TL;DR
- Manual screen setup runs 18–45 minutes per job; with pre-registration it drops to 8–18.
- Automatic press cycle times sit at 550–1,100 impressions per hour in real shop conditions.
- DTF is a two-stage process — the press, not the printer, is usually the bottleneck.
Machine sheets quote theoretical maximum speeds. Real shops lose 20–40% of that to loading, alignment, quality checks and micro-stops. Costing with catalogue speeds guarantees an optimistic quote.
| Operation | Typical range | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Screen setup, manual, 1 colour | 8–15 min | Includes screen mount and test print |
| Screen setup, manual, 4 colours | 25–45 min | Registration dominates |
| Registration per colour, on press | 3–6 min | 1–2 min with pre-registration |
| Automatic press cycle | 550–1,100 pcs/h | Realistic, incl. loading |
| Manual carousel cycle | 90–220 pcs/h | Operator dependent |
| DTG print, dark A4 | 45–110 s | Excludes pretreatment |
| DTF print + shake | 20–45 s / A3 | Continuous, batchable |
| Heat press cycle | 18–35 s | Usually the DTF constraint |
| Screen reclaim | 4–9 min / screen | Dip tank vs manual |
Job_time = Setup + Registration + (Quantity / Cycle_rate) + Teardown + Reclaim
Interactive example
Registration time released per month
- Hours released
- 10.8 h
- Value if capacity-limited
- € 2.052
- Value if demand-limited
- € 0
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