VS-640 Reliability and experiences….

[Shane Drew]

Yes Ian, I have two (and considering a 3rd). The 6 colour and the 8 colour.

They are basically maintenance free, BUT, you must keep them serviced at 6 monthly intervals. The heads are expensive but I have a service contract and the maintenance is carried out automatically.

Only problems I have is doing banners. The pinch rollers tend to pucker the material if you leave it to pull off the full roll.

I unroll it so it is loose, but it screws up the print length somewhat. I’m told I have to leave the banner tight on the roll, but the heads strikes caused by the pucker drives me nuts.

I could overcome the length issues if I calculate the difference, but I don’t usually worry. Its usually close, and I don’t do a lot of sail track work so its never been an issue.

Aside from that, no problems really. Mine often run 20 hours straight. The tracking is perfect if you get the rolls straight from the start. The colours are consistent, and if you use the Roland Colours, the results are stunning.

White prints slow at .5 metre per hour, and it is great on glass, but its fairly translucent on dark colours. You can do a layered print which is better, but it is also slower again.

I do a lot of window stickers, and it is perfect for that.

Versaworks is easy to use, but still a bit ‘buggy’. The upgrades are free forever, and every upgrade so far has been an improvement. The bugs are fewer than they were, but the system can hang if you overload the print que.

Apart from a warranty claim on the one machine that stripped a plastic gear, they run fine and I’m more than happy with the finished results. Photographic work is a breaze.

Hope that helps.

Cheers
Shane

[Chris Wool]

have a VS540 wht met love it to bits but i have a sc540 for doing big prints and banners so not had Shane’s problem.

my main problem is photographic printing the profiles are not to my liking at all very poor IMO. so shane what do you use please as i know you are a photo man as well.

biggest problem is with white and metallic you need to do the prints in batches within a 8 hour period else after 8 hours it does a full clean on those colours can get expensive if you only print wht met for a small run once a day

[Ian B]

Shane thanks for that! i knew signing up here was a good idea.

Chris, RE: the cleaning issue…. if you use the printer to do a job does it count down 8 hours from then, then do a clean? so if you use it multiple times in a day it wont do the circulating and cleaning actions with the white and metallic therefore wasting less ink??

Ian

[Chris Wool]

had a long sort out with roland over ink cleaning usage.
when you used a mt profile it dumps a head full of wt mt ink then the 8 hours cycle begines after 8 hours if you dont use the wt mt it only does light cleaning and recirculating. until you use a mt profile again.
whenI first got it I was printing a little wt mt most days to keep it happy and asked why I was using so much ink. but it took some time to get the full answer.

[Shane Drew]

yeah Chris, the white/metallic thing was a worry to me at first. I usually go 3 months before needing the white or metallic inks replenished. I rarely print metallic, but do a fair bit of white. knowing what I know now, I would buy two of the wh/mt machines as the expense is nothing like they warned me when I bought it. I do all my white prints on the same run too, saving the files up until I have a few at a time.

I had my machines calibrated to the 3M materials I use so that may have been the answer, but, the wh/mt unit doesn’t print as good photographic prints as the other non metallic machine.

Not really sure why that is, but they also run slightly different colours even if I print identical files with identical profiles. The techs have the colours close, but if you compare them side by side, I can see a difference. Perhaps I’m being anal, I’ve not had a complaint yet so it may just be me.