Roq goes Digital

[DannyGruninger]

Roq is releasing their new digital dtg inline attachment. Full color prints on darks and lights using a printed base for darks. Figured I would share on here to get the discussion on everyone's opinion regarding if a solution like this could ever replace standard printing. I have some thoughts on it and would like see what others think.


https://youtu.be/6ZZQzX6iD6Q

http://roqdigital.com/

[bulldog]

Roq is releasing their new digital dtg inline attachment. Full color prints on darks and lights using a printed base for darks. Figured I would share on here to get the discussion on everyone's opinion regarding if a solution like this could ever replace standard printing. I have some thoughts on it and would like see what others think.


https://youtu.be/6ZZQzX6iD6Q

http://roqdigital.com/

That is much faster than I thought it would be.

Tight registration would be my biggest concern.

I'm also guessing it is quite expensive.

[jvanick]

until DTG can print on a plastisol underbase, AND offers a low-cure capability...

I  just don't can't it being a major deal for most printers.  Plus what's the target cost on this unit? 

the trend of customers going to 100% poly as well as blends at least in our space is only increasing... we are only around 20-30% 100% cotton garments.

Not sure what the costs of the ink are, but when I was talking with the MHM guys, I believe the ink cost was still in the 50-75 cents per print range.  This is still far more expensive than plastisol (and WAY more expensive than waterbase).

Add the cost of the unit, the cost of the ink, the slow down in production, and what's the real benefit?

[Frog]

Hah! Nuno just asked me about where to post a promotion about their new product.
He didn't realize that he already had a man on the inside 

[bulldog]

until DTG can print on a plastisol underbase, AND offers a low-cure capability...

I  just don't can't it being a major deal for most printers.  Plus what's the target cost on this unit? 

the trend of customers going to 100% poly as well as blends at least in our space is only increasing... we are only around 20-30% 100% cotton garments.

Not sure what the costs of the ink are, but when I was talking with the MHM guys, I believe the ink cost was still in the 50-75 cents per print range.  This is still far more expensive than plastisol (and WAY more expensive than waterbase).

Add the cost of the unit, the cost of the ink, the slow down in production, and what's the real benefit?

DTG is great for me because I sell mostly one offs. E-commerce, not a print shop.

For an all white print ink costs can be as high as $1.50. If it is full color it is actually less usually because the base gets reduced. Some inks are wayyyy more than that (Brother, for example.)

If printing on a white or sports gray the cost is only 5 cents to maybe 20 cents. Love those.

But yeah, I've done 50 shirts front/back of the same design on DTG before and it takes HOURS.

[Colin]

I still question spot colors.  I have not seen a DTG printer yet that can do a nice clean light grey or pastel shades, for example.

That is also a VERY heavy/solid base white print.  Will it work with HSA whites?  Discharge bases?  What does it look like with a halftoned underbase?  I.e. soft hand.

Lots of unanswered variables....

Nice to see innovation though!

[Shanarchy]

I'm noticing that they are using as squeegee to flood, as opposed to a traditional flood bar. They are also print/flooding in the reverse order as I do. Wondering the differences both make. But that doesn't really pertain to this post....


Interesting concept. Printed quicker than I would have expected. It seems DTG technology works best when there is no white involved, so I would imagine this would run better with less downtime.

It really wouldn't replace standard DTG as an option for a couple of shirts.

But I can see a press set up printing a white underbase on head one, flashing on head 2, cooling down/smoothing on head 3, and printing all of the top color on head 4. This could make a 4 color automatic press that could handle countless colors with the simplicity of setting up one screen. Print time would be a lot slower, but set up time would be dramatically faster (1 screen to coat/burn/prep/register/reclaim). Also less inks to keep on the shelf.

[bulldog]

I still question spot colors.  I have not seen a DTG printer yet that can do a nice clean light grey or pastel shades, for example.

That is also a VERY heavy/solid base white print.  Will it work with HSA whites?  Discharge bases?  What does it look like with a halftoned underbase?  I.e. soft hand.

Lots of unanswered variables....

Nice to see innovation though!

Not sure if I've ever tried pastel shades. Color matching can be tricky, near impossible, though.

[ZooCity]

We just discussed it briefly in the office and, for us, this tech could work very well on our second press.   

With average order sizes dropping a little this year but still hovering around 300pcs and average color count climbing while files seem to be getting rougher for seps, lots of .png that is at ok res but full of pixel junk, we could absolutely utilize a setup like this.   Adding it up, by the time we sep that .png file, mix inks (often straight dc which is time consuming and requires pre-flight testing), setup/reg, make color adjustments and strike off....well even a slower moving digital setup like this might already be finished with that 300 pcs 8color order.   The workflow on this looks more like: generate UB and primer channels, RIP digital, lock in two screens and strike off.    Additionally, you are only swapping screens for the ub and primer all day.

My biggest question- what speed at max resolution? 

To give this legs the unit should probably have an option to function as a short run DTG, i.e., it should be able to print white ub.  A pre-treatment head on the press might allow it to function as a regular DTG for shorter runs that didn't justify generating two screens. 

Last off, you still have a screen printing press, sans one head for the digital apparatus that can still run regular screen jobs. 

So while I first looked at this and said nah, the more I think about it has a place. 

On the print nerd side, I'd love to see what you can do with digi + special effect screen spot colors on a unit like this. 

As far as out of gamut colors I imagine you can use additional screens for bump plates?

[mk162]

question...how with this help Danny?  His prints already look like damn photos.

[zanegun08]

I think these are cool, but the cost of entry is steep, and the prints from the Kornit / MHM one looks like a jizz stain (shiny, goupy, gross print) to put it in a nice way.

If this can look like a nice matte print, discharge underbase, dtg pretreat (screen printed) and then DTG, that could be cool

On the demo they have a hard edge image, it would be interesting to do image fades, with screen printing halftone bases, and then the dtg printer fading out, could be a cool effect.

Spot colors still suck on DTG, but DTG =/= to screen print.  I think this could work good for someone like TeeSpring or Represent who could open up their system to allow unlimited color images, and just print the base, and DTG the rest.

Also the mixed media type images could be very cool, but in the race to the bottom of a $4 dollar finished tee, not sure this fits the current industry well, and would be hard to sell.

Still love the technologies, and would love to have one to play with.

[Underbase37]

I like the concept, but wasn't very impressed with the MHM unit at LB last year. Also worrying about 12 print heads that may have clogging issues to deal with or replace?

Murphy

[bulldog]

I like the concept, but wasn't very impressed with the MHM unit at LB last year. Also worrying about 12 print heads that may have clogging issues to deal with or replace?

Murphy

If it isn't printing white ink I would say head clogs would be very minimal.

[sweetts]

Wow that is the way it should be done. To be able to keep it on the press makes so much sense, no need for DTG staff, no worries about white ink clogs, and you can still add your specialty inks. Nice!

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