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EcoSolvent inks for Roland FJ52 – please advise
I am new to this whole printing business, I managed to get my hands on a Roland FJ52 Machine, does have the rip and that and work perfect with DYE Inks. Done few jobs and customers are pleased.
Now I was wondering, has anyone uses EcoSolvent inks instead of the DYE on a roland machine, FJ52 or similar? Which one are the best to use, any feedback on to durability, media.
I have found this http://www.itlgb.com/news11.html on web, Ecosolvent inks from ITL anyone uses them, any good.
Please advise on this. Any replies are appreciated.
Thanks,
Daniel
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5 Replies
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sorry but you have missed the point.
you fj52 will require major surgery and component changes to run any sort of solvent inks it can and has been converted and can work well.
solvent eats the wrong type of plastic and as your machine was designed to have water based inks you can guess the rest, all the sol jets were designed to have eco solvet in from the startchris
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thansk for your reply. But how come they advertise Eco Solvent inks for FJ52 Roland machines, without no modifications?
I am new to this so you’ll have to excuse me if the answer to my question is a bit obvious.
Daniel
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yep reading there web site does give that impression – it will be interesting to here what they have to say when you ring up please let me know i have been known to be wrong.
chris
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the main items that will definately need replacing are the back ink plates inside the cartridge holder mechanism where the needles fit and possibly the dampers.
dampers are upgraded regularly but if you were to get the green striped version that are the max ones they should be fine.
there are a lot of myths surrounding what people replace on these machines that are just not true.
also look at moving the waste bottle so waste flows freely and doesnt have to go towards the back of the machine.
everything else is standard. i assure you.
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Daniel, I have a FJ-50 using ITL’s EPS-GFX inks – orange + green.
Changing over is easy. I flushed the old aquaous inks out with their cleaning solution, changed the dampers, and replaced the pump with a solvent type one. Mimaki pumps are best and are around $70-$90 USD.
You can also add a heater strip to warm up the vinyl, but with some vinyl’s even this is not necessary. I have one though and would recommend it if your printing in a cold room.
Some vinyl’s will not print well at all, but I use Oracal’s 3551 and it prints beautifully even without heat.
I also use Mactac JT 5829 but I need to crank the heat right up for this to work.You can use existing printer profiles with pretty good results.
It’s tough to find many hexachrome profiles around, but I snaffled one from Pantone’s website built for this machine and it works awesome.
You can print photo’s straight to uncoated gloss vinyl and they look like actual photo enlargements.
It’s called Panhexro.icm.I also print direct from Signlab and their hex profiles work well too.
Of course you could go with lc,lm and have more profile options, or you can even print with just CMYK if you want.The beauty of using hexachrome is that you can use RGB colours and get a much larger gamut. Reds print using a mix of orange & magenta and come out real bright.
There’s a bit to learn about it all, but I recommend you make the switch.
You’ll need to understand the working parts of the printer, be able to maintain & clean it properly. Learn about colour management, lots of testing and trial & error.But once you’ve switched to solvent you’ll be able to make good use of the printer – banners, stickers, photographic prints, signs…all onto uncoated pvc.
Those inks are good. I haven’t tried the new eco-max but the EPS (for EPSon heads) work real well. Not too smelly and don’t scratch off.
Also you can drizzle some of their cleaning solution into the caps and leave it switched off for days without drying up.
I do get ink drop out from time to time though, it’s not all trouble free!
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