Giant banner printing advice

[Chris Wool]

just a small project then. 😀

23 off 20 mtr x 1300 mm to make 30 x 20mtr banner might take a while i would have thought that sort of job is for the 3 or 5 mtr wide printers but could be done on soljets – grenaders or seiko the seiko is 1500 wide i think might save 1 length of print.
but if you wish to also do fine art stuff to canvas then is one of the machines above. dont take to mush notice of the sales pitch of printing speed you will want to run it slower to bring out the quality that your work deserves.

chris

[RobGF]

It’s probably just me, but I see printing really huge banners and a desire to print quality prints to canvas as mutually exclusive things.

I know a lot of folks here are really keen on Rolands and the Uniform products but for something like you have described perhaps you might be better served by looking at some of the other options. There are lots of entry level production true solvent printers out there. For example, you could look at ColorSpan and one of their 98 printers (2.4m). These machines have really come down in price lately and they are a proven platform.

If you want high-quality to Canvas (and don’t expect gilcee quality) than perhaps a Roland, Uniform, Seiko, or new HP (etc.) might be the way to go.

Good luck.

[Shane Drew]

I’d definately be looking at a Grand Format Printer, not just a wide format one.

A guy I use here has a 5m wide Vutek. Not a bad result either. Does a lot of curtain sides for trucks. Banners that big are going to look best at a distance, so the result does not have to be photo quality.

You get what you pay for in the ‘Grand’ market tho. So, if image quality is the priority, you’ll need a pretty good bank balance. Remeber too, the image out is only as good as the image in, in the first place.

Sorry I can’t be more helpful.

[Robert Lambie]

Solvent:

Grenadier GFX

The new Grenadier GFX measures in with a maximum print width of a thumping great 2.6 metres. That’s considerably wider than any other printer in the sub-grand format class, and more than enough to print onto two 1270mm (50") wide rolls at the same time!

http://www.uniformdigital.com/grenadier_gfx.html

Eco-solvent:

Advance Jet™ AJ-1000

At 2.6 metres (104") wide the Advance Jet™ AJ-1000 is the ultimate eco-solvent inkjet printer for fast, high-volume production printing. In full production mode it achieves a maximum print speed of 90m2/h (968 sqft/hr)*and is capable of delivering superior image quality at 45m2/h (484 sqft/hr).

http://www.rolanddg.co.uk/public/portfo … aspx?id=28

Solvent again:

I have to be carefull on this one as i do not remember the actual model.
however, having spoken to les and joe at grafityp for some time at signuk
i was rather shocked at the running costs and speeds of one of their BIG printers on show. from memory it was 99p a metre sqaure i think x 3m wide… like i said, cant remember the exact figures and stuff but one to consider also… see link for details.

http://www.grafityp.co.uk/printers.htm

another option and one that maybe closer to you to deal with is Jeti by grand inovations.

Printer Specifications: Jeti® 3300 – 3.3 meter/10’ 9” wide
6 color 4 color
dpi 600 dpi 300
Best Mode 484 sft/hr 345sft/hr
Production Mode 645 sft/hr 485 sft/hr
spectra heads 12 spectra heads 12

i keep in contact with a couple of folk from there so if you have any bother getting assistance i can sort you with direct contact details.

http://www.uksignboards.com/viewtopic.php?t=13373
http://www.gandinnovations.com

best of luck mate… its a big bite to chew!

[Chris Dowd]

How about the Seiko 100s, we have the 64s and are well pleased with it!

http://www.colourgen.com/printers/seiko … r_100s.php

[Robert Lambie]

chris, i was going to mention the seiko too mate, but i heard…..
(please excuse me if i am wrong, this is just something i have heard a while back, then at signuk)
i heard that it has an Ink dump process, im guessing it is obviously fine as so many folk buy them, but wondering just how much would be dumped with one of these huge wide versions of the same model.

[Chris Dowd]

As you know Rob, we’ve been running a Seiko 64S for 4 months now, yes it dumps ink every so often, don’t ask me how much, all I can say is that in those 4 months we have only emptied the bottle once, and never had any real problems with it!

[Robert Lambie]

yep, i know you have mate. i actually have heard of a good few even from the boards with the same machine, no complaints i know of. but i have heard on occasion about ink dump, then at signuk, so it made me think while posting those links, just how much would one of these big versions of the machine dump, thats if it is actually "any" more. like i said, i know little about these machines but thought ide raise the question.

[Chris Dowd]

Just had a look at the spec sheet for the 100s and was surprised, it prints double sided banners with a unique take-up system that winds up the roll and feeds it back into the printer…… now that’s clever! 😀

[monty]

thanks for the advice, i know its a big job/decision but the potential client is Shell todd oil company, so only worried about produucing the best job possible, its a long way off just looking ast possibilities, other option is i could just order the printing from some big company maybe, and arrange for an engineering co to do the fitting, and me do the design etc and oversea it all, anyway thanks will keep you posted on how it goes.