ImagesMagUK_Digital-Edition_January2018

www.images-magazine.com JANUARY 2018 images 19 TIPS & TECHNIQUES The people who are investing in the best equipment, the best marketing and the best images aren’t just printing T-shirts, they’re printing money and even lower production – a vicious circle. Nowadays, there are purpose-built DTG printers, such as the Brother GTX, that have high output, low maintenance and trouble-free productivity. They may appear more expensive if you focus solely on the ticket price, but they allow you to produce more, and – as explained – the more you produce per hour the more you will earn per hour. In addition to having a higher price tag, the higher volume machines tend to use original equipment manufacturer (OEM) ink cartridges and so are also perceived to be more expensive to run. In the simplest terms this is right, but once again it tells only part of the story. Ink supplied in cartridge form is carefully controlled by the manufacturer so that the ratio of pigment to liquid is quite precise and does not vary from batch to batch. This gives consistency of print, ease of use and minimal mess. You also have less wastage and head blockages. Bear in mind that every time the printer stops working, not only do you lose production, but you fail to fulfil orders, potentially risking losing customers in the process. By contrast, bulk ink systems are normally supplied from larger bottles, and the mixing of this ink before decanting can have a huge impact on print quality, head and tube blocking, which can result in poor quality prints. You have to shake the white ink until your arms ache and then give it to a friend to continue the shaking! This white ink is a suspension, not a solution, and therefore it separates very easily, with the white pigment sinking to the bottom of the bottle. If this is not mixed thoroughly then you will end up either with a blocked head, filters and dampers (too thick) or poor prints and washed-out white (too thin). In the example shown in Table 1, when printing at the top rate the ink costs are around £60,000 per year. In this scenario, the most that can be saved by switching inks would be 50% of this cost – that is, around £30,000. That may sound a lot, but in my experience the saving in upfront ink cost would not be worth the potential downtime, lost production and undelivered orders that switching inks could cause. On cartridge machines, when the ink is empty you simply remove one cartridge and replace with another. With a bulk ink system, the ink has to be decanted into the machine from a larger bottle, risking spillage, contamination and mess. All this takes much more time – time that would be better employed printing and selling T-shirts. And once you’ve also factored in this extra handling time, the difference in cost between the two ink types becomes very small. I would argue that this extra time would be better invested in marketing activities that would see your sales grow: when sales grow, profits automatically follow. The DTG printing industry is maturing and becoming more professional, with purpose-built equipment, high volumes, consistent production quality and stunning images. Now, the people who are investing in the best equipment, the best marketing and the best images are no longer just printing T-shirts, they’re printing money. www.jbsewing.com