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Anyone else running Sepiax ink here?
Been running sepiax since its launch at sign UK. Im a newbie here and wanted to see how many people if any have caught onto this ink???
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17 Replies
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I don’t use them but have been aware of them for a while, I’m intrigued as to how you have converted your versacamm, also interested in any problems you have had with the inks. Whats the cost of a litre?
Steve
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apart from this gem of info
quote :Very high colour strength and contour sharpness on wallpaper, serviettes and woodthe web site tells you naf all really 🙁
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Michael. There is an ongoing test being done by my supplier on Mutoh Hybrid printer in Singapore. The Sepiax water base resin ink can print on almost any surface even mirror. Report says sepiax requires lower temperature than latex. I print samples it looks good, am still waiting to hear comments from my supplier.
Being a used how do you find the ink. Please let us know I am very interested.
http://www.wide-format-printers.org/FLA … _Epson.pdf
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Just posting as I want to be kept up to date with this discussion.
Did you have to alter your heater setup on your printer?
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Hi I’m replying on my members account my wifes account as kalinet sign in was not working.
Ok so far sepiax ink has had huge benefits. The major one being cheaper running costs even tho the ink is £150 a litre! Conversion was with B&P graphics supplies it took a 3 stage cleaning/flushing process very easy. Shockingly I’ve Never done a maintenece clean since 3 months ago!!!! And Never lost any Print heads colours not once!!!! The ink uses less profiles because of the nature of the ink bonding on top of the vinyl and also uses they claim 50% less ink which I’ve found I’ve saved more!!! So really ink costs ar more like £70 litre in my case… Now for the bad news I’ve found. The bonding process needs 60c not 55 as they claim print speeds need to be slowed slightly which can be annoying although could be eliminated if you have a separate heater. Colours aren’t the best but for a complete odourless and safe ink you can use with no H&S headaches of disposal/health issues etc etc. So I can live with the slightly duller profile which in time will be sorted I’m guessing. Big problem with very thick banner just seems to not bond water and rubbing I’ll lighten the print. It’s saves a lot of money probably never need a new print head but needs a little more developing. My company Artic Signs have loved the inks but there are some serious issues that need tweaking!!! -
Hi Jason no apparently you don’t need to but B&P added a capacitor to bump it up another 8c. Check out my diy YouTube site with my top added heating element to obtain greater print speeds but not that much faster. Trully need a better system. The inks are still in infancy I’m looking at running Eco solvent and sepiax to get both advantages of each ink. Sepiax is made from that diamond/crystal company swarovski so they have the funding to push it further. I hope cos this stuff is like gold dust!! Check my YouTube Check out this video on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7COELZH … tube_gdata
Sent from my iPhone
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I might have to buy an older printer and give it a whirl.
Does that 50w Globe provide much extra heat? Would it be better to integrate a heating system maybe into the cover so there’s more heat heating your media more uniformly?
Can you get Light Cyan and Light Magenta in Sepia or is it only CMYK at the moment?
when your print hits the take up roller is it dry enough to be wound up?
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Hi Jason yes you can get other colours. But you hit the nail on the head for the print speeds an old fj52 with it’s print speeds would be ideal the heater bulb is strong and almost melted my mist sponge so I switch it off until I can find time to Add a switch so it goes off when near capping area.
Andre w like you said it’s ongoing test with suppliers..
Steve if you work in a garage and use a old machine or want to gain top contract from green hearted supermarket chains like M&S then this completely safe ink water based yet waterproof ink is for you. Providing you can bare eighths teething problems. Its worth it I feel. Activasol use to give me bad bad headaches and numb lips that’s why I changed!! -
Oh forgot yes it’s dry right away for take up roller it’s only when you squeegee with water and no laminate right away that u see a little colour in the water and it can scratch. But at least u can laminate right away. 12hrs of gassing s slower that a slower print speed right?
Sorry members forgive me I forgot to mention I’m new here so hello from the midlands Malvern hills district of farms/dodgy accents and the best chippy (Barnards green fish bar) in the uk (my brothers lol)
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Michael. What printer you are using? Are you using existing profiles?
The samples I have here is a bit dull too. -
Using a vesacamm sp540v currently its mainly the black thats a liltle dull. Im using a profile B&P provided if I had the time to tweak I would. I’ve heard of some printers using eco solvent ink in colour print heads and a true solvent in black print head in same machine to get top prints!! shocking cos I thought it not possible to mix but a friend of mine does do this and its great. I wonder if sepiax could overcome the dull black with a similar solution or maybe a better profile would be easiest 🙂
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I must add when it doesn’t get sent to printer it tells me TCP/IP connection error, yet all is set up correctly??
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Hi Michael,
Wonder if it’s being tested on Konica Minolta heads for Graphtec Duojet or Seiko 64s.
Are you aware of any other suppliers/installers of this ink.Regards
Dermot -
I do know IGS are still working on water based with their Elements machine
I am keen to keep an eye on it all
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Nothing but problems don’t touch sepia ink if you have a cadet uniform plus b and p have just re impursed my with all my cash for inks and printer heads but the ink does not work and the engineer told me there are going to stop selling as it DES not do what it says on the can
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Dave it seems the H2O inks is only for the Elements range of Printers using Epson heads.
The Elements printer 44” model is €12,000 approx.
The 54” … still to be released €20,000 approx. -
Hi all, this response has been cleared with Rob, and he is happy that I post it for the information of all here on the forums.
Indeed Rob will be getting his own Elements printer shortly, so you will also be able to gain from his own insights and opinions in due course.
Until such time, some info for you…
As the official service partner and warranty provider for Elements in the UK, we have probably more knowledge of this printer than anyone else in the UK (or perhaps worldwide) currently.
The Elements machines have been in development for the last 12 months, the ink itself has been developed over a 4 year period.
Demo printers are about to ship to resellers, who I believe are Granthams, Robert Horne Group, Perfect Colours and one other whose name currently escapes me.
Subsequently end-user shipment are expected to begin in October.
As regards the machines themselves; during extended testing we have been printing onto uncoated (non-digital) vinyl, banner, and an array of photo-papers, films etc,.
We have also printed directly onto uncoated aluminium, glass, display board and other rigid media – the printers have a straight media path so can print onto rigid media of up to 1.5mm in thickness.
Clearly the main selling point of the machines is that it offers a ‘green’ alternative to solvent printing – as the ink MSDS states that it contains 0% of hazardous VOC, we have been using the machine in an unventilated office (machine actually next to my desk in the office, and I can report it is indeed zero odour and no ill-effects reported by anyone in the office).
For a non-solvent roll-to-roll printer, Elements and HP latex are currently the only affordable options available as a complete print solution for the production of outdoor durable print.
Elements will not be offering their inks or curing system as a retrofit for other machines in the foreseeable future.
UK machine prices are £5995 for the 24”, and £8995 for the 44”, there is no shipping date for the 64” version as of yet.
The printer itself uses the latest Epson TFP printhead, which has 360 nozzles per channel (as opposed to 180 on earlier Epson DX4 type printheads), and as a 2 x CMYK (2 channels of 360 per colour) printer, you can again double the nozzles per colour.
For comparisons sake, and a real-world example, where a VersaCAMM has 180 nozzles per colour, an Elements printer has 720 – this obviously allows much higher speeds at a like for like resolution, and very good speeds even at higher image quality – we have been testing onto papers at 720dpi at circa 24 square metres an hour, and at 1440dpi onto vinyl at 12 square metres an hour.
From a technical viewpoint, head crashes are largely eliminated (or certainly the risk of them reduced) by an auto-sensing print carriage that adjusts itself based on the material loaded, presumably this feature is to automate the printing of thicker rigid media. Benefit being, you can switch from a thin media such as self-cling film to a thicker heavy-gauge banner, and the head adjusts its height automatically. If you have lunatic printers operators, this is a major plus point in terms of expensive accident avoidance and self-inflicted printhead destruction.
The ink is tough and durable, colours are good, and the range of different substrates that can be printed is virtually limitless (we have been printing onto aluminium tin-foil purchased from the supermarket – daft I know, but we were testing anything we could lay our hands on!).
Any other questions that anyone has, if I can answer them I will.
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