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Printer upgrade from sp300v to RF640 advice
Hi all
At the moment i have a SP300V which has served me very well but i am looking at buying a VersaExpress RF640 and was hoping someone who had experience with the machine could either recommend it or point me in the direction of something that would suit me better,
I run a general sign shop that caters for every type of job with a fast turnaround,any help or guidance would be very much appreciated,
Paul
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10 Replies
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Hi. I have 2 RF640’s they are good workhorses, although I can only compare against the Roland VSi540 which isnt really the right machine for some of the volume work that I do. Ive had my first RF about 6 months it works about 10-12 hours a day 7 days a week, no real issues with it. The second machine just over a week. I am aware that Roland are moving to a different print head and ink formulation apparently, but I know exactly what I’m getting with the RF machines.
I dont really think you can get much for the same £1000 per production meter per hour than these. I like mine.
Good luck
Steff -
On the note of the new inks we have a Roland Vs 540 with the new eco sol max 3 and have had nothing but problems with print quality. We’ve had one print come off that is as it is ment to be, only for us to put the same file down and it’s back to the same fuzzy/pixilated print 🙁 we’ve spoken to a lot of engineers/media companies in the last week and it seems to be a problem, Roland on the other hand claim there is no problem.
We were offered to convert when getting the machine and should of maybe waited a little so these teething problems could be sorted. It now looks like we are converting back to eco sol. That said the RF models might run fine with it.
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Thank you for the replies guys
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The RF640 is a great machine. Very simple, which makes it reliable. Don’t forget you’ll lose your cutting facility though. You still better off adding a separate cutting plotter if you have some cutting to do.
We sold and look after a lot of RF640’s and to be honest good job we are not expecting to make money on maintenance because they don’t go wrong. :smiles:
It’s Roland equivalent of the Mimaki JV150, same head and pretty much same performance. The Mimaki is a couple of grands dearer and has a poor take up unit. The take up unit on the RF is the orginal Roland design, which is £1800 brand new as an option! so having it included with the RF640 makes it a bargain.
When you get it, just make sure it’s installed with the Eco Sol Max 2 configuration and not the 3. -
Sorry to hijack this thread but if you’re looking to offload the sp300v then just give me a shout! I’d potentially be interested…
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Loic, thank you for the info, I have actually bought a RS-640 instead, collecting tomorrow and very excited about the upgrade.
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Hi Peter not sure if we are selling the sp300v as it has been so reliable but I will let you know if we are.
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You’ll not go wrong with the RS, we had one until upgrading. Probably a little slow compared to newer machines but they’re solid machines.
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Correct the RS640 is a good machine, just the RF640 predecessor. You won’t get the speed but it’s still a good work horse. It will also be a lot cheaper for maintenance and the parts are easily available.
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IIRC the RS has 4 print heads, while the RF has one.
Whilst it doesn’t make much difference day to day, our black head went a bit dodgy on the RS, and it was swapped with the yellow head (harder to notice the fault in yellow), saving a new head.
Not sure what the costs are replacing a single head on the RS to the entire head on the RF? Not that you should be replacing heads for sometime!
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