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

[islandtees]

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 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 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.

Now this is someone who understands DTG and screenprinting.
We have a auto and a brother. We do not do one offs. We do minimums. Our auto runs all day long and I have a worker running the Brother all day long.I cant tell you how many times over the brother has paid for itself.

[Nation03]

I've entertained the idea of going DTG for a while now. I'm a small operation and I see a high demand for low quantity orders with tons of colors in the design, in my area. I think I would be able to market it more successfully than screen printing because I don't see anyone around here doing DTG. There is a good amount of print shops around here and all of them are probably cheaper than me. If I do get into it, I feel like I would have to dedicate all my time and effort towards it. I wouldn't want to put out a crap product. I'm looking hard at the new Brother, but the ink costs seem ridiculous. I heard it spits out like $6 of ink every time you turn it on or something. It comes down to capital for me also. Do I spend $35k on a DTG printer or keep saving and go auto in a few years. I still have a good deal of planning, so I guess time will tell.

[Im-Magic]

Went down the DTG path a couple of years ago with an early eclipse but I could never get it to work consistantly and it was the greatest time waster and eater of test shirts I have ever had the misfortune to own. Having said that I do like the idea of it and am currently looking at a U-Print http://www.avianix.com/u-print-trans-slam-tst3/ I did not like the first samples I saw but have since experimented a bit using card paper to get rid of the plastic shine and I am close to buying one. This does away with the need to pretreat, works on all fabrics and you can do cups, plates, drink bottles and pens etc.

[ZooCity]

you can do cups, plates, drink bottles and pens etc.

Now yer talkin'.  I could see a machine capable of all of that + Ts being a real multi-tool in the right business, like the one that provides, biz cards, flatstock, promo items, Ts, etc., etc. and needs super quick turn. 

[royster13]

Technology is less of a problem than getting enough revenue to make it worthwhile......I know of at least 2 DTG machines locally that are not being used because they could not drive enough business to make it worthwhile.....

[Gilligan]

I tried to talk a local guy out of dropping 20k on his machine.  I just didn't see the ROI.

He did it anyway, fought and fought with it.  Kind of got it working, then one day I walked in and white ink was everywhere.  The hose came loose and it was all over the floor.  He never fixed it... just not worth the time for him.  He was in a downtown area with a decent walk in that could have benefited from a DTG (this is why he convinced himself to buy it).  Now he is in a new location that is even MORE retail and I don't even know what he did with the DTG, I don't see it in his new place and his new place is probably 3x as big.

[Inkworks]

Two important points come to light in the above 2 posts.

1 -  Market and marketing, you better understand both before jumping into an equipment purchase. Anybody who spends 10-30k and then has the machine sitting idle failed in at least one, if not both. Sometimes building a market takes 4-5 years or more. Do you have the money, time or other revenue streams to wait it out? Do you have the know-how to build or grow the market and your share of it? have you started building the market and grabbing your share of it before even buying the equipment? My shop is full of equipment bought dirt cheap from people who failed at one or the other, when the time comes I expect to pick up a DTG unit under similar circumstances. Buying cheap, used but not abused equipment means it hurts much less while I build market and market share. Being that we already do screenprinting and embroidery in-house, and occasionally sub out DTG I know we can keep one busy enough to pay for it (a used one) and keep the heads from clogging up from not being used.

2 - DTG technology is still on the steep part of the bell curve for both improving the technology and price coming down. The Brother Graffitee made a huge step forward this year in price, and I already know the companies reliability and quality. If thy could incorporate pre-treatment like the Kornit and maybe drop the price another 15 - 25% then I'd probably have a tough time not pulling the trigger. Until then I'll just keep my eye open for someone who blew it on point #1 and is desperate to sell a good machine that never really got used, and pounce when it comes around.

Years ago I wondered about a machine with a detachable pallet that could have the white base screened & flashed, then have the colours printed DTG over top. I suspect we'll see it soon.

[Frog]

Years ago I wondered about a machine with a detachable pallet that could have the white base screened & flashed, then have the colours printed DTG over top. I suspect we'll see it soon.

Or taking the other direction, and having a DTG "head" as a station on your press. The printer would move on tracks over the shirt rather than the shirt moving through the printer.

[Inkworks]

Now you're talking! I wonder if I could fit a used GT541 on station #4 of the auto! 

[royster13]

Or a DTG that picks up some sort of registration marks like a vinyl cutter.....

[Prosperi-Tees]

Two important points come to light in the above 2 posts.

1 -  Market and marketing, you better understand both before jumping into an equipment purchase. Anybody who spends 10-30k and then has the machine sitting idle failed in at least one, if not both. Sometimes building a market takes 4-5 years or more. Do you have the money, time or other revenue streams to wait it out? Do you have the know-how to build or grow the market and your share of it? have you started building the market and grabbing your share of it before even buying the equipment? My shop is full of equipment bought dirt cheap from people who failed at one or the other, when the time comes I expect to pick up a DTG unit under similar circumstances. Buying cheap, used but not abused equipment means it hurts much less while I build market and market share. Being that we already do screenprinting and embroidery in-house, and occasionally sub out DTG I know we can keep one busy enough to pay for it (a used one) and keep the heads from clogging up from not being used.

2 - DTG technology is still on the steep part of the bell curve for both improving the technology and price coming down. The Brother Graffitee made a huge step forward this year in price, and I already know the companies reliability and quality. If thy could incorporate pre-treatment like the Kornit and maybe drop the price another 15 - 25% then I'd probably have a tough time not pulling the trigger. Until then I'll just keep my eye open for someone who blew it on point #1 and is desperate to sell a good machine that never really got used, and pounce when it comes around.

Years ago I wondered about a machine with a detachable pallet that could have the white base screened & flashed, then have the colours printed DTG over top. I suspect we'll see it soon.

That last part is actually a reality. It was on YouTube at a trade show somewhere but was exactly as you described.

[inkman996]

Funny thing is when we finally purchased our brother years ago it turned out to have a different purpose for us than intended. Originally we thought it could be a great revenue generator like most people believe. But in our case it evolved to being a great process for very small runs, small reorders and printing infant onesies size products. We also use it for green flag printing. But my point is we are not marketing it at all, we use it as a process to relieve the issues printing traditionally, like reorders or tiny garments. So we really haven't made any great money off of it directly but it does pay for itself easily including consumables and most importantly it is a huge benefit to relieving Past PITA work.

[Inkworks]

How about DTG with a discharge base for darks..... 

[inkman996]

How about DTG with a discharge base for darks..... 

Mimaki had that in DTG infancy, remember checking it out in AC and had to walk away because of the stink.

[Inkworks]

I could put up with the stink... well actually I'd just ventilate it, If it worked as reliably as a Brother and did away with pre-treat problems, and yes I know "white" wouldn't be super white on many shirt colours.

I've heard some DTG companies may be revisiting a discharge white.