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Best Pre-Treatment Machine

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M

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Discussion Starter · #1 ·
We operate 2 Sprints and currently we are able to keep them printing all day. We do a lot of dark garments and double sided dark garments so we go through a lot of pretreatment fluid. Like everyone in the DTG game, I hate dealing with unreliability of the wagner sprayer. It's so contingent on the user being able to get the perfect amount of coverage. We do pretty well...60 or so double sided pretreated shirts a day. 100 single sided. Very few ruined prints (knock on wood).

I really like the idea of the ViperONE or like pretreatment machine. The consistency in coverage and the ability to control how much fluid is used is a win win.

But in your experience, what is the best machine? We deal in relatively high volumes so speed is important.
 
G

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#2 ·
We use the Viper XPT 6000, it's only a few grand more than the Viperone with a bit more fixins. The Viperone is designed for small kiosks (it's a really small table top machine). We run about 400 dark garments a day, and since switching from the Lawson to the Viper xpt we've increased productivity 150% with significantly less waste or error. It was very simple to set up: it was ready to use in minutes. I have not seen a better pre-treament machine. It even allows you to very quickly and easily switch between two types of pre-treat solution.
 
4C Print Shop

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#3 ·
We us our EDGE pretreat machine about 10 - 15 hours a day and it is by far more advanced than all the machines mention above. You can literally switch form light to dark garment pretreat with a push of a button. We only flush our machine Friday evenings. We also have the ability to add multiple preset for different style shirts the amount of pretreat that should be used.
 
jmcgurren

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#4 ·
Dean, please tell me how does the edge work for machines other than belquette... They claim that it is easy to pretreat the shape of your print, remove the garment from the platen, heat press it, and print it while still aligning the pretreat perfectly to print your image without "missing" the pretreated design shaped area. I just don't buy it. I use a viper one and there are times where I even ruin a shirt with full side to side coverage because I set the height an inch off and lost the bottom or top inch of my image. I can't see how this would not happen all the time with a pretreater that targets only the shape of what you are printing unless the shirt never moved off that platen from the pretreat - to the heat press - to the printer.
 
4C Print Shop

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#5 ·
In all honesty I really don't use the targeted pretreat feature on a regular basis. I have seen the registration done about 30 times and I have done it a few times and really the key is to load the shirt the same way it is pretreated. My comment above was mainly from a maintenance free standpoint, as well as how easy it is to change from LGPT to DGPT or vice versa.
 
D

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#6 ·
Marlowe said:
We operate 2 Sprints and currently we are able to keep them printing all day. We do a lot of dark garments and double sided dark garments so we go through a lot of pretreatment fluid. Like everyone in the DTG game, I hate dealing with unreliability of the wagner sprayer. It's so contingent on the user being able to get the perfect amount of coverage. We do pretty well...60 or so double sided pretreated shirts a day. 100 single sided. Very few ruined prints (knock on wood).

I really like the idea of the ViperONE or like pretreatment machine. The consistency in coverage and the ability to control how much fluid is used is a win win.

But in your experience, what is the best machine? We deal in relatively high volumes so speed is important.
Click to expand...
How long have you been in DTG and are you getting a consistent pretreat? Also, its a good idea to spray the gun with water and alcohol after the end of the day. To pretreat I use a hand sprayer. Works very well
 
S

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#8 ·
I just purchased a refurbished Pretreat machine from Equipment Zone and we are blown away by how easy it is to use, setup, clean etc. Since I have a fairly large shop i was not concerned about size and went with the older, larger style model. The original one they put out totally stand alone on wheels not the table top version. It sits just feet away from the printer with no issues and turns out an evenly pretreated shirt in under 5 seconds.

The price point was spot on too I got a $6,000 machine for FAR less than that refurbed and with a warranty. I think i seen a few more of them sitting around at the warehouse when i was there. If your looking for a solid machine give them a call. I have a short video of mine in action but not sure if we can post them on here. I wish I would have gotten it a long time ago.
 
P

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#12 ·
I recently bought a speedtreater-tx from Equipment-zone an am pretty pleased right out of the box. I was pretreating by hand but with outside humidity dropping to 20% having a machine in my printing room has paid for itself already in making my job easier.
Got a call about two weeks after delivery asking if I had questions or concerns which was nice too.
 
E

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#13 ·
Pak sherm said:
I recently bought a speedtreater-tx from Equipment-zone an am pretty pleased right out of the box. I was pretreating by hand but with outside humidity dropping to 20% having a machine in my printing room has paid for itself already in making my job easier.
Got a call about two weeks after delivery asking if I had questions or concerns which was nice too.
Click to expand...


It is important to try and maintain the humidity level at around 50% in the room that you have your printer in. Should try and keep it at that humidity level 24/7.
_
 
D

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#16 ·
We have a Lawson Vertical that we use for our black or dark color shirts. We love it. Easy to use and to maintain. Cleans up with distill water. The nozzle is real easy to remove and just soak it in distilled water until you are ready to use it again. Blow out the nozzle with compressed air and use it. Never had any problems with it and no maintenance issues
 
B

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#19 ·
Hey Doug, with your Lawson how would you do smaller garments like a toddler t-shirt or socks?

dougie54 said:
We have a Lawson Vertical that we use for our black or dark color shirts. We love it. Easy to use and to maintain. Cleans up with distill water. The nozzle is real easy to remove and just soak it in distilled water until you are ready to use it again. Blow out the nozzle with compressed air and use it. Never had any problems with it and no maintenance issues
Click to expand...
 
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