[RodJ]

We are considering an Mpower5 and had some questions on the ink use. Maybe some people who have been using it can offer some thoughts.

1) From what I've been reading on this forum and magazines, one of the major problems with DTG is white ink.
It clogs, has to be run every morning, has lots of maintainance involved, and there are head cleans roughly every 10 shirts. My question with the mpower is how much of these problems do you experience? Clogs/Maintainence compared to your previous DTG machine?

2) It would seem that a good deal of the white ink on any DTG machine would be wasted, costing hundreds if not thousands of dollars just in maintaining the white ink capability each year. Mpower has really only been out for a few months. IS there truly a large difference in the amount of wasted white ink or are you still wasting white ink?

3) How much ink is in the Anajet cartridge? How many 12X8 full color+white ink prints would you roughly say you can get off a set? I would think you replace white ink twice as much as CMYK...so would you get say 100 prints off the white+CMYK, replace the white, and then get maybe another 100 prints off the white+CMYK and then have to replace both CMYK and white sets? Or am I totally wrong? Trying to calculate a ballpark price per print for as 12X8 design ( average sized design for my shop).

4) Does the Mpower ink work better than the old inks? Any difference in quality? I have some samples from Anajet and after 5 washes it seems to hold well. A bit of fading on the dark shirt samples, but not as bad as other samples I've had from other companies. However, these are on ringspun cotton and I didn't ask for samples on open end cotton tees yet. The tighter knit makes for a better print quality.

Thanks in advance!

 

[zoom_monster]

We are considering an Mpower5 and had some questions on the ink use. Maybe some people who have been using it can offer some thoughts.

1) From what I've been reading on this forum and magazines, one of the major problems with DTG is white ink.
It clogs, has to be run every morning, has lots of maintainance involved, and there are head cleans roughly every 10 shirts. My question with the mpower is how much of these problems do you experience? Clogs/Maintainence compared to your previous DTG machine?

2) It would seem that a good deal of the white ink on any DTG machine would be wasted, costing hundreds if not thousands of dollars just in maintaining the white ink capability each year. Mpower has really only been out for a few months. IS there truly a large difference in the amount of wasted white ink or are you still wasting white ink?

3) How much ink is in the Anajet cartridge? How many 12X8 full color+white ink prints would you roughly say you can get off a set? I would think you replace white ink twice as much as CMYK...so would you get say 100 prints off the white+CMYK, replace the white, and then get maybe another 100 prints off the white+CMYK and then have to replace both CMYK and white sets? Or am I totally wrong? Trying to calculate a ballpark price per print for as 12X8 design ( average sized design for my shop).

4) Does the Mpower ink work better than the old inks? Any difference in quality? I have some samples from Anajet and after 5 washes it seems to hold well. A bit of fading on the dark shirt samples, but not as bad as other samples I've had from other companies. However, these are on ringspun cotton and I didn't ask for samples on open end cotton tees yet. The tighter knit makes for a better print quality.

Thanks in advance!

1#
White, with it's heavy pigment load settles faster. With the recirculating system on the new platform this should not be an issue. Shaking the carts or stored ink is still needed.

2#
On older machines large amounts of ink are expelled to a) keep heads "wet" and b) to mix ink in the lines from the carts to the head assembly. The head will still "spit and wipe to keep the nozzle open, but the greatest waste is eliminated because of the recirculating loop. As has always been the case.... themore ink you put on shirts, the less that wil go into the waste container.

3#
220ml. The amount of ink would vary too much from one piece of art to the next. Generally white ink is 6 to 8 times the volume of the CMYK, so you could get a lot more prints out of the CMYK carts than the 4 white carts combined.

4#
Better?, we will see. It is thicker, so it is conceivable that less will be used for the same amount of coverage. CMYK by design is translucent so the color strength will depend on how smooth and even the substrate is no matter if it's white ink base or a smoother knit.

 

[RodJ]

Thanks for the info. I really appreciate it.

I've been intrigued by the recirculating system for white ink. To me, it sounds like it will eliminate the vast percentage of wasted ink. However, theory is different from actual results. Just wondering what actual mpower users are experiencing, especially those who have used other DTG machines in the past.

I have a Roland Versacamm and when I got the machine I was told that the heads do automatic cleanings and nozzle discharges to keep the heads from clogging. Well, I ran the machine infrequently and after just 6 months the heads were clogged beyond repair and had to be replaced. Even now, if I forget to run something on the machine every 2 days I'm in trouble. Last week I had to spend 5 hrs of cleaning the heads to get a job done because I had not run enough jobs on it lately to keep the heads fresh. Tons of ink and several yards of vinyl in the waste.

I wonder what current mpower users are doing for routine maintainence compared to other DTG machines. Is it roughly the same maintainance, but less downtime? Or less maintainence AND less downtime?

If the ratio of white ink consumption is approx 7:1 to CMYK and let's say a CMYK 12X8 print costs $0.35 of ink then a white+CMYK 12X8 printed at 600/1200 white rez would ballpark at about $2.45/print. I know each print cost varies depending on the amount of underbase/color saturation/resolution/etc but I'm working on ballparks plus or minus $1.00. Assuming scenario of a solid rectangle of 12X8 printed with a full color photo. That $2.45/print should cover about 75% of print estimates I would think....tack on a $3.00 surcharge for super big detailed images maybe. Some posts I've read say the prints costs more like $4-$6 each side. If that's the case, then maybe the mpower is not the way to go. Saving ink is great, but severe ink costs will outweigh savings if it's *that* expensive.

I may wait to see when Anajet gets a price estimater in the software.

As for the CMYK only printing as well as a the smoothness of the substrate, I would think the smoother less fuzzy cotton shirts would work best. I'm interested to see if the new Jerzees Hi-Densit-T works any better than a standard Hanes or Gildan 5 oz shirt. What about drying the underbase before printing the CMYK? Would that help to delay the CMYK for a minute or so before printing on the underbase? Anyone tried using a screen printing flash unit? So far, of the print samples I've gotten from a few vendors the ones done on ringspun cotton all wash great and the ones on standard open end cotton pretty much suck. Kinda expensive to go that route, though, and not everyone likes a snug fitting thin ringspun shirt.

 

[signfx77]

I also have a versacamm and I have just experienced my first clogged head after a year and a half, but I was just told I need to change the head caps every 6 months, and I still have the originals. How is your humidity in your shop? If you have trouble with solvent ink. I think the water based inks will be even worse for you. The mpower has very little maintenance but humidity is the key.

 

[RodJ]

I've replaced the cap stations about 3 times in the past 3 years. The last time was in ...late 2010 I think. I might need to do it again as I keep getting blobs of black ink on my black/cyan head. I do manual cleanings more than automatic ones. I can go through tons of ink with several medium cleanings without much difference in print quality whereas with one manual clean and two little clean cycles I get better results and then I print like a solid 6X28 block of CMYK sample image about 3-4 times and the heads are working again.

Changing the cap stations isn't hard, but you have to use a diagram and some forceps to do it.

I'm not sure if humidity really affects solvent ink much or not.
The solvent is like dichloromethane which I remember we used for organic non-soluble extractions in chem labs in college. In the winter, getting the machine warm enough to print can be a challenge...I use a heat fan to warm it up fast.

My humidity is pretty dry...in the summer it's in the 100's and in the winter the air is so dry I have to put a tassel made of copper behind the machine to rub against the vinyl to prevent static. Right now, it's rainy and humid but that won't last for long before the summer starts.

I suppose I could close off the A/C vents in the office and put in a giant humidifier. Other than that...a large closet?? My other workspace has an embroidery machine and the flying lint from that thing would kill a DTG in weeks.

 

[signfx77]

I've replaced the cap stations about 3 times in the past 3 years. The last time was in ...late 2010 I think. I might need to do it again as I keep getting blobs of black ink on my black/cyan head. I do manual cleanings more than automatic ones. I can go through tons of ink with several medium cleanings without much difference in print quality whereas with one manual clean and two little clean cycles I get better results and then I print like a solid 6X28 block of CMYK sample image about 3-4 times and the heads are working again.

Changing the cap stations isn't hard, but you have to use a diagram and some forceps to do it.

I'm not sure if humidity really affects solvent ink much or not.
The solvent is like dichloromethane which I remember we used for organic non-soluble extractions in chem labs in college. In the winter, getting the machine warm enough to print can be a challenge...I use a heat fan to warm it up fast.

My humidity is pretty dry...in the summer it's in the 100's and in the winter the air is so dry I have to put a tassel made of copper behind the machine to rub against the vinyl to prevent static. Right now, it's rainy and humid but that won't last for long before the summer starts.

I suppose I could close off the A/C vents in the office and put in a giant humidifier. Other than that...a large closet?? My other workspace has an embroidery machine and the flying lint from that thing would kill a DTG in weeks.

A non-condensing humidifier is a must for the mpower. It really needs to be above 45% for good results. I have also noticed better prints off my versacamm when the humidity is higher. How do you do your manual head cleans on your versacamm?