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I've also considered getting one, but can't decide. I've seen them working and it looks great, but I've read good and bad reviews. You can search on google and read comments from others also
-------------------- John Duckett Strike Creative Greenwood, South Carolina Posts: 277 | From: Greenwood, SC | Registered: Feb 2004
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I dont own one, but I order and resell shirts from a garment printer who uses a GT-541 from Brother Industrial Products. I am so far quite pleased by the prints and the quality. I like the feel better than a silk-screened shirt and the colors are vibrant and the print is sharp even with very small details.
The first shirts I printed as a sample a few months ago still look great and I have washed and dried them many times. I throw it through the wash with every load I do regardles if its worn or not just to see if it wears or fades, but so far it still looks good after a couple dozen times through the machine.
The only downside I see to this technology at this time is that its really only good for white or light colored garmets depending on what you are printing on them. As with most all inkjet type digital printers there is no white ink. This means you need to account for a color shift if you are printing to any color other than white. I have printed a dark blue and red design to a light blue shirt for a job, and it still came out looking pretty fantastic, and actually better than I thought it would.
The best thing I like about this process is the ability to print some very short runs which would be cost prohibitive with a traditional screened job. Makes it nice to still make a sale and a small profit for the very little work involved with placing an order.
If you wish to see a sample from this machine, let me know, I still have a couple new ones from my initial sample test prints and I could send you one to see what you think if it would help you in your decision making process.
-------------------- Tim Rieck Signs Halfmoon Bay, BC Posts: 736 | From: Halfmoon Bay, BC, Canada | Registered: Sep 2000
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Nice! Steep learning curve, but worth it. Ithink thats where some of the grumbling is...learning curve. Its not easy, takes time and effort to learn, and it is great for "short run full color" shirt printing and fabric.
Lets say you had 300 shirts to do for an event and they were one color on a black or dark shirt. You would lose money...screen printing is the way to go.
But if you needed 20 shirts, full color, TODAY, on a black shirt, provided the shirts were in stock and the right sizes...you would make a killing $$$.
It showed up few weeks ago.. So far Not to bad. Learning Curve was a Joke Since we already use Signlab and Photoshop. Which is what come with the machine under the name Fast Artist. (No It wont do Vinyl Cutting. I emailed as soon as I recieved it to see if their was an upgrade so I could add a third copy of signlab to the shop) Was not Impressed with the ICC Profiles (Prints real light and was changing some of the colors) that came with FA so I wrote my own and print Directly out of Photoshop.
We just did a few runs of Black shirts today came out pretty good. Applying Pretreatment sucks. But now we just lay out about 30 shirts and coat them all at once and just store them for when we need them.
As for printing on white and Ash colored Shirts was very impressed so was the local screen printer. He will be sending us all his short and specialty runs. Like Dave said.. This is a perfect machine for runs to around 50-75. Then go to Screen print. for longer runs.
As for support for Screen Printers in Tempe.. Forget Calling them. I called them when I recieved the Machine like they said and finally got a call back 6 days later.. Email them and you will get a much better response. (I finally had to Call TR Distributors and threaten them with Disputing the charges on my card and amazingly I got a call back in about 15 Mins.)
All in All. Not a bad Machine. Was it worth 15K. Will have to wait a few months for that answer. So far the response from clients are fantastic. We have Car Clubs and Racers Calling left and right about doing short run shirts.
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