Eco Sol MAX Roland inks

[Chris Wool]

i have been using them for 3 days now and no complaints found a few more materials it prints on better and is certainly more robust. i havent tried a real photo yet to see any real shift of colour. i am sure there will be

chris

[Mark Shipley]

I aggree!

The new MAX inks are brilliant. They are so much more robust, to the extent you can put so much ink down it looks like a layer of paint.

‘Why?’ I can here some people asking………static cling and clear vinyl for a start.

Absolutely no smell, dry as it leaves the machine and scratch resistant to the extent you destroy the vinyl before the ink comes off.

Well done Roland :2thumbs:

Mark

[George Elsmore]

question. when you change over to this ink did you have to flush out the old ink or can you just replace cartridges as they run out? I have a cadet btw.

George

[Mark Shipley]

Hi George,

I don’t know you would go about changing them on a Cadet but I’m sure someone will know.

As for the VersaCAMM;

You don’t flush out the old inks, the firmware upgrade on the printer takes you through the change over and uses approx 20ml of each ink to purge the tubes.

It is best to replace all 4 cartridges at the same time and say goodbye to any ink old ink remaining.

Mark

[David Rowland]

Flushing can damage heads and if the flush is of a strong type… so don’t do it too often.

[Robert Lambie]

i am no expert, i would suggest clearing the old ink first before mixing the old with the new. thats with the cadet i mean.

[Pryam Carter]

With the old inks l used to laminate everything, and l do mean everything. Just for my own piece of mind really. I am quite prepared to send stuff out unlaminated now.
Dead easy to change over from the old inks.
they are cheaper, dry straight away, better colours, more aggresive to the vinyl.
Just do it everyone. 😀 [/quote]

[Andrew Bennett]

One day I’ll have the money…One day 😥

[Robert Lambie]

quote billywifta:

With the old inks l used to laminate everything, and l do mean everything. Just for my own piece of mind really. I am quite prepared to send stuff out unlaminated now.
Dead easy to change over from the old inks.
they are cheaper, dry straight away, better colours, more aggresive to the vinyl.
Just do it everyone. 😀

[/quote]

good to hear billy, thanks for the feedback mate. 😉

[valegraphics]

How much difference is there in price? And is the machine classed as pretty much maintenance free when running these carts? I run a cadet so I,m curious. If there are minimal solvents then how is the ink so robust?
MATT

[Rodney Gold]

The change is REAL simple if you running eco-sol , just change the cart to max when your old one runs out , there is no need for flushes or anything else , we hot swapped our carts (we run 12) as they ran out and are still running eco-sol LC/LM in combination with the max inks. I wouldnt hot swap in a printer running any other inks tho , I would flush first. We never bothered to load the firmware for the changeover , doesnt seem to make any diff to performance etc.
The price has dropped to about gbp 35 per cart , about GPB 160 per litre. there is a little fly in the oinkment tho , the max inks need a higher ink limit to lay down dense colours and be robust , so you actually use about 15% more ink for the same graphic as with eco-sol.
Same sort of performance maintenance wise as eco-sol – essentially nil.
Big advantage is that you can use a take up reel without online dryers etc.
Big disadvantage is that your profiles have to change if you want exact colour matching on repeat jobs , tho the shift isnt major at all , but for fussy customers……….
There is no choice but to swap to max inks anyway , as eco-sol is discontinued. Howere there is a worl wide shortage of eco-sol and max inks , over here we werent able to get yellow or magenta of any type for about 3 weeks , I beleive the shortage is now cleared but some places might still have problems in respect of supplys.
I stil lam anything thats gonna get abuse like vehicle graphics or labels for cosmetics that contain solvents etc

[valegraphics]

Cheers rodney
I run a cadet (converted versacamm) with solvent inks, and was curious as to how they compare to solvent inks such as activia-sol. If theyre as good as people are saying for the price then perhaps a change is on the cards eh ? Thanks for the advice once again
MATT

[Pryam Carter]

They are not as aggresive as full solvent, far from it. However there is a significant improvement in these inks, my machine is maintenance free apart from the odd head clean which is the press of a button.
The cartridges are about £10 each cheaper than before.

[valegraphics]

Thanks billy.
MATT

[advsign]

Rodney,
Do you think I can just swap the max carts and not do the firmware upgrade? If so could I swap as the old eco runs out or do all 4 at the same time?
Thanks,
Ken

[John Simpson]

Shame they don’t do them for my Rockhopper!
Still looking around for better prices than £56 each.
L J

[Pryam Carter]

quote :

Do you think I can just swap the max carts and not do the firmware upgrade? If so could I swap as the old eco runs out or do all 4 at the same time?

If you run the firmware and do the swap as Roland instruct you can still use your old profiles in the RIP.
Just choose Roland ECOSOL instead of the new Eco Max in the settings. Dead easy.
[/quote]

[Kevin Flowers]

John,
Mutoh have just brought them out for the Rockhoppers classed as Eco-Solve Ultima. Problem being is they are saying swop as to be carried out by technician. I’ve emailed them complaining over several things i disagree with since owning my Rocky 38.

Kev

[Frog Man]

Ken,

I have Yellow & Cyan EcoSolMax carts in at the moment with Magenta, Black, Light Cyan & Light Magenta EcoSol carts. My plan is to wait until I am running all Max inks then see if there is a big colour shift, if there is I will upgrade the firmware, if not I won’t.

Regards, Paul.

[John Simpson]

Kevin,
Thanks for the update, they said that last time about a Technician would have to change them when they went from the original Eco sol to the Eco solvent plus inks. After having a word with Art Systems over the phone they said all they do is hot change them as each runs out, so that is what i did, no problems.
Lets hope someone can tells us if it applies to this new upgrade.
Do you happen to know how much these are?
L J

[davidimo]

Why dont you try Fillink Solsoft inks…
they come in 220 & 440 ml carts.
I use them for about 2 months without problems
on my versacamm 540V.

They should cost about £30 (220ml) and £50 (440ml).

[John Simpson]

Thanks David, I am just looking at their website now

L J

[Marek]

Hi Paul,

I am from OZ to. Just ready to swap for Max inks on my SC-500.
Tell me, how long have you been running eco and max together and on which printer.

I would like to do as you did, but my dealer said there is different
cleaning cycle for max inks-because they dry faster.
Have you notice any heads drying.
I just put new heads in (cost a fortune!!) so I do not want to kill them

Mark

[Frog Man]

Hi Mark,

I saw your post on the Roland site but will reply to this one in case someone there objects. I have been running Cyan Max for about 3 weeks and Yellow Max for 2 on an SC500. A Roland tech suggested I do this, apparently there was an e-mail from MR saying it was OK. I haven’t noticed any colour shift yet, nor have I had a problem with heads blocking. One other thing I haven’t noticed is better rub/scratch resistance, I did some test swatches using pure CMYK blocks and noticed no appreciable difference. Now whether the firmware upgrade does something about that by laying down more ink I don’t know. The swatches I tested were on a vinyl that I get fairly good adhesion to anyway so I will do more tests. Personally I would say go for it.

Paul.

[Marek]

Thanks Paul,

I will go your way and Rodney’s.
Ordering 2 carts of Max ink now, there is about $400 worth of ink left in the printer. I think it is a waste not using it.
Thanks again.
If you want send me personal message from Roland site, maybe we can exchange some more info

Mark