Advice : Eco Solvent Inks

[Phill Fenton]

Good question and one I have considered myself.

However, what puzzles me is why the need to "convert" the machine? Surely it’s a beefed up version of it’s ecosolvent sister so should handle ecosolvent inks without any "conversion" being necessary?

I bought my Cadet under the illusion I could run it on either full solvent or ecosolvent ink – whereas had I bought the Versacamm it could only handle ecosolvent!

Does anyone have an explanation as to why Roland need to "convert" these machines back?

[Jason Xuereb]

I can’t comment on the machine. But as for eco sol max inks we’ve never really had a problem with them.

Don’t have problems with our printers either in terms of maintenance. Wipe around the heads. the wipers and around the caping stations and I’m done.

[Chris Wool]

talk to roland again i am sure that what they do is well worth £2k as i understand it , they change a lot of stuff that came in to contact with the solvent inks,
then they give you a full 12m warranty as well.
should inc 12 new carts as well.

i think the cadet is £1k

i run eco sol max and as jason says its sorted

chris

[Peter Munday]

Do not pay for a conversion!!!!
I converted my Grenadier G2 last year to Roland eco max and I have not had a days problem with it since. You need to flush the system (£470.00 for flush carts 😮 😮 😮 ) and then just put in the new ink carts, If you read the manual it tells you how to change the settings on the printer panel to tell it what ink you are using. Overall it takes about two hours to do, I would recomend low users to switch from full solvent to eo-sol as your days of troubles will soon be behind you. Of course when you switch to carts your ink cost’s will rise quite considerably but you save on call outs and new print heads.

Peter

[Peter Munday]

Thinking about my last post, if you were to buy the flush carts and the new ink carts that would add up to about £950.00 so it looks like they are charging you about £1050 .Unless they are changing any other bits and bobs that’s quite a call out charge.

Peter

[Paul Hughes]

hi all

i have not long ago started using ecosol max inks in my cadet, spoke to roland and they said the same thing as they did to adrian, I asked why? they could not give a solid answer, just woolly claims about it has to have new pipes, heads, wipers etc. like phill i brought my cadet on the fact that it could run any ink. B&P have also stated on the boards that you can run any reputable ink in the cadet and not void any warranty, well i would say roland inks are reputable.

to that end i just flushed the ink lines and installed ecosol max carts, afew head cleans and all was well, less smell and if anything the prints look a bit more vibrant. as has been said before elsewhere the durability is about the same.

I am not saying what roland do for the money is not worth it but do question the need to do it.

Paul

[Ian Higgins]

Hi,

I have just had the Roland conversion to eco sol on my 4 year old Cadet +. The reason I did it was the fact that one of the heads had drop out so I rang for a price on a new head which was £600. They said that for £1200 they would replace both heads, dampers, pipes, scan motor, circuit board, all pipes and the carrier wire. It also included all new panels with the Roland logo… but the main selling point was that they gave me a full 12 month warranty on a 4 year old machine!! I know the carts are a little dearer but at the end of the 12 months I will put my bulk feed system back on and use after market inks. I have to admit I am Very happy with the results

Cheers

Ian

[Stephen Morriss]

Sounds like a very good deal when you put it that way Ian.
I’ve been wondering what I’ll do when it’s time for a head change, I’d certainly consider that.
Basically a new printer for £1200 + Vat.

I’ve also been thinking of changing over to the max inks but I was just going to flush and fit the new inks.

Steve

[Russell Huffer]

There is no conversion needed to run ecosol on a Uniform printer, I belive Roland take the printer back to how it was as much as anything to stop you being able to return to full solvent to easy.
The Roland deal in my opinion is great if you have a printer that needs new parts as these will be supplied and warrentied, however if you just want to change to ecosol inks because you have blockage problems etc then as said this is a strightforward ink change that you can do yourself.
I think Roland have missed a trick here as the reason for the above deal is to get you back to buying there ink, selling you a printer is good money but the real value is in the onging revenue from the consumables, i think Roland could sell a lot more ink especially for use in the Uniform brand if they produced ecosol in bottles so you where not forced to use carts.

Regards

Russell.

[Mark Nihotte]

Steve

Remember to change the dampers…but you are right – flush the pipes properly with solvent flush and with ecosol flush, change the dampers and you are sorted 😀

[Sam Adcock]

Steve,

What is it that the dampers do, and where are they on the machine?

Regards
Sam

[Phill Fenton]

The dampers are fitted at the ends of the tubes that supply the ink to the heads. They are fitted just above the heads – there is one damper for each colour.

I’m not sure of their purpose but think they are there to prevent fluctuations in pressure and flow of ink into the heads.