DTF and the future of screen printing

[Nation03]

Our Mutoh / STS printer finally died, almost 2 years to the day and 3 print heads later. We have a new one coming in from Printomize. Do not buy a printer that takes cartridges, ever. No mater what. We absolutely have to have it in house. If all goes well, in the next few years we will 100% transition away from screen printing.

This has my attention, in terms of transitioning away from screen printing all together. How will you handle large volume runs or are you shying away from that type of work all together?

[Homer]

Our Mutoh / STS printer finally died, almost 2 years to the day and 3 print heads later. We have a new one coming in from Printomize. Do not buy a printer that takes cartridges, ever. No mater what. We absolutely have to have it in house. If all goes well, in the next few years we will 100% transition away from screen printing.

This has my attention, in terms of transitioning away from screen printing all together. How will you handle large volume runs or are you shying away from that type of work all together?

We're slowly building a fleet of heat presses. I'd like to make a system where an off the street new hire can be producing in a matter of a few hours, unsupervised. I'm thinking of an overhead laser alignment system, reverse reg marks on the dtf sheets, set, align, press, done...as simple as I can make it. We don't run fast anyway because ultimately speed isn't our jam....I'm factoring in all aspects of making a screen for production time vs DTF so large jobs might technically print faster, but are they really going to be done faster and cheaper? I don't really know yet. I'm looking at everything from cleaning, coating, DTS, exposing, registration, test prints, changing out squeegies, angles, seps and adjustments- all those little things that require time. I'm not even factoring in the inks and chemicals used yet- I'm only looking at the human element of it. Plus a new hires wage isn't nearly as much as a knowledgeable press op... So a large run might take a little more time DTF, start to finish, but it may not cost more. I have to make sure the math is mathin'....We will still keep the screen equipment because it's all paid for, owes us nothing and probably isn't worth much anyway. I'm sure there will be a time we have to run a screen job, neons, special effects, whatever...

The past few years we have been somewhat actively searching for the right person to train to become a press op. All attempts have failed miserably. I have zero hope in finding a young person willing to learn so we have to depend on the employees we have now and I want to protect them as well, not let them "age out" of the job. Their quality of life is important, we're all getting older. Our newest hire has been with us 8 years, my longest I think is going on 15 years so that's one of my main driving factors into investigating this, we can not count on anyone but ourselves. The way I see it, the hard part is done, customer accounts have been established, now I just need to keep feeding the machine we created. This might be a lost cause, maybe not work like I plan but I have to at least try. The new printer should be here next week so we'll start to feed more low quantity jobs to it and see how she goes. The samples I received were actually decent, not like the STS prints, those felt like a cheap dollar store shower curtain. We never sold shirts with large dtf prints so we have to do some testing first.

 

[GraphicDisorder]

What I think some will over look is if that customer doesn't like DTF because the shop doing it doesn't do it right or understand art that is best suited for it or the customer isn't understanding what its best for...then not only lose that customer for future DTF but maybe entirely. Not that your shop is one of those, not saying that at all.

I am seeing an uptick of people saying "how do you print shirts, I don't want DTF or DTG" type thing.

In my opinion, same as screen printing. People will print stuff that is not ideal for the process.
When I read here that you were going to press the DTF samples yourself, it made me a little sceptical. Because that is a huge part of the process, it’s as important to dial in as the print itself. can’t really dial in with two sheets.

People say the same stuff to me about screen printing. Doesn’t it crack? There will always be crabby shops to win business from no matter what the process. Always some shops making a great process look bad.

Definitively true. I wouldn't say we are heat press champions of the world, but we used his direcitons. One was fine, one was not. Same process. Same press. Same person.

[3Deep]

We started off very strong with DTF about a year back but have cool down some, I think a lot of the home gals are buying DTF designs now from bigger companies like Stahls,TKO, SupaPrints and not to leave some of you on here out etc.  I really thought about getting a really nice machine that could pump out rolls of DTF but we still do a fair amount of screen printing, plus heat pressing 50 to 100 plus shirts ain't as easy and fast as you think.  Yeah you don't have to burn screens and do setup but chit once that is done you just ink and roll long as you can stand at the press where heat pressing 100 plus shirts can wear your butt out faster.  When we did ball teams that was a job heat pressing numbers, names which I know is a little different than just slapping a designs on random shirts stacking and rolling, like I've before I like having DTF in-house for the small high color orders and to knock one and two shirts here and there.

[SPexchange]

Saw this DTF printer without powder.  It prints the adhesive.

https://get.printmosaica.com/cobraflex/

I don't have any affiliation with them.

Anything to reduce steps and eliminate complicated processes create great leaps in production. Make it simple and with less steps.

Some manufacturer should make a roll to roll single or dual heat transfer press with 2 indexing platens or more in the future for production.  Just dtf print entire roll of film and load the roll onto a heat transfer press.  Something like this picture but bigger.

[Homer]

No powder is nice but @ 255 sq.ft./per, still not fast enough. Give it a few years to work out the kinks, perfect the system and I will absolutely be on board. The game is changing by the day.

[SPexchange]

Higher end dtf printers in the future will have many more robust printheads per color and be more industrial and expensive.  Each iterations will be drastically improved. 

Current dtf machine are inexpensive and reduce labor costs, far less space requirements and a simple business model.  The barrier to entry (low machine cost) is a problem for the industry and wholesalers selling dtf prints directly to end users will hurt traditional screen printing shops.  I would think a lot of heat transfer presses are sold to side hustle start-ups.

Just look what happened to the sign screen printing industry.  It all went to inkjet except for industrial uses.

There is a place for both inkjets and screen printing but things are changing. 

[DonR]

Saw this DTF printer without powder.  It prints the adhesive.

https://get.printmosaica.com/cobraflex/

I don't have any affiliation with them.

Anything to reduce steps and eliminate complicated processes create great leaps in production. Make it simple and with less steps.

I can see someone manufacturer a roll to roll single or dual heat transfer press with 2 indexing platens or more in the future for production.  Just dtf print entire roll of film and load the roll onto a heat transfer press.  Something like this picture but bigger.

I would not go near the powderless printers.  We tested them and the prints do not hold up well at all.  They will get there but this is not it... 

[Sbrem]

Higher end dtf printers in the future will have many more robust printheads per color and be more industrial and expensive.  Each iterations will be drastically improved. 

Current dtf machine are inexpensive and reduce labor costs, far less space requirements and a simple business model.  The barrier to entry (low machine cost) is a problem for the industry and wholesalers selling dtf prints directly to end users will hurt traditional screen printing shops.  I would think a lot of heat transfer presses are sold to side hustle start-ups.

Just look what happened to the sign screen printing industry.  It all went to inkjet except for industrial uses.

There is a place for both inkjets and screen printing but things are changing.

In our early days, 32 years ago, we printed tons of election signs. Then, it all dried up. We would print anything to be able to bill it, but eventually settled on just apparel decoration. I won't be in this game another 10 years so I'm not all that concerned about it. I just talked a customer into doing 425 left front with DTF, because of the tiny detail that just won't print as cleanly as an inkjet.

Steve

[Homer]

Higher end dtf printers in the future will have many more robust printheads per color and be more industrial and expensive.  Each iterations will be drastically improved. 

Current dtf machine are inexpensive and reduce labor costs, far less space requirements and a simple business model.  The barrier to entry (low machine cost) is a problem for the industry and wholesalers selling dtf prints directly to end users will hurt traditional screen printing shops.  I would think a lot of heat transfer presses are sold to side hustle start-ups.

Just look what happened to the sign screen printing industry.  It all went to inkjet except for industrial uses.

There is a place for both inkjets and screen printing but things are changing.

In our early days, 32 years ago, we printed tons of election signs. Then, it all dried up. We would print anything to be able to bill it, but eventually settled on just apparel decoration. I won't be in this game another 10 years so I'm not all that concerned about it. I just talked a customer into doing 425 left front with DTF, because of the tiny detail that just won't print as cleanly as an inkjet.

Steve

same with sign painters and pin stripers when the vinyl plotter came out... All that skill, useless.... I don't love the thought of our skills and knowledge being tossed aside like that but I sure do like the idea of ditching separations and screens.... Nobody wants to perform manual labor anymore.

[mk162]

I like both.

We just printed 1500 shirts with a single color print.  In no fashion is DTF better for that.  The sheer amount of plastic waste makes my skin crawl.

We also finished them in less than 3 hours, start to finish, setup to teardown, with a lunch break and 2 people.

[farmboygraphics]

The sheer amount of plastic waste makes my skin crawl.

This is a huge down side. I know the waste we produce isn't great, but I can't imagine the volume of a whole new waste item, plus the inks, carts and whatever nastiness come from curing.

[whitewater]

So I just bought one.

It makes sense for my business. I am always scrambling to find someone to be a press op, it is a constant battle. We only have a 6/8 diamondback, so color limit is 5. Our average shirt order is 12-150 pcs.

So for me this will work. Maybe 3-4 times a year we get a large run, for us it is 500-1500 pcs. All of our equipment is paid for. So I plan on keeping it. If need be, I can run the 3-4 jobs per year for a couple hours if I have to. I have no problem with that. But it's the day to day that I could never do. We are just too busy, and I did it all myself for the first 10 years of the business.

I just did 2 jobs that normally I would have to turn away. Just way too many colors for us to print. I have samples in our showroom of dtf and just go over it with them. They were totally fine..and know something, they look great.

Once I learn to use the DTF, bye bye old lady Sue.

[mk162]

So I just bought one.

It makes sense for my business. I am always scrambling to find someone to be a press op, it is a constant battle. We only have a 6/8 diamondback, so color limit is 5. Our average shirt order is 12-150 pcs.

So for me this will work. Maybe 3-4 times a year we get a large run, for us it is 500-1500 pcs. All of our equipment is paid for. So I plan on keeping it. If need be, I can run the 3-4 jobs per year for a couple hours if I have to. I have no problem with that. But it's the day to day that I could never do. We are just too busy, and I did it all myself for the first 10 years of the business.

I just did 2 jobs that normally I would have to turn away. Just way too many colors for us to print. I have samples in our showroom of dtf and just go over it with them. They were totally fine..and know something, they look great.

Once I learn to use the DTF, bye bye old lady Sue.

I think you made the right call.

Get a dual platen heat press though.  Your throughput is so much faster.

[3Deep]

Heck yeah this for sure...... (Get a dual platen heat press though.  Your throughput is so much faster.) a single heat press will wear you out on large orders, we don't a dual but we have two heat press's going.  Also get at least a 16x20 heat press, I thought 15x15 was big enough but now I know better.