# Alternatives to Kornit 951 for High Volume Printing?



## blobert (Jul 30, 2009)

Hi Guys,

Just looking into options for a machine that will hopefully be printing +1000 shirts per week, the majority of which will be mostly dark.

The Kornit Avalanche (951) is the main one I've been looking at, just wondering if there are any alternatives I should be looking at also?

Needs to be an option with a UK/EU distributer preferably also!

Any advice would be much appreciated!

Thanks


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## jgabby (Mar 29, 2007)

the alternative is aeoon, in fact it is more than an alternative, it is the best at that time 

Aeoon Digital DTG Printers


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## blobert (Jul 30, 2009)

Thanks, That looks interesting.

What's the rough price/printing capacity of an entry level setup and also of a full production one?


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## jgabby (Mar 29, 2007)

Pricing for basic (2 white head - KY06) to lot of white head (6 white - KY12) is $130k to $200k in europe.

Lot of option like 3 shirt palet, inside machine pretreament and much more...

too bad, I don't see aeoon in the exhibitors list @fespa london


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## blobert (Jul 30, 2009)

Thanks for that, any idea what kind of volume it does with the basic 2 white head - KY06?

We'd be looking for something that could do about 500-1000 shirts per week to begin with and then increase from there, would obviously be better to be able to start off with the cheaper configuration and move up as demand grows.

Thanks!


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## Don-ColDesi (Oct 18, 2006)

There are numerous companies running multiple smaller machines to handle the volumes you are mentioning (some of the more advanced of these can handle the volume 500-1000 weekly with just one printer) for 10-12% of the cost of the unit you are considering. As your business grows you can simply implement more printers to meet your demands - again without the high upfront investment. 

Something to consider.


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## jgabby (Mar 29, 2007)

There is not only the price of the machine, but all the involves cost for a period of 2 or 3 years. (ink, maintenance, labor) and factor like quality of print...

But 1000 per week... on the paper which is not true life, the KY12 output 800 light garment per hour depending of the setting and size of print.


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## blobert (Jul 30, 2009)

Thanks Guys,

Those numbers are a pure guess, we'd be hoping to be doing thousands a week before too long so I think if we go for a cheaper machine it won't suit before long.

Most of the printing will be on dark shirts, probably 90%+. 

The other factor I'd imagine is the labour cost. If we have someone operating a slow machine there will be more waiting around which will push up the costs in favour of a faster machine that the same person can get more printed in less time.


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## Smalzstein (Jul 22, 2008)

Single operator can smoothly operate 3 small machines. And take in to consideration that when a big machine has a problem your production is stopped, but with smaller machines it's only slowed.

There are also other disadvantages and advantages of Kornit and Aeoon type machines, you could read about them in the Kornit and Aeon forum sections.


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## javiprint (Feb 26, 2013)

If you have the option I would recommend getting a couple brother 381 machines- as others have said you have one person who can operate the machines and be throwing jobs on a dryer while one person prints the orders and one person pretreats. We have a 361 since we don't need the extra speed yet on our machines but we may if we see we need to do that many darks in a week. Plus you could stock up t Again I realize u are across the pond however that's a serious option I think should be considered, besides for the price of a Kornit you could buy 4 brother 381s and the maintenance is so easy on my 361 so I imagine the 381 is even better


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## davitos (Sep 5, 2007)

well, look at the ink prices for brother. one breeze will be ROInvested shortly and you will actually make money. with the brother it is just not possible unless you have a market you can charge 20 bucks+ for a shirt with onsided print at least.


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## blobert (Jul 30, 2009)

Thanks Guys,

The plan would be to get to a stage of printing 5,000+ shirts per week (90% on dark shirts) within a few months hopefully and then grow further beyond that.

As mentioned I think the print/ink costs are going to be less economical using 2/3 brother printers, anything using cartridges is not going to be cheap if we're printing a lot.

Would have no problem making a 100k+ investment in a printer if it was scalable and could grow with our needs. We'd just need a setup that had the capacity to grow to printing a lot of shirts per week, and I think that while it would be appealing to have 1 then 2 then 3 smaller brother printers, the print costs would likely be higher and if we grew to printing the numbers we'd expected we'd probably wind up having to buy the Kornit/Aeoon then anyway. It would also be more complicated sending jobs to 3 printers as opposed to one most likely.

If there's anything between the Brother 381 for eg. and the Kornit/Aeoon that would be scalable let me know.

Thanks again for all the advice!


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