TL;DR
- Automatic pretreatment cuts fluid consumption 15–30% and stabilises wash results.
- The payback comes from fluid, rejects and labour together — never from one of them alone.
- Below ~1,500 dark garments per month, a manual spray station plus discipline is usually enough.
Manual spraying varies by operator, day and mood. That variance shows up as wash-fastness complaints, reprints and a fluid consumption nobody tracks because it is booked as a lump sum.
Cost structure
Cost = (Fluid_g × Price_per_g) + Labour_min × Rate/60 + Cure_energy + Reject_share
- Fluid_g = grams applied per garment
- Reject_share = reject rate × full garment cost
2,500 dark garments / month
- Manual: 32 g fluid, 0.55 min labour, 3.2% rejects
- €0.71 / garment
- Automatic: 23 g fluid, 0.18 min labour, 1.1% rejects
- €0.44 / garment
- Monthly difference
- €675
- Investment €14,500
- Payback ≈ 21 months
Typical mistakes
- Ignoring the curing step: pretreatment must be pressed or tunnel-dried, and that energy is real.
- Comparing fluid price per litre instead of grams per garment.
- Buying a unit faster than the DTG printer it feeds.
- No extraction — pretreatment mist is a workplace-safety issue, not an optional accessory.
Interactive example
Loaded labour rate per productive hour
- Loaded rate
- € 26,71 / h
- Labour per garment
- € 0,245
- Annual loaded cost
- € 41.140
Same calculation kernel as the full calculators. For a decision-grade result, open the matching calculator.
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