what is the difference between the VP & SP plotters?

[Richard Urquhart]

I have the SP the SP also looks after its self, the VP has 4 head and not 2 like the sp, its fasted yes but depending on how many meters you print wont really make any difference. My printer some days runs all day and other like today has only been used for 2 hours or so, really depends on your work load. As for print quality difference there in none. The VP looks nicer but even now after having an SP I could not warrant the price. People on here say its old technology well it may be but we don’t all change to the latest computer as soon as its out in the shops !!!!!!!!

[Brenton West]

Thanks Richard,that’s sort of the comment that I wanted to hear. Anyone else want to add their bit?
Presumably 2 heads are cheaper if something goes wrong?

[Gary Birch]

As Rich has already said really. We have had the SP almost 3 years now and are chuffed to bits with it.

Had it serviced twice in that time and apart from a hitch with the pc that runs it it hasn’t missed a beat.( 🙄 I know I will pay for that comment and it’ll break down today)

We just clean the heads and wipers once a week and change the wipers every 3 months.

Hope that this helps.

Cheers

Gary

[Mike Fear]

I think there was also a difference in the pumps on the VP ???, but the ones on my SP were upgraded to the newer ones when it was serviced.

As others have said – the only real benefit seems to be the print speed.

But…. the SP/VP is really designed as a print and cut machine, so unless you either print huge runs of small stickers, or very large jobs that need cutting, then I don’t think the VP is really worth the extra.

For large ‘just print’ jobs there are plenty of dedicated printers for this, and you would probably be better off getting one of them, plus an SP for the ones that need cutting.

I think as long as you take out the maintenance contract with Roland, there is nothing at all wrong with an SP – it isn’t really yesterdays technology compared to a VP as the VP uses exactly the same basic print and cut technology, it just has the extra two heads to print a bit quicker.

My machine is used the same as Rich’s – probably 5 odd days a week, sometimes all day, sometimes just an odd half hour here and there finishing off small things.

I also looked at a VP as my SP has gone through the books now, but decided that it wasnt really worth investing the money in the VP just for the sake of it.

[Brenton West]

Brilliant .Thanks guys.

[Jesper Norbøll]

Apart from the look and the speed between the SP and the VP, the VP also supports Roland’s Intelligent Pass. That is the thing that they have copied from Mutoh, that calls their Intelligent weaving.

It minimizes the risk of banding and as far as I know, there is no firmware-update to the SP that makes this possible.

Best regards
/Jesper