Ok, so I have been following the DTG community for a long time, waiting patiently for the time I could afford one, or in my case I could finance one, and I took the plunge.
I went with a company that many might not have heard of called MS (www.msitaly.com ), which is a compnay in Italy. They mainly focus on large format textile printing but have recently branched out into the small format t-shirt market in Europe.
I should be getting my new DTG printer in hand in about 3-4 weeks once all the financing goes through, but wanted to drop a post and get some info rolling about the MS-One.
Does anyone else out there currently use one?
I heard Sawgrass was importing them for a while as their DTG machine, but then went to a cheaper Chinese model.
Anyway, I'm new to DTG, wil have an MS-One soon and looking to say 'hey' to all the other possible MS owners out there.
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Designer in fashion hungry D.C. www.jonwye.com
What made you go with one that many have not heard of? does it have the white ink? what was the price?
How big of print can you get? I saw the width but didn't see length
We saw one that sawgrass had but the white was horrible (advantage I think it is)
I saw the MS-One at the New England show. It looked very well built. I believe the show price was around 12k but with no ink. I really thought about buying one for a little while but like someone posted already, I didn't know enough about it. There is so much info on the DTG, T-Jet , Anajet and Brother.
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It's really just like all the others. Epson head etc.... It just looked cooler
I think they spent more time on the look and feel than DTG or T-Jet or Ananjet. But...I still went with DTG.
I heard Sawgrass was importing them for a while as their DTG machine, but then went to a cheaper Chinese model.
You are right. Sawgrass was the master distributor for this machine in the U.S. for a while. One of the things that some people told me they did not care for was the size of the machine. It seemed to be about the same size of the Flexi-Jet L or Blazer Pro, but only did one shirt at a time. With all of them being a 48X0 printer, the print speed is not going to be much different. The length the platen / printer is going to have to travel for a single shirt is going be the same as well. However, doing a 2 or 3 up shirt on the Flexi or Blazer will outproduce the MS-1. The last time I saw this printer at a show, it was on an ambulance gurney in the Axiom booth if that gives you an idea of the length.
By the way, from what I have been told the Direct Advantage (the current printer that Sawgrass sells) is made in Italy as well. Not sure who told you it was from China, but you might want to double check that.
Wow, gotta love this forum, and the hardcore DTG posters.
To try to answer all the questions so far...
Yes, the printer is a modded epson 4800, which seems to be the standard for all good quality DTGs out there, before going to the modded Mimaki level.
As for Mark's comment... yup, it's a big machine, and with what i am having done to it it will be even bigger, and it can only do one tray at a time for it's size so I can't speak to the speed, but I will know more in about 4 weeks when i comes.... SOOOO excited, and would be happy to post some times and photos of prints when i get it rocking and rolling.
More to come as the journey gets closer.
Again, anyone with an imported MS out there speak up I'm gonna need help with this thing in the future as I am sure everyone has needed help getting used to theirs.
The MS-One i got does print white, but they also sell a downgraded version that does just CMYK.
The price is approx $24,000 with ink and extras. Most DTG inks come from DuPont or China. This printer is tested on the DuPont inks, but will be sold with the US Sublimation DTG Inks. For those in the forums reading but not responding I know you are aware of the quality of the US Sublimation inks. I will have a word battle with anyone that trys to compare Artanium inks with US Sublimation inks (for sublimation that is.. oh but you gotta have a wide format to buy from US Sublimation)...but i digress.
It is a hefty price tag, but where the MS shines is their RIP software and the mechanics of the platten, which allow for me to build custom trays to print all sorts of items. I am already working on my first tray to print wrist cuffs.
Also their white ink is made by them in Italy from what i understand and they are very secretive about it. In fact, I will be buying my machine from US Sublimation and my CMYK from US Sublimation, but I have to buy the white ink directly from them... MS now has someone in the US.
And it's pretty funnny because the white ink is the only thing they are concerned about retaining customers on. They just want to sell the machines and the white ink, and defer to another company, in this case US Sublimation, to sell the CMYK, which is funny cause most companies claim they have secret formulations for their ink (again they are either from DUPont or China) and make you buy it from them.
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Designer in fashion hungry D.C. www.jonwye.com
That's right, the MS-one is the expensive one. I was thinking of the MS-Zero. That one was 12k at the show. I asked about their white ink and they told me it doesn't have to be shaken/agitated. The sales guy didn't know what I was even talking about but he asked the Italian guy there and he seemed to agree that you don't have to shake the ink or anything. Also claimed there wasn't any kind of maintenence besides automated cleanings that run by themselves.
I dont know about not cleaning. I would think if you are printing any kind of white ink, it would take the same maintenance as any other epson based machine. That would be great, but I think its not really possible. I just hope they dont tell people, this only for the customer to have issues because they didnt think it was something they had to do. Over the years the white ink printers have gained bad reps, as the sales people did not fully inform customers of the care that goes with printing white ink. The white ink has titanium dioxide in it, its what makes it opaque, and it will build up after time on your capping station, wiper blade and such.
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If the white ink is truly from Italy and no Dupont, then we all would be interested in hearing about it. The white ink is tough to create, but from what I am told the pretreatment formula is even tougher. There are starting to be even more CMYK inks out on the market and some do better than others in wash test and color gamuts. Just make sure that if you have to go to a different ink later on, that it does not kill your warranty. Not too long ago R&H inks were one of the premiere inks and they are gone now. In my opinion, the approved inks are just as important and the support... then the print engine comes later on. Many people have made money with a 1800, 2200, 2400 and 48X0 printers as a dtg printer. The inks you use and the fabric you print on are important. Hopefully, you have done your tests and you get great results.
I agree. There ink system looked like it wouldn't be so easy to shake the white, that's why I asked It's basically the same technology as everyone else so I think the sales person just really didn't know. He was new to the business too. Looks aside, with the DTG at least on this forum lots of people have them and the facts are out there.
Interesting side note about the New England show. Some guy was wearing a shirt that came off a DTG and the Brother rip wanted to show him that if you pull on the design, the image will seperate. The image didn't seperate but the shirt ripped.
I can't speak to the contents of the white ink, but i can tell you that the sales guys I talked to at US Sublimation were very clear that the white ink needed to be printed with every few days or else the ink would need to be flushed and replaced with cleaner fluid cartridges. I am anticipating that it will need regular maintenance, but i am just hoping not so much. These MS people come from a world of massive large format textile printing and are essentially retooling to do smaller format DTG. So i am banking on their experience.
And correct, the smaller one was 12K. I decided against that because i needed a more robust machine.
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Designer in fashion hungry D.C. www.jonwye.com
Let us know how it goes Jon. I bought a refurbished Kiosk II but really thought about that MS for a while. The New England dealer out of MA, said they deliver and setup the machine in person and if they can't fix it on the phone would make a trip to service it on-site if needed. They seemed really commited.
New DTG printer - MS-One 
Daniel Slatkin, 
