Epson has added to its textile printer line up with its first direct-to-garment t-shirt printer, the SureColor SC-F2000.
With the garment printing market expected to be worth over €200 million by 2014, small to medium businesses can benefit from the SureColor SC-F2000’s revenue-generating features. Combined with high performance, low maintenance and running costs, it enables businesses to offer a new t-shirt design and print service.
Garment Creator
Users can configure the system to suit their needs by choosing from two sets of CMYK ink for white garments or CMYK with up to four white inks for coloured garments. Garment Creator software by Epson is bundled with the package, which includes a cost calculation function, allowing you to estimate the print cost by calculating the amount and cost of the ink used for each print job. This design software enables designers to unleash their creativity and easily produce customised, eye-catching designs on t-shirts, caps and bags up to 25mm thick.
Martin Johns, market development manager, Epson UK, says: “Unique to this industry, this is the first system where a printhead, ink and chassis have been designed and manufactured by a single brand.” Featuring Epson’s durable TFP printhead, the SC-F2000 is capable of printing a single white t-shirt in 27 seconds when using dual colour mode and a dark coloured t-shirt in 111 seconds.
Ink
When used in conjunction with Epson’s UltraChrome DG Ink (available in 250 or 600ml cartridges), the SureColor SC-F2000 excels on dark fabric, because its white ink is tough. The white ink is circulated within the system and has been designed to reduce clogging, which increases productivity, allowing deadlines to be met consistently.
The SC-F2000 offers a resolution of up to 1440x1440dpi for accurate dot shape and placement, while its wide colour gamut produces vibrant colours, sharp contours and smooth gradations.
Other features are:
• Platen 14 x16 inches (355x406mm) with frame included
• Full front operation with a colour LCD panel
• Certified part Oeko-Tex Standard2
• Pre-treatment kit is available, which includes rollers and 20L of pre-treatment liquid for roughly 3,000 t-shirts
• Different size platen enabling correct fit depending on t-shirt size and print area (small: 10×12 inches (254x305mm), medium: 14 x16 inches (355x406mm), large: 16×20 inches (406x508mm).
