SunCoast Screen & Ink

M&R’s i-Dot LT & i-Dot DK bring digital technology to textile printing. i-Dot LT uses twin CMYK cartridge systems for printing on light garments, while i-Dot DK combines four white cartridges with a single CMYK cartridge system for printing on light and dark garments. They’re both designed to maximize speed, versatility, and productivity in short-run printing. While repeat jobs, as well as medium and large jobs, are most efficient on textile screen presses, specialized short runs have traditionally been difficult to address. Since short runs tend to be time consuming and less profitable than medium and large runs, many shops avoid them. When short-run requests come from key customers, print shops face a difficult choice, that of accepting the work at little or no profit, charging a fair price for the work requested, or referring the customer to another screen printer.

All these options have potentially negative consequences. The downside of working for little or no profit is obvious. Charging high per-shirt rates for short runs can irritate large customers who may not appreciate the setup and production costs that must be spread over a small number of substrates. Referring an established customer to another print shop can backfire, too. Even if the worst case—losing the customer—doesn’t occur, the customer is still likely to be frustrated by the fact that all the work can’t be done by one company. M&R’s i-Dot eliminates these issues by providing textile screen printers with a way to make short runs fast, easy, and profitable. .

Built on the foundation of industry-leading digital print technology, M&R’s i-Dot uses a new high-performance print engine, designed specifically for industrial production. With a printhead capable of 2880 x 1440 dpi resolution, i-Dot can produce images of phenomenal quality at remarkable speeds. The printhead has eight separate ink channels with 180 nozzles per channel. It produces variable-size droplets as small as 3.5 picoliters, and precisely controls the curvature of every ink droplet prior to release onto the substrate. This enables i-Dot to reduce print time while delivering amazingly sharp text and line art with exceptional blending and photographic transitions. i-Dot also features automatic printhead-alignment technology, which uses a built-in sensor to read printed data for precise color-channel alignment, substantially reducing print defects due to registration errors. i-Dot utilizes i-Color ripping software to take full advantage of recent advances in Postscript printing technology. i-Dot features laser-guided substrate placement. Youth-size pallets are available. Unlike digital printers that require heat-transfer curing, M&R’s water-based textile inks cure with both heat transfer units and conventional textile dryers. M&R’s i-Dot smoothly bridges the gap between traditional screen printing and advanced digital printers. With the ability to print images up to 41 x 51 cm (16” x 20”), it’s the ideal printer for profitable short-run printing.