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Can you recommend me a new printer?
Hi all,
The time has come for us to upgrade yet again. In the print side of our department, we currently use a Roland VP-540. I must point out that this has served us very well and will no way be put aside yet.
We’re looking at getting a printer to work alongside the Roland which we hope will be just as reliable. It’s been a while since we last looked at printers and have realized the market has moved on considerably. I’m hoping you guys could point us in the right direction choosing the right upgrade.
The criteria we’re looking for is:
1. 60"+
2. Can print white
3. Fast print speed but at a decent quality.First time round we were looking at a JV3 but missed out on the fact we couldn’t have a solvent printer. We’d still prefer to have Eco-solvent but we now have the facilities for a solvent.
Many thanks in advanced.
Jon -
24 Replies
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JV33?
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Thanks, JV33 looks like a runner. Could anyone let me know how they’ve got on with one of these? Would be interesting to know people’s opinions, thanks! 🙂
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I’d say since you’ve got a Roland machine anyway and you’ll be using versaworks then why not get the new Roland RS640
http://www.digimetrix.co.uk/clients/roland/winaroland/RS-640_Brochure.pdf
64" wide printing and will run off the same computer as your VP540
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quote Jon L:Thanks, JV33 looks like a runner. Could anyone let me know how they’ve got on with one of these? Would be interesting to know people’s opinions, thanks! 🙂We’ve got the 130.
No problems. Runs a treat and we’re well pleased.
No experience of other printers to compare with though.
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I was thinking the same as john but don’t think they print white.
I thought that the SolJet Pro III XJ-640 did but just looked at the site and it seems i was dreaming.Dave
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quote David_Evans:I was thinking the same as john but don’t think they print white.
Dave
Sorry your right, I didn’t take that part in……….. they don’t print white
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quote David_Evans:I was thinking the same as john but don’t think they print white.
I thought that the SolJet Pro III XJ-640 did but just looked at the site and it seems i was dreaming.Dave
The SolJet Pro III XC-540W is the one that you are thinking about, you lose the LC and LM colours and gain white ink.
Nigel
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Thanks Nigel thought i was going mad, no obvious advert on the Roland site anymore though. But not big enough for Jon.
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a lot of printers loose the lc lm to gain white sadly.
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i would certainly advise on the new Roland versa-art rs640 64 inch wide printer. at £11k which includes the new rip software and two days at Roland academy for staff training can you really afford NOT to consider it?
as nigel says, the sol3 does exactly what you want, white ink, is robust and packs production power but these new 640’s are not to be sniffed at. very fast indeed and quality is extremely good on various medias.
i would seriously consider buying two of the machines for less than what the other would cost you… the software will also run up to 4 different machines from the one terminal. -
Rob the rs does not print white does it?
and you cant get two of them for the price of a jv33 which does, and comes with a plotter included in the package.Rs is a good machine, but not to the specs that was asked for
running four machines is not really an advantage, unless you are in high production, and have three or four rolands to start with.Peter
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even though i would be looking for a white machine, its certainly worth looking at Roland stuff, they made great gains over the years and may actually be influential in market pricing ahead.
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quote Dave Rowland:even though i would be looking for a white machine, its certainly worth looking at Roland stuff, they made great gains over the years and may actually be influential in market pricing ahead.
Dave, why is white the way to go, I see it as a very limited market.
and for most people not necessary, but I would welcome your take on it
Peter -
mainly for our application we need it, I see white not very beneficial to most sign makers to be honest, the whites do need a lot of density, a lot of the variable drop heads are not up to it, they cannot do a decent layer of white on their own, can be very transparent. On a roll fed, you wont find white on the large scale printers, as most of the time you print onto white.
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hi peter, i was not basing reply on the mimaki.
i was thinking more along the line of the machine nigel had posted on and i guessed it was over the £20k mark with the white option, hense why i said two for the same price…the rs-640 is as wide as he requires and the speed/quality too, but not on white ink option, but to be honest i dont see a very big advantage on these type of machines as dave has mentioned for various reasons…
Jon mentioned he is "yet again" upgrading the print side of things and now adding a second printer to his production line, so obviously busy!
he currently has a roland and software so will be more familure with this type of printer and software. as i mentioned, i would there for recommend him keeping with what he knows and adding a second roland, or even third one as i suggested for similar cost. whether it is one or two machines he has, the versaworks which will run his two machines or even a third if he wishes to purchase two as i suggested.
for a busy production setup the multiple printers option is very good indeed. if you have folk working on designs and then your print operator working one terminal to print a Que of files the time saving on that would be very advantageous and streamline allot of niggles and headaches of running such a setup. -
As some of you know i’m looking to upgrade my printer & have been doing the rounds of the suppliers in fact i was at Sign Expo yesterday on Rolands stand to do test prints on the RS640 for a side by side comparison with the Mimaki. Unfortunately did not happen due to media getting lost but i will post more about the comparison tests if its ok with Rob at a later date.
Anyway back to the main post, one thing i have heard from all manufacturer’s is that unless you are printing white on a daily basis then white is not really viable. This is due to the make up of white ink & the weight of the pigment used, this causes settling in the cart & lines. Shaking the cart cures that but in the tubes & head you would have to do several cleans before you could use it. at worse it will end up clogging the head. That said I have seen some nice prints backed with white for illuminated displays, window graphics etc but the white is not a solid white it is on par with a translucent white vinyl. It works with backlits etc but i would have reservations about it blocking out a dark coloured background etc. Anyway just my opinions but hope it helps
Kev
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you will not be able to beat the new seiko colour painter H-104s
im not sure on the price but that is the machine i would do anything for.
Seiko is a legend in the digital printing field and they will always make an amazing machine. It will have industrial heads that will last forever and it will print amazing.
You must really take into considerations the cost of the ink. I honestly think that the roland ink price is far too expensive. All these entry level machines (mimaki, mutoh, HP etc) when you want a faster printer and your volumes are higher you need a cheaper ink . Seiko will give you that.
Its got 1.5litre bags as well as cartridges that let you change on the fly. That is really cleaver. This means that you will be paying bulk ink prices but still have the advantage of cartriges.
I think you must look into this machine seriously.
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Thank you very very much for your replies. It’s such a boost receiving good advice from professionals. We would love to stick with Roland but the fact the widest white printer we could find is 54" makes things doubtful. The JV33 still remains the front runner which is not a bad thing as we’ve heard good things about this printer.
I know white may not be the biggest issue in most cases but we do need this option in the upgrade. Again, many thanks for great advice.
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Sounds interesting, like to know more about the Seiko… i may have seen this but didnt stop at the stand at Paris
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have a look at the seiko infotech site.
its an 8 colour machine the have added dark grey and light grey ink.
Very interesting.
Just remember the seikocolourpainter 64 was probable the best digital printer of the the 90s to 2004 i dont think seiko would bring out anything worse.
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ah but said it was the best printer? some of us would beg to differ that as I only know one member who has one.
However I have seen the machine and thought it competed well with the JV3-160S at the time.
Now your talking 8 colours, but it should be Orange and Green not black and black. grrr
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quote DaneRead:You must really take into considerations the cost of the ink. I honestly think that the roland ink price is far too expensive. All these entry level machines (mimaki, mutoh, HP etc) when you want a faster printer and your volumes are higher you need a cheaper ink . Seiko will give you that.
just remember the seikocolourpainter 64 was probable the best digital printer of the the 90s to 2004 i dont think seiko would bring out anything worse.
sorry, cannot agree with you dane mate…
i hear its a very good machine but dumps as much ink as it uses… the ink is also expensive on par with other machines in its class.
e.g. grenadier ink approx: £100 per letre colourpainter: approx £130 per litre.i do not know anything about their new machines or the new ink costs in your country but on dealing with ink pricing on the seiko machines only november last year for the UKSG i was surprised at the steep increase on the price of the ink over mimaki, roland, mutoh, uniform etc
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point taken i was doing a lot of guess work i have not checked on the ink price for the 104 but i do remember that the 64 had a good ink price in southafrica.
I must do some more investigation into this.
i think the point i was trying to make was that seiko have always made a more industrial type of machine. Often more expenseive in the beginnning but they just seem to go forever. I have seen some really old 64s in print shops and they just print and print and print. The print quality on the 64 was always so brilliant and it took quite sometime for the competitors to catch up in the early days.
I just think it has always been in between the entry level machines and the grand format monsters. I belive there needs to be a machine thats is in between. In that 40000 to 70000 range. I dont know what the 104 is, i probably jumped to my own conclusion too quickly but i dont think the seiko is competing with the likes of the JV3 and the spitfires etc.
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have you looked at the epson GS6000 any coments???
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