Discuss the various aspects of direct to garment printing. DTG printers include Brother, T-Jet, Flexi-Jet, DTG Kiosk, Kornit, Mimaki, Tex-Jet and others! Discuss and learn about this up and coming printing technology.
a few weeks ago we've been to a trade show and got introduced to the new Azon printer called Micro Tex. To my surprise it looked 100% like the DTG Kiosk. Same printer, same specs, same software (all without the DTG brand of cause).
All my sample prints came out very good. Same results as the DTG Kiosk.
However, I am wondering if anyone out there purchased the printer or could tell me more? It is way cheaper than the DTG Kiosk, though. Also, don't get confused by the product picture as this one refers to the previous model (which looked like a t-jet to me).
i will not pretend to speak for swf on this but let me try to give you a little info i am pretty sure about...
- it is most likely a t-jet type model as swf has quite a few mods they have done or do themselves to actually make the unit work as well as possible.
- Azon will not have parts or service for you here in the usa as they do not have any rights to sell it here at least.
- we purchased a different printer from them to test to see if we might have interest in possible distribution. All i can say is what a waste of money. it got here and never printed anything properly. we replaced many parts because they were just not working or faulty. QC was way below our standards for anything we would represent to the public. They do not have phone support and the email support was so bad we just gave up. they would not send replacement parts or even help us to diagnose it. Buyer beware if they would not do more for a potential distributor.
*This was only our experience and does not represent all machine sales and manufacturer to owner relations.*
i will not pretend to speak for swf on this but let me try to give you a little info i am pretty sure about...
- it is most likely a t-jet type model as swf has quite a few mods they have done or do themselves to actually make the unit work as well as possible.
- Azon will not have parts or service for you here in the usa as they do not have any rights to sell it here at least.
- we purchased a different printer from them to test to see if we might have interest in possible distribution. All i can say is what a waste of money. it got here and never printed anything properly. we replaced many parts because they were just not working or faulty. QC was way below our standards for anything we would represent to the public. They do not have phone support and the email support was so bad we just gave up. they would not send replacement parts or even help us to diagnose it. Buyer beware if they would not do more for a potential distributor.
*This was only our experience and does not represent all machine sales and manufacturer to owner relations.*
hope the might give you at least one perspective,
Tom
No surprise! This product also comes from the same company that blatantly ignores IP.
I'm referring to the nail printing machine that they copied from us, but as it turns out there was no concern since it worked as well as the other product they make.
I was going to mention the nail machine but I do not know as much about the details and I also had already gone on with a long post. You are the man that would know this as you came up with it first.
Not sure of the absolute details on this machine, however, the ones I do know are as follows.
The machines were made a dealer in Singapore that is no longer a dealer, he did have a fair inventory of machines and did sell a lot of them off to companies around the world for a significant discount. The machines do not come with a bulk ink system, only with refillable cartridges unless the dealer in question puts a low end Chinese bulk ink system on the machine. There are at least 5 proprietary boards in the printer that would only be sourceable from the manufacturer, which does not sell to these companies directly - so long term service will be non-existant.
Add to that what Mark and Tom said!
Buyer Beware, if it looks too good to be true - it is!
as far as i could tell, this machine looked 100% like my dtg kiosk and they also offered bulk ink system. so far, wash tests with the shirts printed on this machine are 100% similar to what came out of the dtg. i found that all machines come from one and the same plant, mastermind in japan.
however, don, could you specify what you mean by 5 proprietary boards?
the machine sells new for 11400€ 2 platens and with bulk inks but without a pretreatment sprayer (which is 40€ extra). i paid 14000€ for the dtg kiosk which i now think was a joke.
I am not stating that this machine is anything other than what you are stating, I am stating that the OEM you are dealing with is not buying the machines from the manufacturer and do not have access to parts specific to the machine. The machines were built for a company that lost their distributorship with the manufacturer because they sold machines outside of their territory. In regards to the pricing of the machine, that would be something to take up with your distributor, it is still higher than we sell the Kiosk here in the US marketplace (about $4000 USD more). If you doubt the information I am providing, contact the manufacturer directly and ask them about this specific printer and the dealer who is distributing them. I am certain they can provide you with the details of the relationship they have with the manufacturer. Impression Technology (the DTG lead distributor) has exclusive distribution of this line of printers for the entire world (except Japan - where the manufacturer distributes them). Buying them from anyone else is likely to be a long term nightmare as parts for service (as well as factory level service training) are not available to anyone other than authorized distributors and their approved agents.
i found that all machines come from one and the same plant, mastermind in japan.
This is not a correct statement. The original Fast T-Jets (1 & 2) and the DTG line come from Mastermind for sure. There might be even a couple of others that Mastermind makes that are not in the U.S. However, the rest of the machines that are on the market in the U.S. are not made by MasterMind. Here is a quick list of some machines not made by MasterMind:
- T-Jet 3
- Brother
- FlexiJet
- Anajet
- TexJet
- Kornit
I think the real point here is that many of these machine will work fine, but when there is a problem (and there will be...) would you rather pay a couple grand more.... for a machine that's properly backed and serviced,or have to pay double for fixes to problems that the guy you buy from cannot and will not support?
__________________ imprimeo! ....Digitizing, DTG and Embroidery..FREE Embroidery SOFTWARE Sierra Consultant, Stitch ERA Universal Dealer, Digitizing trainer for GUNOLD USA
i don't think any of us are saying things that are negative with some sort of malice but all of us have been around quite a while in this segment of the industry and do have some insight into the history of the current and past products.
It does seem like you are defending something quite vigorously that you have seen at a show once, have a sample from and have done some wash testing.
If you have no real interest in ours or others opionions then please say so.
I for one will speak for most of us that we are only trying to give you some of our insight so that you and others can get to the truth of the matter this thread was started for. No hard feelings or anything, just trying to follow through on what most people use these forums for... to find info from people that have some experience.
Sorry in advance if you feel myself or others here have attacked you for what you have experienced with your first hand interaction and I for one hope the best for you and others looking into the direct to garment arena.
I wish I would have found this site sooner. I bought the Azon MicroTex back in March 2006 from the Tim Ingram at garmentinkjetprinter.com. He assured me this was a great machine and before the sale he was very helpful. Afterwards, when I immediately had problems - he dropped off the face of the earth. There is no tech support for this machine. I tried contacting Azon directly, you only get to leave a message and noone calls back. Problems, problems, problems. I wasted thousands of dollars in mis printed shirts. Ink flow was inconsistent, spattered, banded, uneven, etc. And we won't even talk about how much of my time and my employees time was wasted. I have boxes of bad shirts. A large stock of unused shirts. When I did get a good print customers complained of fading after only a couple of washes. One day a computer board in the machine decided to self destruct. Tim was going to get me another one- several months later it came and the machine still doesn't work. I basically spent nearly $12,000. to have this machine and a heatpress. Which only BARELY worked for the first 6 months and now instead of making me money at my business it sits in my basement at home. I tried to contact Tim so I could put in an insurance claim to recoup some of my loss, but he won't get back to me. STAY AWAY from this machine. Has anyone else purchased this machine lately?
I wish I would have found this site sooner. I bought the Azon MicroTex back in March 2006 from the Tim Ingram at garmentinkjetprinter.com. He assured me this was a great machine and before the sale he was very helpful. Afterwards, when I immediately had problems - he dropped off the face of the earth. There is no tech support for this machine. I tried contacting Azon directly, you only get to leave a message and noone calls back. Problems, problems, problems. I wasted thousands of dollars in mis printed shirts. Ink flow was inconsistent, spattered, banded, uneven, etc. And we won't even talk about how much of my time and my employees time was wasted. I have boxes of bad shirts. A large stock of unused shirts. When I did get a good print customers complained of fading after only a couple of washes. One day a computer board in the machine decided to self destruct. Tim was going to get me another one- several months later it came and the machine still doesn't work. I basically spent nearly $12,000. to have this machine and a heatpress. Which only BARELY worked for the first 6 months and now instead of making me money at my business it sits in my basement at home. I tried to contact Tim so I could put in an insurance claim to recoup some of my loss, but he won't get back to me. STAY AWAY from this machine. Has anyone else purchased this machine lately?
Yes, our micro tex white is 2 years old and works fine.
even: our printer-dealer ist blast away an we need an new point to buy the compatible ink.
any idea?
our destination ist the north of germany......call it diaspora
Azon Printer Micro-Tex 
