DTG printing is the most exciting thing to happen to the garment industry since automatic screen machines and dyesub. There are, however, things you need to know.
1) the ink has a shelf life. the longer it sits around the bigger the chance you will have bad ink.
2) production times are nowhere near screen printing. while you can print short runs profitably, longer runs need much better control of costs to be competitive.
3) printing a single shirt can take 4 minutes or more from start to finish.
3) this is a complicated piece of equipment with close tolerances. not paying attention to that fact will yield nothing but frustration.
4) these machines like to run. the more you run it the happier it will be. the less you run it or the longer it just sits around the more chance you will have for problems like head clogs.
5) the ink is expensive.
6) pressing the shirts after printing adds to the time to print, consider a tunnel dryer like screen printers use.
7) color matching is a big issue. make sure you understand how colors work on a pc, how that are translated in the rip, and how your machine treats them.
8) unlike screen printing or embroidery, bitmaps (raster images) are your friend. imo this is one huge advantage over other forms of decorating.
did i miss anything
1) the ink has a shelf life. the longer it sits around the bigger the chance you will have bad ink.
2) production times are nowhere near screen printing. while you can print short runs profitably, longer runs need much better control of costs to be competitive.
3) printing a single shirt can take 4 minutes or more from start to finish.
3) this is a complicated piece of equipment with close tolerances. not paying attention to that fact will yield nothing but frustration.
4) these machines like to run. the more you run it the happier it will be. the less you run it or the longer it just sits around the more chance you will have for problems like head clogs.
5) the ink is expensive.
6) pressing the shirts after printing adds to the time to print, consider a tunnel dryer like screen printers use.
7) color matching is a big issue. make sure you understand how colors work on a pc, how that are translated in the rip, and how your machine treats them.
8) unlike screen printing or embroidery, bitmaps (raster images) are your friend. imo this is one huge advantage over other forms of decorating.
did i miss anything