Brother began selling print heads to China in 2023, appointing ATEXCO as its agent for DTG roll-to-roll printers and F-Y Union for UV printers.
The company prohibited Chinese manufacturers from using its print heads in DTG printers designed for piece-printing on finished T-shirts, citing competition with Brother’s GTX series. However, many Chinese printer companies circumvented this by repurposing second-hand printheads from office desktop printers to develop DTG models, achieving strong print quality and successfully launching these products into the market by the second half of 2023.
Prior to 2019, Epson primarily sold printers to the market. However, at the September 2019 SignChina exhibition, the company expanded its offerings by launching print heads such as the F1080, i3200, S3200, and T3200. These products quickly penetrated the Chinese market and captured significant global market share.
A similar scenario unfolded at Brother.