BUlk ink systems for solvent printing

[Rodney Gold]

Roland and the convertors only make money selling you OEM inks , they subsidise machine costs that way , soem are tied into using specific inks if they want to use specific heads.
Problems with bulk ink systems mainly arise if you arent using vast quantities of inks. IE you arent doing almost continual printing day in and day out.
Specifically , the inks get contaminated or are hygroscopic (attract water) , pigments etc settle out , solvents evaporate changing viscosity , air is introduced into the feed lines and the machine doesnt alert you when ink is finished and a dry ink line can ruin a head. The carts are sealed bladders and dont suffer from this type stuff and arent messy. Believe me , if you spill a bottle of ink , you will have major problems , the solvents are agressive and will attack most plastics etc.
Look at http://www.techink.com , they seem to have a nice bulk feeder as well as inks.You can also get refillable carts and there is a 440ml cart coming out , or so I believe (the big soljet 1000 uses em)
We have a Flatjet based on epson heads that has been converted to bulk inks , this is still a relatively mickey mouse setup and we have had a lot of hassles with the bulk ink system , albeit its all sorted out.
As I say , if you are doing continual printing and your machine is out of warrantee , it’s pretty much a good way to go with the right feed system and reputable inks.
One of the problems with bulk ink systems and a machine in warrantee is that the supplier of the machine can get seriously screwed as they have no control of WHAT ink is put thru , they would be very hard pressed to refute a warrantee claim if you used some cheap and nasty ink which damaged the machine or heads and then flushed the system and put “reccomended” inks in and then said that it “just broke” (I haerd that one 3rd party ink mnfgr recomended just that , use his inks ands system and if it broke , just put carts back in.

[GD]

Thanks Rodney

It seems you certainly know your stuff. We are currently running with the 440 carts which from a running point of view is a vast improvement from the 220 carts. I had to come in most nights to make sure the inks weren’t going to run out. I’ll check out the link you sent to see what they have to say.

all the best

Graham

[expressgraphics]

Hi Graham,
speak to Chris at QPS on 01704 8975754 about Lyson bulk systems. I’m not sure if they do a kit for the JV3.
Their kits are built to the highest spec, bottles are inverted and sealed, only drawing air in as the level drops. There’s a moisture trap on the air side which cuts down on the problems Rodney mentions.
As long as they are set up properly then they work a treat. Our first system cost £1500 with 8 litres of ink which is 36 cartridges worth. We’ve now put over 20 litres through it since so the savings are worth while and we’ve had no hassle with it.
Hope this helps.

Regards,
John
Express Graphics

[Shane Drew]

Graham, I am running the techinks bulk system on my new Roland sc540.

The cost savings are huge.

The teckink system has one of the finest pigments grades there are, even finer than the original roland inks.

I have experience no problems at all, Techink have given the system a lot of thought. The Techink resellers here are the same people that sold me my roland, so they have no conflict here, apart from roland who have expressed their disappointment that they are losing my cartridge sales.

Although my machine is still under roland warranty, techink are so confident that their system will work as good as the original, they have taken over the head warranty of my machine for the next 6 months.

Interestingly, when they convert the roland ink pumps over to techink, they actually install JV3 pumps. They are clearly the same pump, but the JV3 uses better plastics ib the lines, as the eco inks on the roland does not need to use the stronger plastics.

Anyway, I can vouch for the techink product, and the cost savings are huge over the cartridges.

Cheers
Shane

[GD]

😀 Thanks for the input guys. The info on Techinks sounds great. I am waiting for somebody from Tech to get back to me. I will keep you informed.

Thanks