Photos of DTG print result

[Dottonedan]

These are NeoFlex DTG printer samples. (Photos of)  from http://www.Screenprintsupply.com
Looks pretty vibrant and pretty accurate to the detail and color (from what I can see).  I'm told it would be $1.70 in ink cost for the Biker.  Approx. 7 min to complete from beginning to end.

[alan802]

I think the "ink costs" that the manu's claim are slightly unrealistic.  I've done a lot of research, much of it over a year ago, and talked to owners of DTG over the years, and every one of them have complained of much higher ink costs than expected. 

[Frog]

I was going to say the same thing. My understanding is just the white underbase  and highlight can cost close to $2 though granted, that particular design has only about 50% coverage. Then there is also the required pre-treatment, I don't know what that costs.

[inkman996]

The ink cost is nothing when you compare it to the cost of labor. That's where the real bucks is being spent, pretreatment time, very very long print times on dark cure times for both pretreatment and print. What that adds up to is a couple decent shirts a half hour if you are lucky.

And yes the manus will blow smoke up your arse when it comes to ink costs and most definetely when it comes to printing times.

[islandtees]

The ink cost is nothing when you compare it to the cost of labor. That's where the real bucks is being spent, pretreatment time, very very long print times on dark cure times for both pretreatment and print. What that adds up to is a couple decent shirts a half hour if you are lucky.

And yes the manus will blow smoke up your arse when it comes to ink costs and most definetely when it comes to printing times.

Your way off here. We run a M&R 12 color auto and do most work from it. We also have a Brother GT782.  We run small orders of dark shirts with many colors that is not worth tying up the auto. The Brother has duel plattens, cures the ink in 35 seconds. We can do about 30-40 dark shirts a hour, so 4 an hour is not even close. Ink costs depends on design but we use Brother white ink in bulk. We use a Viper pretreat machine for speed. We make a very good profit on our digital darks.

[Socalfmf]

looks good but what is the washablity?  also the ROI is high on these machines...

[Inkworks]

Washability is just fine if they are properly cured.

[SkylinePrints]

The NeoFlex machines probably have the sharpest images of any DTG I've seen lately.  Unless they have changed, it runs the Epson 4880 series of print heads.  The important thing is the maintenance especially in the 4880 series.  The white ink primarily will clog easily.  I'm personally not a big fan of the 4880 series ink heads for DTG since the clog easily but do the proper maintenance and you should be good. 

Two things I do like on this machine are you can load 3 shirts at once with each having its own design and I also find it interesting that it changes over to a solvent printer.  It's an intriguing setup to be sure.

Time is a big cost driver as Inkman stated.  Pretreat the shirt (no estimate on time here), heat press the shirt for 30 seconds, print the shirt 3-7 minutes, heat press the shirt again 30 seconds, time in-between to move around and between machines, you will easily have 10 minutes probably more in 1 shirt.  This of course assumes printing a dark shirt. The numbers are completely different on white or light color shirts. 

It the total time to produce that needs to be understood not just the printing process.  Understand this and you can base your pricing properly.

Comparing this machine to a Brother 782 is not a fair comparison.  Totally different and much bigger print head on the Brother designed from the ground up for DTG plus the dual platens.  Not to mention totally different price range for the machines.

[inkman996]

My statement co ferns the typical single platen epson converted dark printing machine.

The brother is unique but with a huge price tag. Another thing to consider is the much much higher Ink cost compared to the duponts. And one other thing which I am all to familiar with since we just replaced a print head is the extremely high cost for a new print head.

Forget the brother for now and consider the others. I have seen print times as high as ten minutes per shirt, and cure times two minutes or more, some of recommend curing twice.

My reason for replying to this thread was to point out the sales men will fudge numbers as they see fit to convince you other wise. We did plenty of research in to all these machines and found real world experiences never ever matched what the Manu told you. The closest we came to realistic numbers was with brother so that's the one we bought.

[TCT]

We actually have a NeoFlex, quite happy with it also. A HUGE selling feature of thedebut NeoFlex for us was the fact that you can load 3 items. When one is done you can take it off set another one up and place it back on the board. We also run a dual head air driven heat transfer machine, and a Viper pretreat machine. If you setup the timing just right you can run a pretty nice production line!
I could of never justified a single platen DTG. Also a pretreat machine makes a large difference.

[Frog]

We actually have a NeoFlex, quite happy with it also. A HUGE selling feature of thedebut NeoFlex for us was the fact that you can load 3 items. When one is done you can take it off set another one up and place it back on the board. We also run a dual head air driven heat transfer machine, and a Viper pretreat machine. If you setup the timing just right you can run a pretty nice production line!
I could of never justified a single platen DTG. Also a pretreat machine makes a large difference.

What about your actual ink costs on a full sized design, 12" x 12", 10" x 14"  or so?

[beanie357]

We have under 50 cents for cmyk.
White could add two to ten bucks on lots of coverage.
We have a neo and went dual cmyk. Love it now. Also problem free.
We use pretreat on lights and color is great.
We also screen print, and darks go that way.
Prints are killer with good art.
Both screen and neo have a place.