Anyone seen screen printing combined with digital printing?

[royster13]

One of my clients told me they saw a video where the white was screen printed and the CMYK was added by digital printing......Anyone seen such a video?....A link would be appreciated.....Thanks....

[Frog]

A few years back, I saw a DTG carriage mounted in one of the heads of an auto.

Couldn't tell you a thing about its efficacy though.

[royster13]

One of my contacts just sent me this link:

http://ge411.com/video-rk.htm

[mk162]

there was something called the Polar Bear or something and it mounted to a Brother GT541 and you would print your base and then CMYK over the top.

There were problems though like the platens on that machine aren't meant to be printed on first off.  It never took off.  The platen arm was durable enough, and I would bet that an aluminum platen would have supported it better.

The closeups in those vids don't look that good.

[sqslabs]

I saw one in the development phase at M&R a few months back.  Interesting machine for sure.

[TCT]

Kornit makes one, the Paradigm.

http://youtu.be/7WZnFhG7QvQ

There was a local place here that one hooked up to their MHM, and hated it and actually ended up returning it!

[GraphicDisorder]

Still looks pretty slow.  Quality in those close ups is pretty rough, but I guess that artwork may have been that way for all we know.

[mk162]

unless it's done well, it's stupid...and I have yet to see it done well.

you would get better speeds buying 2 DTG machines and freeing up the auto to run at high speed.  throttling a press like that will only add to scheduling and personnel headaches.

[sqslabs]

Agreed on the speed, that thing is sloooooow.  And also, once you've brought screen printing into the DTG equation, hasn't it kinda defeated the purpose?  The beauty of DTG is that my grandma can buy one and be printing shirts within minutes.  Once you add screen printing into the mix, it becomes a whole different ballgame.  I understand the idea of improving the white ink side of DTG, but this just seems counterproductive to me.

Unless the manufacturers are banking on the future of screen printing being two head presses (one white, one CMYK).  I just don't see that ever looking better than an actual screen print, especially when it comes to spot color printing.  But who knows.

[Dottonedan]

Multi/full color retail designs (with name drops). Small orders of 24 shirts per drop/town to the retailers. DTG'd but if you're able to mass produce the DTG'd images, like 1000 at a pop, and then screen print a 1-2 color name drop on every 24-36 or 48, it makes it viable.

[Maxie]

I have a Kornit 933 Paradigm on my MHM E Type.    Kornit made a video of it working in my factory that they use at shows.    I'll try and upload it tomorrow.
We have deigns that we print CYMK digitally and then add puff, overprint glitter or add foil.
We print letter size prints at a rate of about 150 an hour.       If we want a white base we have to screen print it.        We get good results printing a discharge base and then printing CYMK with the Kornit.
This is not a printer for small shops, it's great for fashion.     Creative textile designers are getting great results using screen and DTG.     If you have a large screened area and a smaller DTG print you can speed up production a lot.
This printer is deigned for high volume and not for one offs with name drops.