Hi guy's (let me apoligise in advance if this question has been asked already ) altough the the answer may sound obvious I would like to hear your opinions ,I have a small buisness, and I have noticed largish jobs declining and small run stuff becoming more popular. A friend who has been in the screen printing buisness since the mid 80's has decided to shut up his doors, although he was doing ok ,he is of the opinion that DTG machines will nagate the need for traditional screenprinting (barring very large runs). When DTG machines inevitably come down in price (china have released one a short time ago), What kind of an impact on the industry ,do you think this will have.
As new printing processes come into play...the older ones will suffer...however screenprinting is far from being on death bed...the dtg machine cannot to some of the jobs that screen printing can..I don't screenprint..I outsource...I am never going to pull a squeeze again..tooo lazy..
I think it's really hard to predict what's going to happen. Personally I think that DTG will squeeze some shops out of business, but the majority will continue. It is going to cause some shops to go out of business though, and it's not necessarily obvious which ones.
As usual when a new technology comes on the scene, one of the most important factors in staying in business is staying flexible.
when the industry begins to lean torwards DTG in place of traditional screenprinting, my shop will lean with it. Especialy when prices begin to drop on these printers. As with any industry, its important to keep up with the changes that occur. but I agree with Charles, screenprinting is not on its death bed.
Where I work, we actually have seen this coming around like many of you, and recently made the decision to bring a dtg press into our shop...however, after viewing one at a trade show last weekend, we werent all that impressed as we were with the new mmr presses. Suffice it to say, we actually are purchasing the new mmr press, and holding off on the dtg for now. I personally believe that screenprinting will eventually become artisian, and wont be used so much from a profitable view of things.
Im very interested to see where this post goes, and what others in the field are thinking...
Right now, the cut-off point is 100-150pcs in my opinion. When the maintenance issues, white ink, and overall costs comes down with dtg, it will be a really viable alternative to screen printing. Right now it's a numbers game and niche filler. It all depends on you average order size. Lots of colors- small volume- dtg. Large quantities- screen print.
I think screen printing will always have its place. It's been around for centuries and will stand up to new technologies. There are just certain looks you can achieve with it that you can't get with other methods.
i dont realy understand how this is a question apples are not oranges...
i have only been screen printing for five years and even almost sold my press to get 2 dtg printers....
then i looked at the finished product.......its simple screen prints are quality.. dtg is in my opinion is not..
i had a client come to me with some shirts that were dtg
they looked washed 200 times by they were only washed 3 times .... so i printed the design now that client will never go dtg again and he can wash my prints 200 times.
i dont realy understand how this is a question apples are not oranges...
i have only been screen printing for five years and even almost sold my press to get 2 dtg printers....
then i looked at the finished product.......its simple screen prints are quality.. dtg is in my opinion is not..
i had a client come to me with some shirts that were dtg
they looked washed 200 times by they were only washed 3 times .... so i printed the design now that client will never go dtg again and he can wash my prints 200 times.
its easy 300 dpi photo or quality.......
I agree that quality of printing of DTG printing VS. Screen print for durability is very far apart. I truly don't see DTG gaining ground on screen print. I will further add that the Ink Jet transfer media is making solid leaps and the quality has almost caught up with the DTG machine. I think if you add in the ease of transfers to the maintenance of the DTG machine you will find transfer to be a easier alternative. I think that unless their are significant changes that ink jet transfers are going to continue to overtake DTG. I used to feel that DTG was going to allow people to go to Walmart and make their own shirt, I now think the Ink Jet transfers are going to be the culprit. ..... JB
The future 
