# Spoilage with dtg



## JeridHill (Feb 8, 2006)

I know things have gotten quite a bit better with dtg printing than the early days. Spoilage used to be very high and now I believe it's probably on par with screen printing spoilage. So I guess I'm curious as to people's spoilage rate with dtg?

I just printed 138 shirts, front, back and sleeves. I had to pretreat them all and print with white ink. The customer needed 25 shirts immediately, so I did 25 all dtg. The remainder I did the front and back with dtg, but the sleeves were too much of a hassle and since it was a 4 color job on the sleeve and not full color, I went ahead and screen printed them. My spoilage on this job was 0.

I also just finished a 144 piece job (white tank tops). The back was full color, so I printed them with dtg and the front was one color left chest, so I screen printed them. My spoilage on this job was 0.

I assume many people are achieving the same kind of results, so again, I'm just curious as to the current state of spoilage rates with dtg.


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## spiderx1 (Oct 12, 2009)

Easy for the pro from dover to say. 
I usually have about 3% loss. Usually due to operator error or a color shift due to minor ink problem and the head needs to due a cleaning or a brush of the head on the shirt. Like I said, operator error for 2 of the 3%.


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## FatKat Printz (Dec 26, 2008)

Honestly, with the bags or percentage has lowered dramatically..

I agree with Randy human error..


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## JeridHill (Feb 8, 2006)

If you get banding on the shirt, can you do a clean and print the color graphic over it again to eliminate the banded print? Oh, and 3% loss is the spoilage rate for screen printing (also 2 out of the 3 probably human error, depending on your setup), so I would say dtg has come a long way in a short time.


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## FatKat Printz (Dec 26, 2008)

we dont get banding..we some times get gummy printheads from the white.. since 80% darks shirts are printed we noticed on the underbase do a quick clean and reprint the white again and all good..


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## Printzilla (Mar 22, 2007)

It certainly has, and I attribute a lot of that to bagged inks.


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## binki (Jul 16, 2006)

we get it in 2 areas. mis alignment on multi pass prints and clogged print head, normally on the black channel. 

it can go days, weeks, months with nothing and then baloon up to 10% for no reason at all.


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## IYFGraphics (Sep 28, 2009)

I'd say 1% if that much, I've printed 50 shirts and not single misprint, it's rare for us to have any spoilage and almost always because I'm in a hurry and did something stupid. Not saying that the printer doesn't have hiccups because it does and it's usually banding but like Jerid mentioned I just send it through for another pass and it's normally fine, the customer gets a thicker print but I saved a shirt that we might not have an extra of.

The other side is that on a new design I'll normally grab a scrap shirt and do a test print for coverage and placement, wastes a little ink but again saves us spoilage.

Hope this helps.


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## [email protected] (Sep 28, 2009)

I have a Gt-541 and mine is all operator error. I'll catch an armpit stiching on a head, or not put the print direction on uni before doing coasters...which is a very nice niche for wineries btw. We have a 9 up template and get $2.50 wholesale, and they buy 100 at a time. This is the season too...go get them !


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## binki (Jul 16, 2006)

We always do a test print on a scrap shirt before we start a job and we do a test at the beginning of the day if we cross days on the printing.


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## FatKat Printz (Dec 26, 2008)

binki said:


> We always do a test print on a scrap shirt before we start a job and we do a test at the beginning of the day if we cross days on the printing.


We used to have to test print.. when we changed to the bags we threw out over a case of test print shirts..

now, we don't have too unless its a design we aren't sure about it..


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## JPD (Nov 8, 2006)

Rarely do we have issues (Brother). We did 100 Bamboo shirts today, along with 300+ shirts on Monday and Tuesday, with no errors. We did have to replace a couple of shirts due to oil and dirt stains.

I wish the bag system was available when we had the Flexi-jet, as I think many of the issues we had with some of our printed images were caused by poor ink-flow. I also think many of the issues that early adopters had, have been remedied in the newest versions of printers, ink supply systems and even user maintenance instructions. 

It's definitely moving in the right direction!

Eric


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## JeridHill (Feb 8, 2006)

This is one reason we aren't promoting the FlexiJet in its current form. I know a lot was learned with the bagged/degassed system and once you try it, you really don't want to use anything else with the Epson printers. The goal is to reintroduce the 17" systems with the bagged/degassed inks, but it's a bit of a challenge to make it right.


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