I am trying to decide between purchasing a Sprint and a 6 color 4 station screen print package. We currently do 70% embroidery and 30% "screen printing" using transfer express. mostly small runs, 15-50 pieces. We do a lot of darks/blacks. It is mostly high school and collegiate business, one or two color. Any ideas or suggestions?
Sprint or 6 color 4 station screen print?
[Anajet]
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Jason, I have the Anajet and it's great for what I do. When you talk " high school and collegiate business", exactly what are you printing on right now? If it's 100% cotton and you are not going for the Athletic plasitisol type of print, DTG is a great way to go for those size of runs. If you'll be printing on dark polyester and matching PMS colors, Direct to garment may not work out for you in that case. Do the homework to understand CMYK printing so that you can understand if it'll work for what you need it for.
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i havent been in the tshirt business long enough to know what sprint is but as far as running a screen printer i would say the best products ive seen so far is from printa systems they have a 4color 4 station print setup or you can get it upgraded to the 6color 4station system that has a drying rack attached to base of unit nice registration system your lighttable attached to one of them arms so all you do is put your artwork on it register your film then bring the screen arm down do what u do and your good. by far one of the best.
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I would stick with the traditional screen printing gear.
I just bought an Anajet printer as an addition to the our small Screen Printing business and it's been nothing but headaches. I regret our decision, it still serves it's purpose with the smaller runs on white shirts, but not worth the wasted time trying to get the thing to run perfectly. Tech support is great if you want to call someone and have them send you a document on how to do it yourself.
my next move is into a smaller automatic screen printing set up. I could've had one if I hadn't messed witht he DTG.
I just bought an Anajet printer as an addition to the our small Screen Printing business and it's been nothing but headaches. I regret our decision, it still serves it's purpose with the smaller runs on white shirts, but not worth the wasted time trying to get the thing to run perfectly. Tech support is great if you want to call someone and have them send you a document on how to do it yourself.
my next move is into a smaller automatic screen printing set up. I could've had one if I hadn't messed witht he DTG.
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8,278 Posts
If you haven't screen printed before go to a class or a shop and see the entire process from start to finish. For 50shirt runs the 6/4 is perfect. 2-4 color jobs I try to leave on press till the next 3 or more color jobs come in so if any additions, size issues come in I don't have to register them I keep 2 heads for the 1 and 2 color jobs all the time. On 5-6 color jobs I always print a few extra before breaking down. Maybe 1 of each size. Use as a demo or a test shirt later on if nothing else or I'll throw them in the box
Did you already have a 6/4 your looking at ?
There are a few good DTG printers but maintenance- learning curve pretreatments and then you mention darks and black which means white which narrows the reliability greatly and more maintenance
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I would consider both. the Sprint(or any DTG) will not do much for "team" type uniforms and jerseys anyway as these are generally poly and nylon darks. What the Sprint would be good for is opening doors with new clients and allowing you do imprint full color with a minimum of the separations and set-ups that you need with Screening. Do some more research on what "DTG" is. Come up with a plan including what you do now, your typical customer and how you hope to service them.
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