Screen Printing - October/November 2019 - 21

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Frank and Marilyn Sliney,
HARRY
foundersKIRA
of Franmar

DIRECTOR OF PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
BROTHER INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION

EXPANDING YOUR
BUSINESS WITH DTG

Everyone starting out in DTG has
dreams for the successful business they
want to build. Many have dreams of being
the next popular retail store or the next
big name in custom T-shirt websites. But
in the beginning, few companies can
afford to invest hundreds of thousands of
dollars into the larger DTG printers. Most
believe that compact printers like
Brother's GTX are merely a stepping
stone to the big leagues - that you need
to start with one or two smaller printers,
and then, once your business has grown
sufficiently and you're ready to step into
large-scale production, you sell your small
printer and buy the large DTG printer.
This is false.
GTX printers have proven to be a
powerful tool for large-scale production,
paired with the Synergy + Firefly system.
The GTX is fast to start, with an average
print speed of a minute and a half for an
11 x 11 print on a dark garment, and even
faster on white. Combined with automating the pretreating and curing capabilities

of the Synergy + Firefly production system,
a shop can greatly increase their production numbers with minimal labor. For
example, with a pod of three GTXs, the
Synergy + Firefly system, and only two
operators, a shop can produce more than
100 shirts an hour.
A crucial benefit of high-volume
production with GTX is scalability. The
"pod system" allows a business to scale up
their equipment incrementally as the
business grows, without ever having to
shift to a new printing system with a
different learning curve or workflow. So
instead of your initial investment becoming obsolete, it continues working for you
as part of a growing production system,
extending and amplifying your ROI.
Once a company starts running
multiple GTX printers, it can save money
by buying ink by the case or in bulk
depending on its print volume. This allows
for a substantially lower cost per print
without the huge upfront investment of a
larger printer.

Workflow automation software and an
API are also available with the GTX,
making workflow even more efficient and
quality more consistent. Each garment can
be tagged with a barcode that tells the
Synergy exactly how to pretreat that
garment and the GTX exactly what to print.
Brother offers a variety of platens sizes,
from baby all the way to XL, which can
be quickly exchanged in a few seconds,
allowing for maintained production levels
when switching between garment sizes.
Brother will be demonstrating a
high-volume set-up at the Printing United
show in Dallas this month. Why not see it
for yourself? Come to booth #1416 at the
show and see multiple GTX printers in
action with the Synergy + Firefly equipment and workflow software. Speak to any
one of our sales reps and ask them how
several companies have grown from
running only a single Brother DTG printer
to a true production environment.

brotherdtg.com
http://www.brotherdtg.com
Screen Printing - October/November 2019

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