Printrove is a leading direct to textile print on demand printer based in Chennai. As a direct to garment fulfillment supplier, it is also the only DTG quick printer tightly integrated with eCommerce platforms such as Shopify and Woocommerce.
Formed by three engineers in 2015, the company works with over 500 merchants to custom-print their products. The entire technology, printing, and support operations are in-house and under one roof. Founders Madhur Chauhan and Pankaj Bokdia experimented with 3D printing (additive manufacturing) before settling into print-on-demand. Akshay and Abishay Dughar joined the founders, and Printrove has quickly grown.
“We are into this business for a while and have smaller DTG printers too. We wanted to scale up with an industrial production printer that is reliable and give our merchants an edge over older and traditional players operating with commercial printers. After some intensive research, we narrowed down on the world leader in DTG and decided on Kornit’s latest Storm HD6 with wet on wet in-line pretreatment printer.
“Before finalizing our Kornit, we tested various production printers in the market to ensure we had the best one. We not only tested print quality but all the parameters such as colorfastness, durability besides others. Unsurprisingly and as expected, the Kornit Storm HD6 had the best results with vibrant colors, and a fantastic white and soft hand feel.”
Just direct to garment print is not enough
The Printrove team adds that with constant design changes and market and world trends, just printing is not enough. It is necessary to get repeat orders, which are only possible if the printed garment remains perfect even after several washes. Kornit’s print quality gave the team this confidence, and the colors were truly vibrant.
After testing the print results, the team wanted to see the printer in action and visited the Arrow Digital demo center in Ahmedabad, which has a Kornit HG6 installed amongst several other printers and technologies installed under one roof. Printrove’s team says, “We tried our most complicated designs and were amazed at the quality of ink coverage, unmatched by any other printer. The Arrow team impressed us with their digital printing knowledge and showed us virtual demos and helped us with actual hands-on trials at the demo center.
Sam Patel, MD & CEO Arrow Digital, adds, “The Kornit Storm HD6 is a robust commercial DTG printer which allows high-definition image quality and improved hand feel, with an enhanced color management experience. The Storm HD6 includes six color channels (CMYK, red, and green) plus white, for a wider color gamut and improved spot color matching with a dedicated RIP. It provides a non-stop production with garment loading while printing.”
The Kornit printers were known to the Indian market with a double-digit install base before Arrow Digital became the distributor about two years ago. Apart from Storm HD6 installed at Printrove in Chennai and another customer, one HD6 is in the Arrow Digital demonstration center.
Built with Spectra Polaris inkjet heads in Israel, it uses ColorGate’s professional RIP software for printing on almost all types of fabrics and garments. It can print finished garments over buttons, zippers, pockets with its special Goodies pallette. Another unique feature of the digital textile printer is it’s in machine chemical pretreatment of textiles. While this spray is offline, it is within the machine itself, and the patented wet on wet technology eliminates separate pretreatment.
Printrove says about its approach to the direct to short-run garment business, “We simplify the print-on-demand field, making it easier for entrepreneurs, brands, artists, and designers to start and run their own brand. From manufacturing, inventory, packaging, and logistics, it is taken care of by Printrove. With this new Storm HD6, we can now expand our application offerings beyond t-shirt printing. As Storm HD6 is a non-contact printing process, we can also print finished garments, over buttons, zippers, pockets, and much more.”
