Full set up. What to buy.

[meldean]

Hello everybody. Been a while since i have been on here as i have been really busy. Anyway let me get to the point.

The software company that i work for wants to start printing their own promotional products like coasters. T-shirts. Iphone covers. Hats. Mouse mats and so on. Pretty much everything apart from mugs.

My question is what is the best setup for this. i.e. What press would be best and also what size printer would be best and indeed what printers are people using these days.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thank you.

[GoonerGary]

Do they have a budget and what kind of scale of production are they hoping for?

[meldean]

Do they have a budget and what kind of scale of production are they hoping for?

the production level is really quite small. We do events every year and win awards every year so we need the ability to print when we need them and change the design yearly. We have used 3rd parties before but we end up with promotional products that are out of date because of the awards we win.
We also do alot of presentation of our products and want to start making personalised products to the business we are presenting to so that our name is at the forefront of their minds.

We are looking at an investment of £1000 to £2000.

[pisquee]

If you aren't printing regularly, then you run the risk of a dried up printer, or using a lot of (expensive) ink just to keep the inks flowing.
If you are unsatisfied with outsourcing the whole production, then a happy medium may be outsourcing the production of the transfers, and you just do the pressing in-house.

[meldean]

Ummm that is something to think about but again we sometimes get 48 hour notice of a presentation or install.

We are defo looking at doing it all ourselves and would use the equiptment on a weekly basis so i am not worries about the printer drying up.

[Justin]

If you won't be printing daily you really need to be looking at the Ricoh printers as these can be left for a good amount of time without any issues due to self maintenance.

[pisquee]

If you won't be printing daily you really need to be looking at the Ricoh printers as these can be left for a good amount of time without any issues due to self maintenance.

The auto maintenance is good, but it is still using up expensive ink, so it depends on how much overall printing is done on an annual basis, as to whether it is actually worthwhile using this ink up just to keep the printer from drying up.
Has anyone calculated how much ink is used in each maintenance cycle, and how often they take place?

[Justin]

Must be very minimal, my Ricoh has been on for a year now and still isn't quite out of ink, I've done a good amount through it as well.

[meldean]

They are the printers i have been looking at to be honest. What are the running costs of lets say coasters using the sawgrass inks. Basically if i use 60ml carts. How many coasters can i expect to print. I know it depends on colours used but just an average would be good. Sorry to be a pain but i need to report back to my boss and i will get asked the question of running costs.

What press should i be looking at to be printing coasters. Mousemats. T-shirts and iphone covers.

[Justin]

If you were to sit and work it out it would be pennies per coaster, tbh I wouldn't get hung up on it. My printer has been working for a year now on standard carts and is only now showing low ink on 3 out of 4....still life left in these anyway. I've done the equivalent of a few thousand coasters! Certainly been through 500+pages of subli paper