KenS

I bought our Digital Kiosk about a year ago. I have yet to do the white upgrade. Is everyone doing it? I have not really had much of a problem with customers deciding to go with a light color garment instead.

But then again... I porbably dont use my machine as frequently as others do.

 

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moxiesparadox

Ken,

There are still lots of us. Until the white ink gives less headaches I am sticking with the non-white.

We play up the texture (without the white, being texture-free) and the environmental angles (that the printing is chemical-free). Many of our customers are starting to prefer DTG to screenprinting especially for ladies garments and pajamas.

We rarely have problems with customers needing white ink either, but most of our business consists of our designs created to not use white. We work around the white even with custom work.

The biggest issue we have is getting a few colors just right without white in the mix. Yellow sometimes makes browns a little green. maroons a little brown, etc. Still, it's better than the alternative, at least until the white is easier, more consistent and clogs less.

 

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zhenjie

If I was in your position I'd wait until the non-settling White Ink comes out in the next few weeks. That should be the end of a number of problems with white ink currently being experienced.

 

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GRH

Ken,

I have been printing white for over a year now. It is a pain to say the least. If you have a retail market and can get $25 + a shirt it may be worth it. About 1/2 of my business is dark shirts and I am considering changing to the 7 color system and not printing white.

I figure my ink costs are average about $3 a print when printing white. A large print with a solid underbase can cost $5-$6 a print. I figure my average cost of printing CMYK at about 50c. White ink needs to be selling for about $75 a liter to make printing white reasonable.

The pretreatment process is a pain and it is hit and miss. I have run across some batch's of shirts that just will not pretreat correctly. My production drops from 20-30 shirts per hour to 6 shirts an hour. The pretreatment leaves a rectangle on the shirt that goes away after a few washings but looks like hell to a customer.

When they come up with a machine that has a separate head to spray pretreat on the shirt under the print area only and then prints directly on to the wet pretreatment then printing white makes sense. It would be great if they came up with the holy grail and developed inks that did not need pretreatment at all.

I have been running the new non-settling white from US Screen for about a week now and it seems to be doing good. I have seen no evidence of settling. This could do away with many mechanical issues with printing white (head clogs).

In my opinion the technology is not yet here to print white ink profitably. You can do it but it is a pain and hard to make money doing it.

Regards,
Greg

 

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dheer1um

Quote: Originally Posted by moxiesparadox Ken, There are still lots of us. Until the white ink gives less headaches I am sticking with the non-white. We play up the texture (without the white, being texture-free) and the environmental angles (that the printing is chemical-free). Many of our customers are starting to prefer DTG to screenprinting especially for ladies garments and pajamas. We rarely have problems with customers needing white ink either, but most

How can you print on dark without a white underbase? Texture always changes when you print on dark doesnt it?.

 

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Justin Walker

Quote: Originally Posted by GRH When they come up with a machine that has a separate head to spray pretreat on the shirt under the print area only and then prints directly on to the wet pretreatment then printing white makes sense.

That would be the Kornit. And from I hear, the Direct Advantage might also be going this route.

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GRH

Hey Justin,

Kornit is way ahead on this. Hopefully the cheaper printers will follow. Printing white with the average DTG is a major pain. I seriously question if it is worth the time and effort on the lesser machines.

Regards,
Greg

 

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