OmniPrint International would not be where it is today without our amazing customers. Thank you for believing in our products and making us a part of your business! We would love to hear how your Omni Print products are working for you and what they’ve done for your business. Our Friday posts will be dedicated to YOU, our customers, who have made us a top-selling DTG company in the industry. We want to hear from you – please take a moment to write a short testimonial after reading this post. It’s been a productive week for the team at OmniPrint International. Our technical team has been in Orlando, Florida at the SGIA Expo and we’ve made some great connections. We are excited to be here with other experts in the field and promote our business!
It can be a little hectic when we have so many people out of the office, but it’s great to know we have amazing employees we can rely on to hold down the fort and provide exemplary customer service while we’re away. Our customers are extremely important to us, and it’s always reassuring to hear feedback on how we’re doing. Here is a review from a new customer that visited the Costa Mesa office this week:
http://www.t-shirtforums.com/freejet/t262169.html
OmniPrint Training Review
Greetings all.
I recently procured a Freejet 330TX and traveled to Southern California to receive training at Omniprint’s Costa Mesa facility. And I am supplying this review with every effort to remain as transparent as possible.
In our hunt for the “right” Garment printer, we decided we wanted to go the Freejet route. For those who aren’t familiar: Freejet is a brand of direct to garment printer that emphasizes easy maintenance and a forward thinking approach in the department of ‘printhead preservation’. They achieve this by installing a ‘wet-cap’ function that would allow a user to leave the unit left unattended for days at a time (even weeks supposedly.. but I have yet to test this out). Reading all the unfortunate threads on the net regarding clogged heads, we decided to include this feature in our criteria. They also use a RIP that has been tweaked to near perfection by their R&D dept. And these quality RIP settings resonated in the hands on training I received at Omni. They were quick to provide me with the ‘golden’ settings on my own laptop as well.
Initiation: After my research on who distributes this machine, I decided to call Omniprint to ask questions about the machine. They were on my side of the globe (West coast), which was part of our criteria as well. My initial contact with the company was with the lead tech, Said (pronounced Sah-YEED) who was very attentive, and able to answer several of my questions. Good start. Since the machine we bought was second hand, I wanted to know if they would be willing to work out some sort of price for an in-depth training and possibly warrantying a used machine (doesn’t hurt to ask eh?). Which they happened to say “yes” to both outlandish questions. Granted, the machine was new enough to offer a warranty, but nobody offered us the same while researching and interacting with other DTG distributors (used). That is something a business owner like myself cannot ignore: The idea that a distributor would be confident enough in their product to warranty a used machine.. That is remarkable and uncommon. The pricing for training and warranty were fair, but due to our constrained budget I decided to wait on the warranty and pulled the trigger on training instead (Note* training comes with warranty with a new unit). They even warranty the print-head for a significant amount of time (new machine, not sure how long though)
Fast forward: After all business matters were handled with payment, I bought a ticket and reserved a hotel right down the street from their headquarters near Newport Beach. They even offered to come and pick me up from the airport and cart me back and forth from my hotel during my stay. Don’t know if this matters (for me it is relevant… love food) but there were about 10 great seasoned burger joints nearby, of which I tried out 2. Anyway, half of the staff was away preparing for a show in Florida for this week, but I got to meet the owner/CEO Victor, and spent several hours training with the very knowledgeable Said. Of whom both were very hospitable and seemed genuinely happy I came to visit. Vic even provided some local Mexican grub, that I shamelessly scarfed down in front of the 2 of them (good stuff).. They had zero problems allowing me to use my camera to record any and all aspects of training. This was important, as my partners and I will be able to refer to these video clips for future reference. The Freejet training had more depth than I received when I bought my $60K Neve recording console (audio recording console)… And the Neve is about 1000 times more involved than any DTG operation (no exaggeration). I am new to DTG in general, but it is like anything else I researched first and then became an expert at in life. Everything starts with research, and ends up with either positive or negative results. These results were markedly positive and I learned a wealth of information that my ego had allowed me to absorb. Of course the basics of how their machine works, how to access manual head cleanings, feeding ink to head, machine functionality etc.. But also tips and tricks of the clandestine DTG trade that I have been unable to ascertain until this training. Bottom line: **Training on these machines is mandatory**. That goes for every prospective client (no matter how smart you think you are)
And no, it wasn’t a Microsoft “clean-room” where we discussed de-gassing textile ink, and stared at cotton fibers through high powered microscopes. Just an honest business-park based facility with a direct approach to hands on A-Z training. Not once did they bad mouth any other company or their competitors, nor did they pressure me into feeling like I had to use them for inks, supplies etc… Badmouthing the competition is unfortunately a staple in industry-based sales, which I thankfully did not have to hear during my time at Omniprint. And I have been successful in sales (mortgage) a long time and I know all too well the psychology used in today’s sales world. But I didn’t get any of that negative crappola with them, and that allowed to me to focus on training and not spend time analyzing any sales tactics.
The Machine: The Freejet 330TX and the other monster 500TX they had in Costa Mesa are built like tanks, all business, no joke. The only plastic parts on the unit were the print head carriage and the ink lines. The rest of the machine has a very industrial feel and is made of solid steel sheet. Their simple designs seemed the culmination of very thoughtful Korean engineering, I even summoned a visual of 2 Korean engineers fusing over how to keep the design more simple and effective, while eating Korean street food BBQ (everything revolves around food with this guy). Even the window is made of real glass. The entire surface of the machine seems to be painted with a substance that ink is easily wiped off of. I really like the “ball-screw” motility of the “Moving Head Unit”type design of the print engine. If that fails then it is usually an affordable motor that an average operator could replace. It has a bulk ink system with very long lines due to the moving head. This may lead to ink separation if left unused, but the machine is clearly designed to be in constant use, ink flowing daily. Very useful laser controlled system places the head exactly where it needs to be over the shirt, for a consistent print every time.
Print Quality: Quality truly amazed me. I have seen samples from 80% of the DTG companies in existence, and I am a t-shirt connoisseur from a very young age. But I caught myself smiling every time the machine popped out another high definition print of our designs on dark garments (I won’t even go into light garments here, as they all came out 100% accurate – lines and colors looked as though printed on paper. But our business model has a 95% dark garment/design ratio.). Here I learned the value of holding back on depositing too much white ink. I got to print several of our designs and see the difference in settings. White choke, fuzziness… all that jive. It also helps that the wife has a master’s degree in Graphic Design, and knew how to save our files for print. 300 dpi/ppi PNG images were used to feed the OmniRIP Software. I brought as many self-made samples home with me as I could. Holding shirts next to the iMac screen proved that the colors were represented well. Very little variations if any. Direct INK was used to print the samples, which is most likely Dupont like everyone else. After seeing the difference first hand, Pretreatment is a must on light and dark shirts. With whites, It just holds the fine details in the design better when pretreated. All prints looked the same after 2 washes. The garments obviously change a great deal with the very first wash, but that was expected. I brought shirts from several different manufacturers, and used some of theirs as well.
Synopsis: I am certain there are a lot of good people in this industry. Not to mention a lot of capable machines that all print the same Dupont Ink, which all get cured with the same intervals of 330 degree heat. But I am going to stick with Omniprint/ Freejet for a while. And with our business model, I see us doing a lot of business with them in the future. I hope this review was informative to anyone who wondered about the mysterious nature of Omniprint. I couldn’t find anything from them personally in this forum, and after watching the crates go out the back gate in L.A., now I know why… They are too busy building their business, and servicing customers. And that is a good sign. So I know this review probably left a lot to be desired by some readers, but I hope this sheds some light on who Omniprint are and how they conduct business. I am a very critical and judgmental individual (not the Buddhist Way to live, but I am tired of throwing money away), and I found no flaws in the way they conduct business, or how they provide for their customers. They actually went out of their way for me in that respect. They were extremely flexible and professional. And they were a key factor in our purchase of the Freejet. If it wasn’t for their demeanor up front, I probably would have went with a more established brand. I am glad I found out first hand though. In this world of inflated customer service claims, I was happy to see these people providing exactly what they promised. No screwy bills or hidden fees. No back pedaling when I asked what kind of inks they used. No BS – Just honesty. All of this was an expensive gamble for us – ei; the machine, the business, lawyers, trademarking, liscencing etc… As is for anybody embarking on a DTG based lifestyle. But without risk there is zero reward. Glad we took the chance on the Freejet and Omniprint. Go check them out, they are good people.
Best,
-ghost
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Sincerely,
OmniPrint International
