I understand that the high cost of R&D necessitates recovery by higher prices for the machines and peripherals. What I want to know is why the necessary supplies, specifically direct-to-garment ink, are priced so exorbitantly that if you added it up, it comes to well over $800 per gallon (white ink). Screen printing inks generally run $50 to $70 per gallon vs. $600 and up for a gallon (sold in 470 ml cartridges) of ink used in DTG printers. How can this be justified?
ANSWER - This question is considering two completely different processes at two different stages in a product cycle. Screen printing is a very mature decorating process that has been around for a long time. Thus, there are several quality manufacturers of screen printing ink and easily a hundred companies that make quality screen printing equipment. In addition, the science behind applying plastisol ink to a garment is really not that complicated.