Gerber Edge 2

[eddie cotter]

all i know is its supposed to be faster than the edge1
eddie

[Kevin.Beck]

We have just bought a Edge 1.

The only diferance between them is the 2 prints twice as fast and can be used in 300dpi or 600dpi mode. The edge 1 only prints in 300 dpi.

You will proberly need a faster cutter as well to keep up with it..

We asked the rep about the tranfer material for tees shirts. he didn`t seem to know alot about it, apart from he thought it was a little exspencive to buy.

So far only used it for 1 job, the rest i have being “playing” with it. You can choice either Omega or signlab to run it, I`m still waiting to be swapped over to SL. Aparently they`ve not got any stock in yet.

Unles you pay for training, all you will be shown is how to keep the edge clean, and how to load it up. Then a quick 5 miniutes on how to print a job. Not nearly enough concidering you are paying £13k out.

[Phill Fenton]

Hello Ian.

I don’t know much about the Gerber but I would like to welcome you to the UK signboards. 😀

You’re not that far away from us (in fact you’re just around the corner).

[Robert Lambie]

Hi there Millie..
A big welcome from myself also..
Another Scotsman on the boards.. Good stuff 😉

I am not an edge user myself so can offer little help here.
Check out the digi-printing forum for posts on the edge.

What i can say is that a good friend of ours Bob Gilliland is about to launch a Thermal printing forum. He specialises in thermal printing, the edge and the like. So much so he teamed up with the signlab crew in developing the new version of signlab e6.. See his demos/posts on this site.

can i ask how you found the site?
oh yeh.. if you have a picture please send me it and ill load it for you.. hope to see more posts from you, thanks for joining in 😉

[Martin Armitage]

I have been using the edge 1 with the gs15 plotter for nearly 3 years now running 11 hours a day and have found it to be very reliable there is such a big range of media from various manufacturers that produce excellent results. We print lots of labels and helmet stickers even up to the large site safety boards. Because the edge prints one colour at a time pulling the vinyl back through each time there can be various registration problems some curable some not but for a small run , done in smallish batches the edge is very good, the dpi on the edge 1 is ok to produce images that do not require close inspection. I was talking to a rep about upgrading to the edge 2 last week his reply “the edge 2 will print twice the speed of the edge 1 but only for some jobs and it can print at twice the dpi but again only for some jobs” it was interesting response from a salesman he recommended i invested in another edge 1.
I tried to source some edge printable heat transfer film with little luck, i must admit i didn,t try very hard because we do not do many t shirts – tried printing onto a couple of films with little luck, this is probably because the edge melts the ink into surface of the vinyl at a high temp – might be worth finding out about before you decide to purchase
Spandex also supply an edge printable magnetic sheet wich i think can also be contour cut on the plotter though i have no experience of this!
On gaining the edge I went on a weeks training course in using the omega software and found it to be a very worthwile starting point -worth the investment. I do like the edge and am sure that the edge 2 has got to be worth the investment.
Interesting as well going back to the salesman I asked about going to the latest omega upgrade he recommended i didn’t do that either!

[Jon Aston]

Ian:

Good comments and observatons above.

The EDGE2 prints at up to three times the speed of the EDGE (depends on which EDGE Ready material / which colour(s) you are printing), and does a MUCH better job of printing small text and fine line graphics. If you’re planning on short-run label work etc, it is a superior choice. If you can create enough demand, it will also allow for faster return on investment.

Good luck!

[Andrew Fleming]

Millie

If you can afford it, go for the Edge2, we used to have the mark 1, and when the 2 came out we jumped and have never looked back. The 600dpi is excellent for small work and also small detail on large panels including photos etc.
I would also check if purchasing from Spandex soon, that they will be offering you a free upgrade to the new omega 2, I have been using this now for 6 months or so and found it an excellent piece of kit over 1.56, and since the edge will come bundeled with ‘a’ version, i would check and see what deals they are doing.

And on the HT paper front, we use the Gerber brand with the LT gerber foils, which print excellently at 300 dpi and 600 dpi.

[Andy Gorman]

I agree with the above post but would like to add one comment. The print heads on the edge do wear out, especially if you are printing large quantities of the same image. They are very expensive. We took out the additional maintenance contract to cover the print head which wasn’t cheap but was a good thing because we went through 3 print heads in the first year.

That said, the first job I printed was 600m of the same image over and over, so it burnt into the head slightly.

With regard registration, it isn’t brilliant and you do tend to spend quite a lot of time setting up traps, bleeds etc. to remedy mis-registration.

[Jon Aston]

A few quick additional comments:

Traps and bleeds and choke/spread are tough to wrap your head around without qualified training — which is an investment. By taking the training, you shorten your learning curve, thereby giving yourself a better chance at faster return on investment.

Without traps and bleeds and choke/spread, registration isn’t outstanding (which is why these tools exist) but it is consistent. Proper use of the software yields very good results (ie. registration problems go away)…particularly so if you use Gerber EDGE READY materials (punched with gerber’s punch pattern, not “edge-stripped”).

You will also find that using EDGE READY materials in combination with GerberColor foils provides for consistently better print quality…and therefore less waste and more satisfied customers.

Gerber’s LT series foils and heat transfer paper work great (use a heat transfer press for best results). The print will fade noticibly after the first wash, but then has great permanency. I have a ratty old T-shirt that I only where around the house that has an EDGE transfer on it from about 10 years ago…and the image still looks great! Expensive? Compared to what? It is a great way to produce highly customized shirts and stuff in small numbers, very competitively.

One last comment (echoing another, above): Service Contracts are cheap insurance!

I know that this sounds like one great Gerber commercial (so Rob – if you delete, I will totally understand…) BUT since the decision to purchase an EDGE2 appears to be made, I think it worthwhile for you to consider how you can begin to get the most out of your investment.