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Advise on machine for printing stickers
We were drooling over many of the new machines at Sign UK this year and have been looking for the opportunity to move up from our SummaCut D60 to a Print & Cut solution, but until now we haven’t been able to justify the expense. However we’ve just had an enquiry for 5000 stickers (200mm x 150mm) with black text and a red circle on a white background, quite simple as stickers go.
Now an Edge FX would probably be my first choice, if they wasn’t so darn expensive, as I believe they are ideal for this purpose and things like health & safety signs, which we currently produce on our cutter and painfully lay up colour by colour 😥
I’ve also looked at the Cadet and such like as they will allow us to offer larger prints, but am not keen having to laminate aswell if possible, but as I know nothing about laminating I may be swayed there.
Our main business is shop fronts and vehicles, and we currently get large prints produced elsewhere (paying approx £60 – £80 per 6′ x 4′ print) and would liek to do these in house, but don’t have the room for larger machines and extraction units.
We’ve been asked more and more recently for large runs of stickers and smaller full colour work and can’t stop being drawn to the Edge. Is there a more cost effective solution you guys can recommend, and please bare in mind the machine may spend days not in use and I don’t want to be cleaning and replacing heads all the time.
Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks
Steve -
16 Replies
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have you had a look at the roland pc600?
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quote Shane Drew:have you had a look at the roland pc600?No, I’ve not taken a closer look at the Roland 600. 😳
And if I’m not mistaken, I believe a lot of people on here had a Roland PC60 in it’s day, I know Rob has referenced his PC60 quite a bit.
Have many of you guys got PC600’s now? What they like? Cheap to run, easy to maintain? And I’m going to have to laminate right?
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I’ve not owned either but I’ve been supplied with work from both, the PC600 will leave banding, it’s got a small head and works a little like an inkjet with the head going side to side while the media feeds through.
It can change it’s own ribbons though.The edge is so narrow as it’s one head and tends not to leave banding but you have to change the ribbons.
If you go for an inkjet get a Roland with max inks, you will have to laminate even with the full solvent inks for most stickers if any rubbing/contact is involved so you may as well have the advantage of lower maintenance.
I did some no smoking stickers for a local pub on my Cadet (uniform solvent inks), he put some of them on the bar and while the vinyl is ok the print has nearly all worn off.
The print resolution is usually higher on the inkjets as well.
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I’ve had a quick look at some of the posts on the PC600 and it seems people are having a few issues with the heads, but I’m sure apart from that they’re a robust machine.
So it’ll print and cut in one right? Or would I print on the PC600, then run it through a cutter, then run it through a laminator?
And what laminator should I be looking for?
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quote Yowzer:I’ve had a quick look at some of the posts on the PC600 and it seems people are having a few issues with the heads, but I’m sure apart from that they’re a robust machine.
So it’ll print and cut in one right? Or would I print on the PC600, then run it through a cutter, then run it through a laminator?
And what laminator should I be looking for?
print & cut without lamination. A good entry level unit but will not reproduce photographs well.
The idea would be to use it to build a business, then buy a better machine later. I had a PC60 before I went wide format printing. As long as you see it as a machine that is good for short run, or one off decals, it is OK. I will not do the same job as an edge or a solvent printer, but then it is not the expense either.
You get what you pay for in this industry. A PC600 / 60 is excellent for what it was designed for, but is not in the same league as the bigger machines, but does not have the price tag either.
Cheers
Shane -
quote Shane Drew:The idea would be to use it to build a business, then buy a better machine later. I had a PC60 before I went wide format printing. As long as you see it as a machine that is good for short run, or one off decals, it is OK. I will not do the same job as an edge or a solvent printer, but then it is not the expense either.
The PC600 sounds like it may be the way to go for us to offer simpler print & cut work right now, without waiting a job to come up that will justify me spending the money on a more capable machine.
What kind of money are these PC600’s?
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price of pc600 is around the £5k mark i think mate… down side of these machines is "i think" roland have discontinued the parts. probably lots of stock to exhaust but buying new might not be the wisest move. maybe call roland and find out from them.
i had the pc60, paid itself many times over… but high running costs were a nightmare. with todays inkjet machines you will struggle to compete on price.
5000 stickers… ide not try this on the machine. although more than capable your better loosing the headache and buying it in from a trade supplier.
look at buying an edge second hand, and edge 1 goes for around same price or lower than the pc600 these days. thats second hand. new its about £8k but iof spending that ide say go for a verscamm or cadet. look at old "for sale posts" on this site, lots of edges have been advertised here, might be you will fnd one that hasnt been sold. -
I have a PC 600 and the results are excellent on smaller stickers. I get very little noticable banding. Most of the ones I do are around 100mm x 100mm. Had an issue with the print head when I first got it, but nothing since replacing it myself. Just keep everything clean. Running costs are pretty high. Replacement ribbons are around £5-6 per colour (90 metres)
You are looking at about £1800 for one in good condition with a stand and some spare cartridges/ribbons etc.Jase
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be quite honest.. the silk screen printing route would be best for that sticker job.
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quote Dave Rowland:be quite honest.. the silk screen printing route would be best for that sticker job.
When you say best, do you mean the best finish, the best price or both?
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if its solid colour then silk screen is unbeatable. If its photographs/patterns of colours or fine text like 4-5point then a hi-res solvent printer is better.
Price on quite a high 5000 should be cheaper and better finish by silk screen printers.
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I agree with Dave, on a sticker run that big, it’s not your problem then, just supply the artwork and let them worry about it.
I must admit you tend to get side tracked when thinking about printers etc and I for one keep forgetting about the traditional methods.
Steve
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(mod-edit please use appropriate forum.)
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Sorry Steve.
For some reason I read your post as 50 stickers not 5000 😳 Better get my glasses checked 😳
Screen printing is a really good option as has been stated. A screen would be your biggest expense, but the material cost to produce would be better over the qty. A PC600 would be expensive in this instance.
If you are confident that you would do the business, a second hand edge would be a good option. Peter Normington would be a better person to advise on this coz he has one and has done pretty good work on here. But based on your original post, if it is going to be doremant for long periods, I’m not sure that a wide format printer is the best choice.
As far as laminating goes, I don’t laminate stickers (no smoking, no entry etc) unless it is requested. A screen printer tho could give them a clear coat that would offer extra protection, but nowhere near the same cost per sq mtr as cold laminate.
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Just as a comparison, materials for the edge at this quantity,
would be approx £1500could be a bit less if foils ar not used on full coverage. the edge has a foil saving feature, so that any large space between objects, the foil stops rolling.
This is only a guesstimate based on mid quality vinyl and genuine edge foils (550m allowing for gaps and a bit of waste)
Also the edge prints @ 300mm so you may need to loose a couple of mm so the decals can be cut with a reasonable space in the middle for separating. Also dont forget you will need a plotter that will cut the sprocketed vinyl, as well
Peter -
Thanks, you guys have been great. I’m now clear as to what my options are.
I’ll probably go down the sceen printing route for this order, however a print and cut solution is still on the books, I’ll just have to find different project to justify the move. As Rob recomended, I’ll keep an eye on the for sale section of the site for a second hand PC600 or an earlier Edge.
I’ve now got a couple of screen printing contacts to try, thanks guys I’ll be calling them tomorrow, sounds like this may be the best option for such a large run.
Steve
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