Facts about Direct to Garment Printing
Over the last few months I have had many meetings with current Ricoh customers and new businesses looking at investing in Direct to Garment printing and I have walked out of nearly every meeting having been asked the same four questions.
I would like to take this opportunity to answer these questions for all my connections on LinkedIn that might find this of interest.
How long would it take to print a T-shirt?
This would depend on three key elements:
- The size of the design you are printing.
- Whether you are printing onto a light or dark garment - printing onto a dark garment requires a white under base meaning a longer print time.
- What device you are thinking about getting - different models have different print times.
On the Ricoh Ri6000 Direct to Garment device you can print a 30.5 x 24.4cm design on a light garment in 27 seconds speed mode or 53 seconds fine mode. Over the past four months I have carried out many demonstrations and it is fair to say that even on a dark garment with a complex design with a white under base was achieved on average in under three minutes. When I have produced a company logo for example this has been achieved in under 20 seconds.
What profit can I expect to make per garment?
This is a very tricky question to give an exact answer to as it all depends on what you are paying for your garments, what you are charging and what designs you are producing.
On average it will cost you ￡1.80 to ￡2.00 for a plain T-shirt and anything from ￡0.04 to print a colour image on a light garment with medium coverage and ￡2.27 for a very detailed multi-colour image on a dark garment with a white under base.
This means that your production cost could be anything from ￡1.84 to ￡4.07.
Ultimately the question of "how much profit can I make per garment?" is down to you and what you charge your customers. As you can see even at an extremely competitive sale price of ￡12.00 the profit margins are attractive for any business.
When the garment is printed do I need to do anything to it?
Yes, when you have printed your garment it will need to be cured in a heat press. When printing only using CMYK you would need to cure it for approximately 40 seconds and when printing anything with a white under base you would cure for approximately 90 seconds. You could also use a Tunnel dryer to cure your garment.
Before I print onto the garment do I need to do anything?
If you are printing and only using the CMYK, not requiring white ink you do not need to do anything to the garment in preparation. When you are printing onto a dark garment where you will need a white under base the garment will need to be pre-treated before you can print.
If you are interested in investing in Direct to Garment Printing please do contact me on my contact details below.
Nick Macfarlane
Direct to Garment Sales Specialist
Commercial and Industrial Printing Group
Ricoh UK Limited
Ricoh House
Watermans Business Park
Kingsbury Crescent
Staines-upon-Thames
Surrey TW18 3BA
UK
Tel: +44 1784273509
Mobile: +44 7557014293