[buddha]

These have really been out for sometime now. They have come a long way in quality.

I first researched these for the task of printing short runs for my screenprinting shop,since setting up an order of 5 and some times one shirt was too time consuming.

I came to the conclusion that for me personally it was not worth the investment.

Just think, how many shirts would you have to sell to pay for the equipment.

Now they are getting close to breaking the black Tshirt hurdle but untill then I realy do not see the advantage of the printer over the traditional heat press method. Well maybe the fact that you do not have to trim the design, but that does not make up for the time it takes to print the image...much quicker the traditional way.

Just my 2 cents. You can check out www.screenprinters.net and log onto the forums there and talk to people who actually use these things. Plus the Screen Printing Institute also sells them and will gladly answer any of your questions.

Ronnie

 

[Cotton]

Belquette,

It's good to see another manufacturer entering this market. As far as I researched, US Screen Print was the only one that was somewhat affordable. Fast T-Jet, Mimaki and Kornit

Are the epson heads that you are using, commercial ones? Also, what type of support is your company offering as far as getting it up and going. From the forums at US Screen Print, I know there are some issues.

I watched a video, showing this technology, it was looked into long ago in Europe. I can't remember where I saw it, but it was a large combersome machine that printed and cured as the same time.

Now that is something that you should look into. Some type of UV fabric ink. If you could get that built into your system...now that would eliminate the need to heat press or conveyor dry the shirts.


Thanks
cotton

 

[Belquette]

Cotton,
The print head used in most of the of textile machines are the same heads used in your desktop printer with the exception of a few using Spectra heads yielding big $$$.
Our machines carry we a standard 1 year warranty.
This machine is as easy as printing on your desktop printer. Just place the t-shirt around the feed tray and feed it in from the back of the unit like a piece of paper it comes out the front, no fancy linear feed systems to break, just a bare bones system that’s works.

Mark

 

[tra517]

Belquette, hi! I am an artist and I own a fine art publishing company. We use epson 9600s and epson 9800's for printing our art onto canvas... unfortunately ours can't print onto clothing. I am interested in learning more about the dtg machines you are manuf with epson parts. I went to your site, is the flexi-jet the machine you are talking about? I would like to have more info if you would like to post it here or email me. thanks! shell

 

[JeridHill]

I know people talk about how much they cost and I agree, they are more than the average printer. What sold me on the idea was the instant printing capabilities. There was someone who had one of these machines and used it over a 4 day period at a bicentennial in their town.

They took samples and an order form around and took orders for custom on the spot printing. In 4 days, they CLEARED over $20,000 on that one machine only. This is where the advantage is. It's a niche market that once tapped into, the first kid on the block with them has an advantage.

The problem is, so many people buy a machine (regardless of what machine it is) and think the money is going to come rolling in. It doesn't happen that way in business. Just like anything else, you have to do the work. It just so happens that these printers do the work very well.

 

[T-BOT]

I think purchasing this type of machine is ideal if you get a contract to put out shirts where using such would be the way to go. We purchased a Kodak CLC copier in the 90's for $ 65k to fill a big job with photo transfers. Mind you that 5 years later this machine was worth 20 cents on a dollar.

So one thing to keep in mind is the speed of new tech our days and its depreciation factor.

To buy one and simply expect the jobs to come rolling in because of it may be a little risky.

It is a great machine mind you.

my2c.

 

[printchic]

Depending on what machine you buy you can offer Contract Printing to others that don't own a machine. I saw someone posted on another board she had done 10,000 prints (may be more i'm stating this from memory) in less than a years time and was operating like a quick copy shop. The customers come in bring their shirts and she prints on them. She also printed for others that had shirts shipped to her. She just charged for the ink and a bit over for her profit.

There are many ways to make your $$$ back beside just doing your "own shirt line". As for the price of these machine coming down any time soon... Don't count on it. You may see "cheaper models" enter the market but as with all things eventually some will fade away.

I will say you don't want it too cheap because then your neighbor can buy one