Colorific Light Bar, your opinions please?

[Robert Lambie]

I am currently waiting on a Lightbar being installed on one of my existing machines. Once I do, I will share my thoughts etc.
Of course my initial thoughts are very good based on what i have seen so far and know of the company, or i would not have considered the move to UV Ink, but will give more feedback once i have ours installed.

What i will say is, I was the first Colorific Ink guinea-pig in the UK.
I did the conversion many years ago now and have never looked back.
I have a Grenadier AKA Roland Soljet and a Roland AJ740. Both running Colorific Inks….
For the record, my Grenadier has to be about 9-10 years old now and never misses a beat! we have had very little head changes over the years or full services, we also do produce allot of printed graphics. I will add i have never had a maintenance contract on my machines the full duration of using the Inks.

have i been lucky? possibly… but i tend to think of it more down to proper regular user maintenance, clean working environment and a reputable ink source.

[Adrian Hewson]

Concur with Robert re servicing we also have a grenadier 1900 aj470 and soljet 1370 print and cut we use sun chemical inks and out of the three machines have probably only changed 3-4 heads in the last 7-10 years. Twice I think we have had a problem with magenta but the track record is there we get Andy Malcolm in once a year just to check wear and tear on moving parts but apart from that my guys do all the cleaning and maintenance, these machines run every day of the year

[Stafford Cox]

I was involved in the initial launch in these machines when I was freeelance as I would have been doing some profiling/installations. They looked fantastic to be perfectly honest. I’ve not seen any extended durability tests but the quality and initial adhesion is really good!!

[Adrian Hewson]

I would like to see a print that was printed 3 years ago and has been out in the sun ? ## ?##?

[Justin Atkinson]

Hi all,

As you have already mentioned one of the main advantages of this system is the durability of the ink along with the scratch resistance.

If you buy a new RE640 Lightbar package (UV640) you will still have a full 1 year warranty.

This system has been in design, development and testing for over 3 years and went on sale at the start of 2013.

All testing has been completed in real time and accelerated testing by the ink manufacturer and all results matched or exceeded eco-solvent inks.

Please let me know if you have any more questions.

Justin

[Fabrice Menard]

hello,

– is there any white/clear ink like on some UV printers? If yes are there RIP that supports white/clear for the selected printer and the hybrids inks?

– I guess, it needs special profiles? If then, are there stock profiles, and for which RIP?

– inks are called hybrid: solvant+UV => do we need solvent medias we used before installing a lightbar or must we use uv printing media?

– the lightbar device includes some UV lamps if I understand well. Are they easy to replace with standard UV curing lamps? Is it a long tube or many smaller UV lamp bulbs?

sorry for these questions but I don’t clearly understand how this setup works 😳

[Jonathan Dray]

Thanks for the replies guys.

I think it’s yourself I’m coming to see on Thursday Justin so I’m sure any questions will be answered then, but as I’m impatient and for the sake of the forum, I have some questions in addition to Fabrice’s…

————

1) Is any ventilation required? Are there any hazardous VOCs? How does the ink smell compared to standard Roland ink?

2) So if purchasing the UV640 package the first years warranty is taken care of by Selectech / Colorific?

3) Are heads included in the warranty?

4) How quick is the response time on the warranty?

5) Are there options for additional warranty after the first year and if so what is the cost for this and who fulfills it?

6) How much are replacement UV lamps and what’s the expected life?

7) What RIPS are supported? If we wanted to use Caldera is this possible?

8) How much maintenance is required? Daily? Weekly? None?

9) What happens at the end of a print run… I assume all parts of the print have to pass through the light bar. So does the machine then slowly continue to feed the media after the print has finished? How long does that process take?

10) I understand the ink is £80 per 440ml? Are there any plans to increase / reduce this price as more units are sold?

11) Are there plans for a bulk ink system?

12) Are there plans to sell packages that include other Roland printers (or other makes)?

13) Can the machine be converted back to eco sol ink?

————

Thanks.

[Justin Atkinson]

Hi Fabrice,

Please see details below:

is there any white/clear ink like on some UV printers? If yes are there RIP that supports white/clear for the selected printer and the hybrids inks?

Colours available = CMYK Lc Lm

– I guess, it needs special profiles? If then, are there stock profiles, and for which RIP? New Profiles are required.

We are creating new profiles for different RIPS and Printers all the time. Current RIPS that we have profiled are Wasatch, Versaworks, Shiraz, ColorGate and Caldera.

– inks are called hybrid: solvant+UV => do we need solvent medias we used before installing a lightbar or must we use uv printing media?

These are Hybrid inks Solvent UV. Medias would need to be solvent.

– the lightbar device includes some UV lamps if I understand well. Are they easy to replace with standard UV curing lamps? Is it a long tube or many smaller UV lamp bulbs?

It is one long UV tube which lasts about 8000 hrs and is easy to replace.

Thanks, Justin.

[Justin Atkinson]

Hi Jonathan,

Details below:

1) Is any ventilation required? Are there any hazardous VOCs? How does the ink smell compared to standard Roland ink?

No hazardous VOCs, no ventilation required and inks do not smell after print.

2) So if purchasing the UV640 package the first years warranty is taken care of by Selectech / Colorific?

Colorific look after the warranty.

3) Are heads included in the warranty?

Yes.

4) How quick is the response time on the warranty?

Over 90% of site visits within 24hrs. Online support also included.

5) Are there options for additional warranty after the first year and if so what is the cost for this and who fulfills it?

Yes and depends on printer model details will be given to you Thursday.

6) How much are replacement UV lamps and what’s the expected life?

£350 or £500 fitted / 9000 hrs quoted by the manufacturer.

7) What RIPS are supported? If we wanted to use Caldera is this possible?

Wasatch, Versaworks, Shiraz, ColorGate and Caldera.

8) How much maintenance is required? Daily? Weekly? None? As per manufacturers instructions.

9) What happens at the end of a print run… I assume all parts of the print have to pass through the light bar. So does the machine then slowly continue to feed the media after the print has finished? How long does that process take?

Wasatch have added a new feed option for the Lighbar which feeds the media through the Lightbar at the speed of the selected print profile. Other RIPS are looking to include this option but other work a rounds already work with all rips.

10) I understand the ink is £80 per 440ml? Are there any plans to increase / reduce this price as more units are sold?

No planned change. But ink usage is reduced from between 10 – 40% depending on Printer, RIP, Profile and Media.

11) Are there plans for a bulk ink system?

Not at present.

12) Are there plans to sell packages that include other Roland printers (or other makes)?

Yes – details will follow soon.

13) Can the machine be converted back to eco sol ink?

Yes. UV head was, solvent head and the ink fill – This can be completed by most end users.

See you Thursday!

Thanks, Justin.

[Stafford Cox]

Wow!! You got more questions than you bargained for then, Justin!! :lol1:

[Justin Atkinson]

Hi Stafford,

Yes i did, but all good questions….and answers I hope!

Thanks, Justin.

[Stafford Cox]

Definitely. I get asked about it a lot so it’s always good to know more about it.

[Fabrice Menard]

thanks for your answer. Are there installer in France for this system ?

[Stafford Cox]

Ill come over and install one 😉

[Justin Atkinson]

Hi Fabrice,

Please speak with Colorific direct and they will put you in touch with the Local re-seller.

Thanks,
Justin

[Stafford Cox]

quote Justin Atkinson:

Hi Fabrice,

Please speak with Colorific direct and they will put you in touch with the Local re-seller.

Thanks,
Justin

Absolutely. I was just trying to blag a free holiday :lol1:

[Fabrice Menard]

quote Stafford Cox:

quote Justin Atkinson:

Hi Fabrice,

Please speak with Colorific direct and they will put you in touch with the Local re-seller.

Thanks,
Justin

Absolutely. I was just trying to blag a free holiday :lol1:

free food/accommodation if you dare come to me for my mimaki maintenance :lol1:

[Stafford Cox]

quote Fabrice Menard:

quote Stafford Cox:

quote Justin Atkinson:

Hi Fabrice,

Please speak with Colorific direct and they will put you in touch with the Local re-seller.

Thanks,
Justin

Absolutely. I was just trying to blag a free holiday :lol1:

free food/accommodation if you dare come to me for my mimaki maintenance :lol1:

Rather than filling up the lightbar thread Fabrice, start a new thread about your Mimaki problems and I’ll advise you on there for free. Failing that, we’ll talk.

Stafford

[Jonathan Dray]

Thanks for the answers Justin.

I’ll see you later on today.

[SteveP]

Well given by all what is said here, we are on the brink of buying a UV Colorific printer, but will be going to see one run in the flesh beforehand, the samples sent are excellent, but aren’t they always.

Robert – how is it going for you having had it a good few months now. Would you convert a Roloand, or buy a new UV, we are thinking of running both as our Roland has been a complete work horse in our business so far, and rarely – touch wood – let us down.

Out print and cut on the Roland is why its being saved from the big printer grave in the sky, and it still lives on day to day, but we feel we should meet trouble before it meets us now and get something new.

Any opinions are welcome, no offense will be taken if you think we are doing the wrong thing.

Steve

[Justin Atkinson]

Hi Steve,

Good to hear you are looking at the UV640 Model (Roland RE640 with Lightbar bundle) please contact me if you have any specific questions that are not answered here.

Thanks,
Justin

[Jonathan Dray]

Sorry I’ve been a while updating this, but other things got in the way.

We went to see the Light Bar unit on the RE640 and were generally very impressed. The guys at Colourific were really great so thanks for that Justin and Nick.

As far as we’re concerned the pros of the system include great print quality, vibrant glossy colour, instant dry, virtually no smell, great scratch resistance on par with much more expensive UV machines and various other benefits I can’t think of at the minute.

Things that concerned us is the unproven fade resistance of the ink (although I have no reason to question this other than it’s unproven), that the ink can only be purchased from one source and the problems this may or may not bring, and there was also a bit of a question mark over which RIPs were actually supported, but this may have been sorted out by now.

The biggest draw back for us was there seemed to be a shift in colour at different points in a print. For instance if you were to produce a 2 metre long print that was solid cyan, one end of the print may come out a slightly different colour to the other. I assume this is down to the consistency of speed that the print travels through the light bar, if it pauses at all while printing for instance or the auto feed at the end of the print etc. Most of the time this wouldn’t be much of an issue but if you were producing any kind of multi panelled output, pop-up stand, hoarding, exhibition stand, tiled banner etc then it could be quite a big issue. If it wasn’t for this, we’d have purchased one there and then.

We are still interested as the Mimaki alternative is twice the price. I was just wondering how you guys got on and whether this issue has popped up for you?

SteveP, did you end up purchasing?

How did your demo unit go Robert?

Thanks.

[Justin Atkinson]

Hi Jonathan,

Thanks for you update/reply.

This is where we are now…..

We currently have about 18 installs in the UK which is a 50/50 split between new kit (UV640) and retro fits.

The ink is guaranteed 2/3 year outdoor life from the ink manufacturer and has been tested by them during the long development of this product.

The supported RIPS are currently – Versaworks (comes free with the printer) and Wasatch and we are currently working on Caldera.

The colour shift – We have scanned the images with an X-rite i one pro2 and results were well within spec. We have not had any reported issues from our current user base and in house testing has been completed and successful.

One of our first installs was for a company that only does exhibition graphics and we have had great feed back from them about colours, durability and speed.

We are still working with Rob and the Lightbar is complete, as its our standard 54" Revive version, but due to the age of this printer and the work involved this is currently on going.

We have also released in the last month our UV640 Print and Cut machine…The first of its kind!

We will be at Sign UK so it would be great to see people and answer more questions.

Thanks,
Justin

[Stafford Cox]

Hi Justin.

Did you not pursue the Shiraz route?

Stafford

[SteveP]

Hi Jonathan,

No, we decided to go just for the Roland RE-640 in the end, we didn’t have a demo with the lightbar, we just felt it was too new in the market for such a large purchase.

The other deciding factor for us was, there only being one supplier of the inks as things stand at the moment and felt a bit uneasy about that, should that source for any reason no longer be there.

Not trying to put you off or anything, maybe if we were looknig for a printer next year when the lightbar was more ‘out there’ we would re-consider.

The RE-640 is amazing and we are really pleased with it, print quality is top notch.

Hope this helps a little in your decision.

Regards.

Steve

[Adrian Hewson]

Hi Robert have you had this fitted yet any comments

[Robert Lambie]

Hi Adrian

Sorry, i missed your reply here…
Yes i have now had it installed and up and running.

Please see following link for an on-going blog i have created on this subject.

https://www.uksignboards.com/viewtopic.php?p=455353