I'm in a Pinch ... DTG Help!!!

Eric · June 23rd, 2009, 07:33 PM

Hey all....

Is there anyone in the Central Massachusetts area that owns a Kornit?

If so ... I am desperate for some help! I have some samples I need printed for several customers. My Kornit went down this morning. The parts I need are in Israel and they are being over-nighted, today, but with the time change, today there is tomorrow here, so I won't get my new print heads and rail caps till Thursday.

Its only about 10-15 shirts total.

Supertprinting.com · June 24th, 2009, 01:31 PM

Eric,

Do you ever use these forums? I see more Kornit owners posting on these so maybe someone there can print for you if noone answers here.

http://www.runboard.com/bkornitusersforum Kornit only forum

www.inkjetgarmentprinters.com Not super active all purpose forums for embroidery, screen printing, and dtg with a Kornit subforum

www.t-shirtforums.com Very active all purpose forum with a Kornit subforum

Good luck finding someone!

Eric · June 24th, 2009, 03:20 PM

Thanks .... for your input. My rep has a Kornit in his office, they are letting me run samples on it.

Thanks Hirsch!!!! (shameless AD credit!)

spbsportswear · June 24th, 2009, 03:43 PM

How much do new printheads run on a Kornit, if you don't mind me asking?

Eric · June 24th, 2009, 07:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spbsportswear

How much do new printheads run on a Kornit, if you don't mind me asking?

Well, It depends. A kornit has 8 print heads. 4 CMYK an 4 White. The white heads are more expensive than the colors. The nice things about a kornit is that each color "channel" has its own head. So if you blow a head, you don't have to replace everything, just the one head.

To answer your question a complete set of heads for hte Kornit is about $10,000 for all 8 heads. The white heads are about $1,500 each an the color heads are $1,000 each. Typically whenever you replace a head, you also need to replace the rail cap with it, but those are only like $5 bucks a piece, its just a little rubber cup that cradles the print head and stops it from drying (clogging)

I just replaced my white print heads last month, I got almost 250,000 prints out of them. My color print heads are still going strong, color print heads are supposedly good for 500,000 prints ... so far so good.

select1 · July 21st, 2009, 01:37 PM

Would you recommend the Kornit to someone? I received samples from M+R,Brother,Mimaki and Kornit and was least impressed by the Kornit. Not only the issue of poor quality but they didn't seem capable of opening the file we sent them. ( none of the other companies had any other issues ) The reason I ask is that the Kornit is SO MUCH MORE expensive than any of the other machines and I can't figure out why?

Ian

Eric · July 22nd, 2009, 11:21 PM

As far as recommending a Kornit, thats a definite maybe.

I LOVE my kornit. But (there's always a but) it is A LOT of maintenance. You need to use it constantly, or the heads clog, if you are not going to use it for say, more than 24 hours, you need to remove the heads and fill the machine with Distilled or DI water, as well as soak the heads themselves.

They have come a long way, in the beginning, they had a lot of issues, software issues, hardware hiccups, but the new generations are much better. I had one of the first Kornits around, it was a single pallet. It had more issues than TV guide.

I took a gamble and traded it for a double pallet this past spring. Glad I did, my new one has had ZERO issues, except one, which was our fault. The palette wasn't secure and it shifted, and it smashed into the print head, an expensive mistake, but our fault.

As far as the artwork goes ... I have no idea. I will say that the RIP software that comes with the Kornit is odd, its VERY fussy. So who knows on that one.

I also own a Mimaki GP-604. I will agree, the print quality is Incredible, yes, I do think better than the Kornit, however, it doesn't do darks, and that is HUGE for most people. I know it is for me.

As far as the Price ... welp, have you seen one up close in person? They are HUGE. The dual pallet runs on 3-phase power. The also pre-treat their own shirts, so you load the shirt hit the button and take it out when its done, and lay it on the dryer. VS. having to hand spray the shirt, heat press, then print, then heat press again.

Secondly, the printer doesn't print dry, it prints wet on wet, which still baffles me, but it works. lol. and yes, it smells like vinegar.

Plus, the kornit is FAST, I can print 75-100 DARK shirts an hour, and like 150 - 200 lights an hour. Its just insanely fast. That is where i think the big money is, speed is expensive.

Kornit prints CAN NOT be heat pressed, they must be conventionally air dryed, like screen print. It needs the airflow to fully dry. If you don't fully dry your shirts they reek like Vinegar, lol. Why I have no idea, its just the smell of the ink, lol. The dryers are expensive, cause you need a GOOD dryer, ideally an Adelco in the 18oish range, which is a big dryer. Thats a big cost right there.

I'm sure you know the prices already ... BUT, if you want a single be prepared to spend about $150,000. The doubles with the grand pallet are about $260,000.