Direct-to-Garment Printers Blur the Lines between Commercial and Industrial

• Brother’s GTX600industrial direct to garment printer was launched at the start of this year.
• Brother is a frontrunner in promoting the “pod” concept, which combines multiple DTG printers, automatic pretreatment, and a
• Aeoon Technologies describes its MAIKURO DTG printer as an industrial DTG printer. However, this classification can be misleading due to the high hourly production rate. The MAIKURO can produce 65 dark garments per an hour at 65 dpi, making it more of an entry-level or high-end industrial printer.
• While there are improvements across all DTG segments at the moment, recent developments point toward more advanced/robust commercial DTG printing systems and smaller but equally powerful industrial DTG printing systems.

Johnny Shell

Introduction

Many apparel decorators saw the direct to-garment (DTG), segment of their businesses increase over the last several years. Some of these companies now have to buy additional printers in order to keep up with demand. While commercial printer owners might complain about slower print speeds and production delays, industrial printer owners may be more concerned with the lack of redundancy or production stoppages that can be caused by machine problems. Historically, DTG printers were divided according to the maximum print speeds.

Table 1. Table 1.

If you’ve been paying attention to some of this year’s new DTG printer launches, you may have noticed that the traditional gap between commercial and industrial printers appears to be closing. Today’s DTG devices are delivering faster printing speeds, better print accuracy, and more advanced technologies—all with a smaller footprint and a lower price tag. These devices blurred the boundaries between industrial and commercial printers with their new features.

New introductions are closing the gap

Brother

In January 2022, Brother International launched its GTX600 industrial direct-to-garment printer. New features include a projector that automatically projects the design to the desired position. This allows users to see the design on the garment prior to printing, which helps to avoid misprints. Brother’s Digital Line all-in-one pretreatment system can be paired with one or more GTX600 printers and conveyor dryers to maximize workflow efficiency. There are two options for this system:

• A Synergy pretreatment unit, which consists of a FireFly conveyor drying unit manufactured by Brown Digital as well as a heat press.
• The Schulze Pretreat Machine LINE can pretreat up 300 garments an hour.

Both options combine pretreatment, drying and prepressing into one machine. This system can produce as many as 182 garments per an hour by using three GTX600 printing machines, a digital pretreatment system, and a conveyor dryer. Brother is a frontrunner in promoting the “pod” concept, which combines multiple DTG printers, automatic pretreatment, and a dryer.

Brother’s GTX600 Industrial DTG Printer

Aeoon Technologies

Aeoon Technologies introduced its MAIKURO device in April 2022. This is a smaller, two-platen DTG printer that can print up 65 garments an hour. The printer has eight Ricoh Gen5 printheads, which can produce images at 600 DPI with maximum dimensions of 40cm by 45cm (16 inches). 18. MAIKURO is a single-gantry printer. As this video shows, each platen begins with the white underbase and then the color pass. The MAIKURO produces slower print speeds than other products, but Aeoon has classified it as an industrial DTG printer. This classification is somewhat misleading given the hourly production rate—at 65 dark garments per hour, the MAIKURO is really more of a high-end commercial or entry-level industrial printer.

DTG Digital

DTG Digital, a subsidiary of Pigment, Inc., spent two years designing its Q2 DTG printer. The Q2 can be configured to allow for both direct-to-film and garment printing. The Q2 is capable of producing 100 dark and 150 light garments an hour at industrial-level speeds. It has a footprint measuring 1,006 x 1,400 x 1,931 mm (42 inches). 55-in. x 76 inches. It also features robust features such as a linear motion carriage guide for platens with auto height adjustment and two-stage ink-mist extraction. Unique feature of the Q2 is simultaneous printing of both plates.

Ser. Tec. SRL

Ser. Tec. SRL offers the Eagle TX S, which can print up to 120 garments per hour. This device can be configured with two, three, or four printheads and features printhead position control that automatically adjusts the printhead’s height based on garment thickness to avoid head strikes. The Eagle TX S is capable of printing materials up to 15cm thick. This printer has a unique dual-platen configuration. This video shows how the circular workflow can be used to simultaneously print and load.

The Bottom Line

There are improvements in all segments of DTG printing, but recent developments indicate that there will be both more powerful and less expensive commercial DTG printers. The lines between these segments are certainly blurring, so today’s businesses have a broader range of options than ever before. The requirement for “high productivity” no longer means investing $250,000 or more for an industrial-grade DTG printer. Using the “pod” concept that companies like Brother are championing, multiple printers can be grouped together to produce volumes that have historically been associated with higher-priced industrial DTG printers. Companies might not have been able to afford to spend so much money on one printer that could shut down due to unforeseen circumstances in the past. This is exactly what makes pods so appealing.

Johnny Shell is the Director of Keypoint Intelligence’s Functional & Industrial Printing Consulting Service. He is a respected leader and printing expert with more than 35 years of experience in the industry. Johnny is an inductee of Academy of Screen and Digital Printing Technologies. It is an international body of specialists that honors distinguished, long-term, and exemplary contributions to screen and digital print and associated imaging technologies.