really good overview of the new EPSON F3070 printer

[Rockers]

-scan the shirt at pretreat station so it deposits the fluid in the shape of the art rather than a box.

This sounds interesting. I would love to know how this step works in more detail please.

[Sbrem]

Wow, from stapled mesh to this, man, how things have progressed. So, after taking the pretreated shirt from the Belquette and sending it down the dryer, how do you get the pretreated area in the right place (registered) on the Epson platen?

Steve

[blue moon]

Wow, from stapled mesh to this, man, how things have progressed. So, after taking the pretreated shirt from the Belquette and sending it down the dryer, how do you get the pretreated area in the right place (registered) on the Epson platen?

Steve

The pretreat always leaves a little bit of discoloration. You learn to see it pretty quickly and just put the shirt where it needs to be. The collar always goes in the same place and there is even an option to use a web cam to help with placement.
And there is an inch margin around the print, so you just have to get close.

While the pretreatment is still visible around the shirt, it is in shape of the art and it does not stick out like a sore thumb.

Pierre

[kingscreen]

This thing is $56,000  - how do you make money with it? What is the business plan for this?

What Pierre said plus offering contract for shops in your region. Also On-Demand retail stores can keep a printer busy and margins are far more favorable.

This thing makes a lot of sense. Way better than the DTG we currently have. Thanks for posting!

[royster13]

This thing is $56,000  - how do you make money with it? What is the business plan for this?

Equipment like this can only make money if it works....In order to accomplish one must "knock on doors" and sell...Wholesale work is okay to start but retail work has a better margin...

[brandon]

I think people are not realizing this unit can take the place of a manual press (with better printing no offense) plus free up your auto or autos of the 36 - 72 piece orders. Say a 3 or 4 screen job needs to be run at 48 pieces BAM done in a little over a hour. No screens, no screen reclaim,  and no ink mixing. Your big client really needs a sim process print front and back (most likely 8 screens at least both sides) but only 72 pieces. Well here you go. This doesn't  have to print on demand only. We plan on using it for our web stores and actually production of smaller orders.

[Rockers]

One thing I would really need to point out here is the very high cost of white ink. Especially if you want to make the print actually look good.
I can`t speak about the Epson but with GTX Pro a 16" tall print will set you back by probably $3-$4 in ink cost(incl. pretreat and an extra10% for ink waste during cleaning process). And this cost stays the same regardless if you do 10 or 100 garments. Of course if quality of the print is not the main concern then you can get away with less.

[royster13]

I think people are not realizing this unit can take the place of a manual press (with better printing no offense) plus free up your auto or autos of the 36 - 72 piece orders. Say a 3 or 4 screen job needs to be run at 48 pieces BAM done in a little over a hour. No screens, no screen reclaim,  and no ink mixing. Your big client really needs a sim process print front and back (most likely 8 screens at least both sides) but only 72 pieces. Well here you go. This doesn't  have to print on demand only. We plan on using it for our web stores and actually production of smaller orders.

Most folks do not need to "free up your auto" as many only operate less than 40% of the time available anyway....

[blue moon]

One thing I would really need to point out here is the very high cost of white ink. Especially if you want to make the print actually look good.
I can`t speak about the Epson but with GTX Pro a 16" tall print will set you back by probably $3-$4 in ink cost(incl. pretreat and an extra10% for ink waste during cleaning process). And this cost stays the same regardless if you do 10 or 100 garments. Of course if quality of the print is not the main concern then you can get away with less.

It’s about $2 for a 16” print on the EPSON with in 2% maintenance. For systems running most of the shift, that sounds like a reasonable number. If you are running an hour per day it will be more.

Pierre

[blue moon]

I think people are not realizing this unit can take the place of a manual press (with better printing no offense) plus free up your auto or autos of the 36 - 72 piece orders. Say a 3 or 4 screen job needs to be run at 48 pieces BAM done in a little over a hour. No screens, no screen reclaim,  and no ink mixing. Your big client really needs a sim process print front and back (most likely 8 screens at least both sides) but only 72 pieces. Well here you go. This doesn't  have to print on demand only. We plan on using it for our web stores and actually production of smaller orders.

Most folks do not need to "free up your auto" as many only operate less than 40% of the time available anyway....

This might not be a printer for them. If you dont have one auto at close to capacity, you dont have enough work for it. Even with bringing in new work, this printer should do 100 shirts per day as minimum. It would work out the best at 300 every day.

Pierre

[blue moon]

I should say, 100 for contract, 50 for retail...

Pierre

[Ross_S]

I'm looking at this set up from a different point of view.  I'm tired of looking for GOOD employees and spending time to train them to leave.  The younger generation (I'm 39 so I mean 20 year olds) are not looking to learn printing or embroidery.  I think it would be much easier and more to their liking to train them in DTG.  I also believe this unit could replace one of my autos.  I do run a fair amount of process but the majority of my work is spot color (White plus a color or two).  I finally got some samples of some repeat spot color jobs i do on a regular that I would feel comfortable with selling.  Anyhow; I think it would be much easier to train someone on this machine versus an auto. I also believe one person with this set up could produce more than 2 or 3 on an auto working on 12-48 piece runs of 1 to 5 colors.  Just my 2 cents.

Ross

PS In my situation Print on Demand would just be a bonus

[brandon]

I'm looking at this set up from a different point of view.  I'm tired of looking for GOOD employees and spending time to train them to leave.  The younger generation (I'm 39 so I mean 20 year olds) are not looking to learn printing or embroidery.  I think it would be much easier and more to their liking to train them in DTG.  I also believe this unit could replace one of my autos.  I do run a fair amount of process but the majority of my work is spot color (White plus a color or two).  I finally got some samples of some repeat spot color jobs i do on a regular that I would feel comfortable with selling.  Anyhow; I think it would be much easier to train someone on this machine versus an auto. I also believe one person with this set up could produce more than 2 or 3 on an auto working on 12-48 piece runs of 1 to 5 colors.  Just my 2 cents.

Ross

PS In my situation Print on Demand would just be a bonus

Exactly.  Well put. And the foot print is smaller. Plus another auto needs a lot of screens to feed. And reclaim. Most younger people do not want to that. It is not tech nor glamorous

[Nation03]

Even as a smaller shop, I think I can justify replacing my manual with this. Won't pull the trigger yet since I'd like to see how reliable it ends up being and how consistent it prints. I'd love to just keep a 6 color auto around for larger 1-3 color print runs and do the majority of the smaller orders and full color stuff on 1 of these things. The time saved on processing and reclaiming screens would be worth it. Less ink mixing, less time registering screens. I'm more than willing to deal with a learning curve on prepping art for one of these printers. Definitely keep us posted! I'd love to see a long term review.