Flatbed Printer

[Scardinoz]

Hey everyone,

I'm looking around at flatbed UV printers and wondering if you guys have any valuable input.

Essentially all I'm going to be doing with this printer(s) is running 60"x80" cardboard sheets through it and I'm expecting to kick out 4,000 sheets per month. It also needs to be able to hit at least 600x600 dpi. Although price isn't my main consideration, obviously I want to get the best printer for my money.

Any suggestions?

 

[jbeniston]

Check out HP

 

[PDL]

Are you looking only to print on these sheets, or do you need to cut and/or score them as well?

 

[Scardinoz]

Just print.

 

[beermonster]

fuji have the turbo and turbo plus - they'd do what you want, and a couple of other good machines too

viewtek, dhurst, all good machines - all capable of what you need.
decide on either variable droplet size or one size - i really really reccommend you make sure there is good tech support in your immediate area too - check lamp prices, anti static measures - very important depending on your substrate, maximum material thickness, ink types, ink life, pricing etc etc

uv inkjet is a huge arena, with flatbeds, hybrids, dedicated machines, cold cure technology, many inks, rips and machines

for some damm good advice look here:

How will Durst Rho, Sericol Inca, and Oce Arizona 350GT flatbed UV cured ink printers survive invasion of low-price Jetrix, DGI, Dilli, SkyJet Chinese, Korean, and Japanese UV curable ink printers?

i've had the pleasure of exchanging emails with Nicolas Helmuth - a very pleasant man and extremely knowledgeable - good luck

 

[sceptical munro]

hi i will give you 3 important things to consider 1. check what make of heads come with the machine an how much to replace them ? 2. what support is available for the machine an speak to some of their existing customers about the support 3. speed of printing an ink price

 

[frankiekoh]

I am UV Hybrid user ,solvent, mild solvent , Dye base and even electrostatic, the very important point is the ink cost and printhead realiabity and the most last and most important of all the after sales service. UV ink had self life very short.

Base on my exprienced of using inkjet printer for the pass 17years. I known the printhead that are reliable are Spectra Dimatrix are robust but the head are not cheap. The printhead can be recover from nozzle cloging by using ultrasonic cleaning machine other printhead might fail if using ultrasonic cleaning machine and cause serious damaged. I had friend who are using Spectra Dimatrix for years before it writeoff the head with nozzle electronic are weak not fail. Fix the maintenance cost during procument with number printhead included in the contract after warranty , for number of year you want operate the machine before write off. Inkjet machine parts and maintenance cost are getting high after one year. Is the machine are slow but cheap you can put more machine concurrently print the images it still cheaper to maintain and had more backup machine.

I am facing some issue with Oce Arizona 250GT printhead reliability that using Toshiba TEC printhead. when I brought the printer Oce always hide from me the printhead manufacturer. Currently i am found out Toshiba is sell the most printhead in the world with billion turnover from the serial number that running and the price I am paying. I am already changing more than 8printhead less than year. I am 17years even never hear before Toshiba produce printhead. Never see Toshiba participate in all big exhibtions in the world like Drupa, Fespa, and etc. I write to Toshiba they dont even entertainet the inquiry at all.


Wish you the best make the right choice of selection of printer.

 

[Damo007]

We run a Vutek QS2000, about 3 years old now, still running the original heads. We got 3 spare heads supplied with the machine, replacement head are about 7k (AUD). They also supply a wash station with the printer to clean blocked heads. We pay approx $200 /liter for ink (again thats AUD). An easy to operate and maintain machine.

Edit: The heads used in the QS series are seiko.

 

[DJButler]

A few details about Océ

A few details about Océ

Hi - Here is a little more info on the Océ Arizona 350GT - Hope it's helpful.

Kind regards,

D Butler

 

[jrt]

4000 60"x80" sheets a month is a lot for a UV flabed. Unless you spend a lot of money you will have to run 2 shifts. Make sure you have an attentive operator and get good operator training from the printer manufacturer.

Also, cardboard will absorb moisture quickly, making it bow. A printer with a belt feed, like a Vutek, can't keep a bowed sheet of cardboard flat and if the sheet is the slightest bit uneven you will get head strikes. You can recover from headstrikes but the life of the head is dimissed each time you have a strike.

The best machine for cardboard is one that has a complete bed with a vaccuum system that can hold the cardboard flat. Agfa make some and I think the Oce is a bed as well, and maybe HP/Scitex. Inca if you have the budget.

 

[postnetnc133]

What about Mimaki's hybrid eco-solvent printer, anyone know anything about it? I know Oce is incredible but it is also 3-4+ times the price.

 

[Steve Werner]

HP makes some nice machines as does Inca. The main machines I see running in the marketplace for high production are the Inca's and the Vutek's although HP is coming on quickly. The issues you will probably have with the Fuji, Vutek, or any of the mid level machines is the speed. If they are kicking out 16 sheets an hour your looking at running 200 hours a month ( +/- a few hours ) to produce what you're looking to accomplish. I would recommend looking at something like the Inca or the HP if price is of little concern because their higher end machines would also give you flexibility to produce other jobs rather than tying up the one machine because of it's slow speed.

 

[frankiekoh]

Please check it at Gateway to over 87 FLAAR reports by Nicholas Hellmuth on wide format inkjet printers, inkjet media, RIPs, scanners, professional and pro-sumer digital cameras and digital studio photography. a lot good information and reports for you to make best buy machine with pricing indication and comparison. Do make costly mistake like I do, check it first. the reports is worth the money. This independant body who do reserach of printers

 

[indy jones]

We are currently look at Fuji Acuity, Oce 550 and Screen Flatbed. We are demoing the rips that each manufacture recommends for each printer. We supplied them with material and a file of our test charts to print on each printer. We also told them to use Gracol 7 icc profile as an input profile for color management on each rip. We will evaluate each print out visually and to Gracol 7 data set .

 

[Steve Werner]

Have heard good things about the FLAAR reports also.