What is the best DTG printer for large orders?

5107 Views 19 Replies 7 Participants Last post by QV, Jul 20, 2010

A.S. Enterprises

Discussion Starter · Jul 18, 2010 (Edited)

Hello all,

I am new to the forums and this is my first post! I am looking forward to receiving all types of feedback on this matter. I am trying to achieve quality shirts with highly detailed images and I am unsure of the appropriate equipment to purchase. I am currently considering purchasing a direct to garment printer and have been researching the models available. This seems to be the way to achieve highly detailed images but I am open to any suggestions of other equipment.

One thing I have seen is the inconsistency with large orders. Most individuals say three dozen or so is a "large order" for a DTG printer. This poses a problem for me because I am trying to achieve quality detailed shirts by the thousands. I am moving away from the screenprinting option because of the great detail in my images.

So my questions would be;

1) Is a DTG printer my best option for large orders of custom shirts with highly detailed images?

2) If so, which machine would be the most intelligent choice for quality, time consumption and consistency?

I am looking at a DTG Bullet because of the image size availability and it seems to be the largest machine I could find for bulk orders.

I really appreciate any feedback anyone could provide. Thanks and hope to hear from you soon!

Anthony
A and S Enterprises

1 - 20 of 20 Posts

equipmentzone

· #2 · Jul 18, 2010

Two questions for you.

What do you think would be the quantity of your average size order?

What would the maximum print size be for your average order.

Harry
Equipment Zone

A.S. Enterprises

Discussion Starter · #3 · Jul 18, 2010

I appreciate the quick response!

Order quantity would be;
Min: 500 Max:10,000

The image size would vary between 15"x24" and 22" x 24"

Thanks again,

Anthony
A and S Enterprises

stix

· #4 · Jul 19, 2010

Screenprint them.. or unless you want to purchase 10 dtg printers. but you could purchase an automatic press/dryer setup for alot less.

A.S. Enterprises

Discussion Starter · #5 · Jul 19, 2010

What would this automatic press/dryer setup include? and what would be the process of making the shirts?

I have done a little more research and I was considering purchasing two DTG Xpress machines, do you think this would be a good choice?

Thanks again for all the help

IYFGraphics

· #6 · Jul 19, 2010

A.S. Enterprises said:
Order quantity would be;
Min: 500 Max:10,000

WOW! 500 shirts on a single platen DTG printer would be a daunting task 10k your talking about 24-7 production, while I have no idea what the cost would be but a couple Kornits would probably be in order to do that kind of production and the equipment costs would be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars!

It's really hard for me rap my head around that kind of production but a bank of DTG printers would probably be a better choice with a quicker ROI, 3-4 Veloci-Jets, or Vipers would be my choice but along with the printers your gonna' need a conveyor dryer or a bank of heat presses, plus the employees to man all of it.

That's a lot of t-shirt printing! LOL!

Hope this helps.

sodrisc

· #7 · Jul 19, 2010

i bottled it on a ebay "deal of the day" we were offered, that was 500 - 1000 units in 24 hours, i couldnt even imagine doing 10K, especially on darks, i hope you find a solution that will work for you.

A.S. Enterprises

Discussion Starter · #8 · Jul 20, 2010

I was wondering, why would you recommend such small machines as the veloci jet or the dtg viper? wouldnt a machine the size of the DTG Xpress be a more suitable solution?

Also, are there any other methods of printing other than dtg or screen printing?

IYFGraphics

· #9 · Jul 20, 2010

A.S. Enterprises said:
I was wondering, why would you recommend such small machines as the veloci jet or the dtg viper? wouldnt a machine the size of the DTG Xpress be a more suitable solution?

Also, are there any other methods of printing other than dtg or screen printing?

I'm thinking "cost" vs "ROI", the smaller machines would cost a lot less and give you more flexibility if one went down you would still have others printing, with a machine like the Xpress if it went down your done printing until it's fixed.

There are a few threads here on TSF of just that happening to people who own Kornits doing contract printing within a timetable, the machine goes down, it cost XXX to get back going and they can't make their deadline.

When your talking 10k shirts if it was the same design on all of those shirts I would think screen printing would be a better option, but not knowing what the artwork, size of print, or the amount of detail required it's hard to make a recommendation.

I just know if I had to do 10k shirts with a DTG printer I'd want more than one machine printing regardless of the number of shirts it could print at a time just to CMA in case something went wrong which for me would happen. LOL!

Hope this helps.

QV

· #10 · Jul 20, 2010

I would have to second IYFGraphics, redundancy is a big issue with DTG. Regardless of what all the manufacturers tell you you will have failures and when a failure happens you're best off to have a second machine running while you deal with the original problem. On Epson based machines heads and dampers will need to be swapped/cleaned every hundred white prints or so to keep the machines running at optimum without any issues during a larger production run (you don't have to but then something will eventually occur during an order so you're better off planning for it and being proactive).
If you have the budget then five or more of these would be what I'd consider to get the results you need.
an Epson 4800 based machine will print roughly 3-5 14x24 shirts on black per hour if you`re efficient, you can double that on white. All Epson 4800 based machines have a limitation of 17"
There are some Epson 9800 based machines out there at around 42" I think but the cost is very high and you should always have at least 2 with this technology which brings you back to kornit, mimaki maybe the new Brother but I don't remember the platen size on that.

Ultimately the biggest argument for screen printing in this scenario is that with DTG you do not get economies of scale. Your printing costs will be identical regardless of whether you print 1 or 10K
A customer ordering 10K will want a volume discount and only screen printing can give you that flexibility at the moment.
DTG makes sense if your average order is about 50 pieces per design or less.

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kl023

· #11 · Jul 20, 2010

I currently run 2 Brother GT 782 printers with a HIX High Efficency Dryer and can produce 300-500 shirts a day depending on if there is a highlite white in the print. We can run larger orders, but I have to agree with the other posters that with the larger volume orders I would partner up with a good screen printer and have them do the larger orders and you print the small-medium sized orders.

We have been running Brother GT 782 for about a year now with constant production and have not incured any equipment issues other than 1 or 2 days for maintenance.

Kai

QV

· #12 · Jul 20, 2010

how many 15x24 and 20x24 shirts can the brother do per hour?
-b

kl023

· #13 · Jul 20, 2010

QV said:
how many 15x24 and 20x24 shirts can the brother do per hour?
-b

Depends on whether it is CMYK, CMYK + White Base, or CMYK + White Base + Hilite White.

We normally average about 30 prints per machine for CMYK + White + Hi-lite White. Sometimes more sometimes less just depends on the height of the print.

QV

· #14 · Jul 20, 2010

height 24"

kl023

· #15 · Jul 20, 2010

QV said:
height 24"

The regular platten is 14" x 16". We also can print with a larger platten at 16" x 18". The larger size is just slightly slower to print because of the extra 2 inches in length.

QV

· #16 · Jul 20, 2010

I'm just curious about the speed, we're actually printing a 16x24 run on black at the moment and it comes out to about 5 prints per hour. I'm wondering if the brother could do this given a large enough platen and roughly how many per hour could it do if you extrapolate from existing experience.
Cheers!
-b

kl023

· #17 · Jul 20, 2010

Currently the largest platten that the Brother printers can print is 16" x 18" and this is only possible with the GT 782. We are currently doing a large run at the max print size with CMYK and we are doing 25-30 hour. Our print volume does not change when we add a white base because the 782 uses 2 plattens and 2 different print heads (1-CMYK and 1 White). While one platten is printing CMYK the other platten is printing white.

QV

· #18 · Jul 20, 2010

nice, I wish there was a double headed epson based machine... they could call it the hydra

cmyk sounds comparable.
Cheers!

IYFGraphics

· #19 · Jul 20, 2010

QV said:
nice, I wish there was a double headed epson based machine... they could call it the hydra
cmyk sounds comparable.
Cheers!

Well, it is in development.....

http://www.t-shirtforums.com/belquette/t115639.html

Hope this helps.

QV

· #20 · Jul 20, 2010

13" wide only but a step in the right direction

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