Direct-to-Garment Printers Are Blurring 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 has classified its MAIKURO DTG industrial printer. However, the hourly production rate is misleading. The MAIKURO prints 65 dark garments an hour and is more of a commercial printer than an industrial printer.
• While there are improvements across all DTG segments of the market, recent developments point towards more advanced/robust commercial DTG printing systems and smaller but still powerful industrial DTG printing systems.

Johnny Shell

Introduction

Many apparel decorators have witnessed the direct-to–garment (DTG), portion of their business grow over the past few 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 and production stops caused by machine problems. Historically, DTG devices were divided according to their maximum print speeds.

Table 1. Traditional DTG Segments

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 blur the line between industrial and commercial printers.

New Introductions Close the Gap

Brother

In January 2022, Brother International launched its GTX600 industrial direct-to-garment printer. The new features include a projector system that projects the design to print onto the intended position. This allows the user to see how the design will look on the garment before printing. 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. Two options are available for the system:

• A Synergy pretreatment unit that consists of a FireFly conveyor dryer manufactured Brown Digital and a heat presse.
• The Schulze Pretreatmaker LINE machine can pretreat upto 300 garments per an hour.

Both options combine the pretreatment, drying, pre-pressing and drying processes in one machine. The system can produce 182 garments an hour using three GTX600 printers and a digital line pretreatment method. 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. Eight Ricoh Gen5 printer heads are used to print images at 600 dpi. The maximum size for the printer is 40cm x 45cm (16 in. Dimensions: 18-in. 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. This printer can be used to print on finished garments and also do direct-to-film transfers. The Q2 can produce 100 light and 150 dark garments per hour at industrial production speeds. It measures only 1,006 x 1,400 x 1,931 mm (42 in). 55-in. x 76 in. 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 15 cm thick. This printer has a unique dual-platen configuration. The circular workflow, as seen in the video, allows for continuous printing and loading simultaneously.

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. In the past, companies might not have invested so much in a printer that was susceptible to being shut down. This is precisely why the pod concept is so attractive.

Johnny Shell is the Director of Keypoint Intelligence’s Functional & Industrial Printing Consulting Service. With over 35 years experience in the print industry, Shell is an expert in printing and a recognized leader. 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.