Disagree: I HAVE a sample shirt from Sawgrass (given to me by another board member who had his own art printed by SG), and I am not impressed. The version printed with the Brother inks looks better.
Of course, this is given the fact that the Sawgrass guys supposedly didn't adjust the image, at all, before printing. Regardless; unimpressed, especially since the Brother inks are about to just about match the Sawgrass in price. Where's the motivation to switch?
Do you know Matt roam(?). Who claims about patent of T-Shirts print by inkjet. I just know him as a Matt. He used to work with Brother as a VIP. Show off at show all the time for year or two so as a leader. Little later he moves to Sawgrass as a director of machine and ink. Again he is not there anymore. Last year he said he is working with Mark esquire to build new machine. I saw this printer at the show but it wasn't working.
When we see this pictures, there might be a some connection between Sawgrass and Brother. Maybe maybe not. Who know what but ~
One sample cannot tell anything. Someone has to spend some time to find out. Well I have so much free time these days ~.
The best advice I can give to you is to wear a hat when you are playing all that golf you keep talking about. You must be having really sunny days recently and the heat exhaustion is getting to you. Otherwise, I am not sure why you would write this fiction. Here is the truth based on what I know:
Quote:
Originally Posted by ddm
Do you know Matt roam(?). Who claims about patent of T-Shirts print by inkjet. I just know him as a Matt. He used to work with Brother as a VIP. Show off at show all the time for year or two so as a leader. Little later he moves to Sawgrass as a director of machine and ink. Again he is not there anymore.
His last name is Rhome. Go to the USPTO website (www.uspto.gov) and do a search for issued patents and under his name and you will see the patent. Pretty hard to argue that - just ask Scott (US Screen). It is my understanding that you are well aware of this as you got a C&D from DIS (the company that owns the right to the patent) several years ago.
As for what Matt did at Brother or Sawgrass, neither you nor I know since we did not work at either place. So it would be inappropriate to make comments in my opinion.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ddm
Last year he said he is working with Mark esquire to build new machine. I saw this printer at the show but it wasn't working. When we see this pictures, there might be a some connection between Sawgrass and Brother. Maybe maybe not.
There is no conspiracy. Yes, I had Matt work on a couple of projects that I was doing and it even covered different types of dtg printers. Why not, he was the first one to come out with a commercially available dtg printer back in 1996. I am sure you have seen the article posted in SPU.
I had absolutely nothing to do with the creation of Sawgrass' aftermarket ink for the Brother GT-541 printer - no credit or blame for me. Since Matt still has strong ties with the people at Brother, I doubt this would be the case. If you want to hear it directly from Matt, I am sure you can figure out how to contact him.
So let's stay away from the conspiracy theories and focus on what the post is about (first-hand experiences with the Sawgrass aftermarket inks).
I am not sure why you would write this fiction. Here is the truth based on what I know:
I said "there might be a some connection between Sawgrass and Brother. Maybe maybe not. Who know what but ~"
No intention to hurt someone or create fiction. Just imagination. Because Matt is remarkable guy and he is always ahead me and surprise us always. Also you too. I have lots of respect to you. Honestly.
I have seen a sample and it was in my opinion a better print. Keep in mind though it is better to use Illustrator program.
Sample was done using both Corel and Illustrator and there was quite a difference. Could be true with Brother ink also. There is a site that shows prints I ran across using Sawgrass but not sure if I can put that info here.
With cost savings being over 200.00 w/every 4 carts seems like could be worth trying.
I have not tried this ink first-hand and I have not seen anyone print with it for an extended period time. There are currently two stories (potential rumors as I have not talked to them directly) of people that have tried this ink and had print head problems fairly quickly. With the last one, the user had the yellow clog... but the print head was old. After bringing back the yellow, the black clogged up. At which point he pulled all the ink out and went back to Brother ink.
This is nothing more than a risk vs. reward analysis since it was reported that Sawgrass says it does not increase your color gamut. The reward is saving some money on the ink if you only want to minimize your cash outlay with the smaller cartridges. I was told that there was no real cost savings when you bought the larger cartridges that are now available. The risk is the potential costs of ink that might be needed to recovery the clogged print head (i.e. running cleanings), the downtime you have doing the recovery (including labor and lost production) and any potential damage to the print head (whether a shorten life or the need to complete replace it). I guess if you are a power user and don't want to buy the large cartridges... then the cost advantages could outweight the risk.
As a consultant, I would have a difficult time making the recommendation to change inks to a client unless there would be a written guarantee that replacement parts would be covered. I just don't see this happening since Sawgrass does not have access to these replacement parts. The safest and easiest way to decrease costs is to purchase the larger cartridges. I would be interested in hearing from people that have used this ink for an extended period of time.
Larger inks have a downside, they black inks do not come with a replacement wiper/cleaning kit meaning you will need to bu two of them when running all large carts. meaning it will cost you an additional $90 plus shipping...
I know of one person who had been using the sawgrass for a few month and at time and till now never reported no issues thus far but I will not bother getting them still because I get my cart. now for 185
I got nothing against 3rd party inks and using the on Roland with great results but I still feel scared to use on brother for a case of what if
Larger inks have a downside, they black inks do not come with a replacement wiper/cleaning kit meaning you will need to bu two of them when running all large carts. meaning it will cost you an additional $90 plus shipping...
I heard something about that.... Seems like a giant shell game, to me! "We're going to lower the cost of ink: HOORAY! Oh, and by the way, we're now going to make you pay for your cleaning kits, which are going to drive up your overall costs... You didn't actually think we were gonna let you save money, did you??"
We used a full set of sawgrass inks and IMO they were the same as the Brother inks.with our art vector VS. raster, raster wins on color every time. the sawgrass inks also come with no cleaning kit,but they told us they were trying to develop one,I don't know if they offer it yet and if you would have to pay extra for it.so overall our experience was positive with sawgrass.
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Corey Nydegger www.sharkteesinc.com Design on line and new lower DTG Contract printing prices
The simplest way I have found of truly telling how well an ink or supply item performs is if customers reorder it. i think everyone will agree that if a customer tried out a new item and didn't like it they would never order it again. I can tell you that we have quite a few customers who have reordered the Sawgrass ink cartridges for the Brother 541 from us multiple times already.
I agree with Harry. Our customers love them and keep reordering. Obviously if something was wrong with them they would not order again. They don't clog the heads, the colors are great, washablility is great but what they tell me they really like is saving 25% on their inks. I have customers who have reordered 5 times already which speaks for itself.
This morning we had a customer place his sixth reorder for the compatible cartridges. As I had mentioned previously, this is one of the best indications of how these compatible cartridges are working for users out in the "real world".
Sawgrass Ink 
