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.
Been lurking here for awhile and have been doing everything I can to educate myself about this topic. I am interested in the HM-1 Kiosk, the Flexi and T-Jet. I am hoping people can help me out with their own experiences regarding these printers. Here are some basic questions I hope you can answer.
1) Which printer is best for someone who will be printing on t-shirts, white and black, half the time and other substrates the rest of the time?
2) Which printer has the most vivid output on t-shirts which hold up after repeated washes.
1) These three printers have many similarities for t-shirt printing(except the Flex L which can print four shirts per pass). For alternate substrate printing, look at the way each moves and the width, depth and height of the potential print area. For example the Flexi can print as much as approx 3 1/4 high , 17 wide, by 54 long ( L model).
2) These three printers all currently use the same DuPont inkset (as R & H is discontinued). Adjusting the resolution of the print and doing more than one pass can equalize them. Washability will be the same with the same inks- curing time/temp determines that on whites. On darks it is the pretreatment process that is the key.
3) Support- you will get varied reports on this depending on which machne owners you talk to. Every company has stellar moments and weak moments. I suggest you call or pm actual owners, a couple for each, and see what they have to say.
4) Prices-Specials and packages are often available if you call the distributors direct or buy at a show.
Always go to a tradeshow and see the printer in action printing the type of t-shirts/designs that you will be printing to make sure it has the quality you need.
I had a DTG Kiosk for 1 year and I had no problems and really liked the machine. I only sold it because our business is moving in a different direction. If things go the way I want I will purchase one again strictly because they are handy to have for photos and short run jobs.
If the HM-1 works as good as my Kiosk you'll be very happy.
In the market for a DTG printer 
