DSF

Hi everyone,

I went to a local(ish) show today and The Magic touch were there demonstrating the new Ricoh Ri 100 DTG. It doesn't do White so its only good for light fabric, and its platen is only A4 so size is restrictive but...

I like it. It comes with a finisher that you can stack it on top of so it doesn't take up much space and it printed really well and vivid. Basically you put the shirt in the platen with a loop to hold it down. Run it in the finisher to iron out the surface and then put it in the printer. Press go and off it goes. Then after the print you take it out and put the platen back in the finisher to cure the ink. Whole process took less than 5 minutes and it had everything contained that you need. No need for a heat press or anything else, could be great to take to a show and if you had a second platen the process could be sped up more.

Ideally I would like to print larger, and onto dark garments. But I can't afford the price tag that goes with that and this printer is an excellent entry level. It not actually out yet, but they hope it will be within the next couple of weeks. It looks like it is a suped up SG400. Maybe if this one is successful they will make an A3 size, but in the mean time I am confident we can make a go of this so its top of my want list now.

Have any of you seen it running?

Have any of you seen it running?

Yes, saw it at P&P

Have to be honest, I couldn't see the point of it. Nathan did explain the target audience and I understand that but I was surprised that Ricoh would enter the market with a fairly limited machine. The must have done their numbers so I would presume it is going to work.

One thing I can say for sure is that it will be backed up by superb customer service. TMT really got me out of a hole today so gotta big them up

I had a go with one the other day and liked it a lot, BUT......... I honestly can't remember when I last did ANY sort of light coloured garment. All of our requests are for black navy or dark grey. If you want to print on those then you need the Ri 100's big brothers the 3000 or 6000 which all do white underbase for darks in the two pass method. Besides I've already got ChromaBlast for sublimation onto cotton.

A4 is a huge (excuse the pun) limitation.

Also saw this at the show. I can see where it might be useful but from our point of view A4 pretty useless and people only ever want dark garments. Neat setup but not very quick.

If Reveal lives up to the hype when they launch dark etc. it would probably be a much better option but I have concerns over that.

I just don't feel DTG has ever quite 'got there'