTG makes more sense profit and production wise than screenprinting.

Are there production jobs where the artwork and quantities make DTG the right choice? 100% in my mind, I don't have one, plan to one day, and have zero desire to deal with 1-20pcs any more than I do with screenprinting.

[ZooCity]

Copy that inkworks.  I could see a solid, robust DTG like the Kornits and Brothers being the absolute jam for medium size "full color" runs especially.  Let's face it, even us screen printers on our high horses can't always kick out ultra-vibrant 'full color' prints and, more commonly, the clients budget often doesn't allow for everything to get done perfectly- bump colors, high-end seps, extra press time for these jobs, etc.   I bet inkjet heads would excel in these situations. 

A little birdy told me about a press out there that is aiming to incorporate robust, high-speed DTG inline with traditional screen printing and I think that's really what will make this viable tech for our lines of work.  Big cost for this I'm sure but it's the best use of this tech I've caught wind of.