Looking for feedback on RIP software

[UVPrinter]

Hi all, possibly changing RIP software. Right now using Onyx Thrive11 and Wasatch 7.0. Looking at EFI Fiery but do not know anybody using this RIP. Any feedback is appreciated. Running 5 latex, 2 solvents, and 4 aquious. Running Thrive and Wasatch seaperate on a UV flatbed also. Thank you for taking any time.

 

[Seeking Knowledge]

UV Printer,

I have used Wasatch and Onyx in older versions. I moved to Caldera about 3 years ago and am happy with the choice. Each of the before mentioned software packages had their ups as well as their downs as does Caldera. I have looked at many different RIP solutions and have never found one that is the magic bullet, one that does everything I need it to the way I expect it should. What I liked about Caldera was they offered drivers for all of the devices I was looking for. Profiling is relatively fast and RIP speeds are good, profiling using Fiery seems like a PIA, I have watched the process and it was time consuming. There are some nifty automation tools especially if you have a cutting table. Some of the settings should be lockable so an operator can't make changes willie nilly and really confuse an issue. All in all I would purchase the software again.

BTW what Latex printers do you have?

 

[UVPrinter]

We are running HP 60" and 104".

 

[Seeking Knowledge]

We have the LX850 and really do not like it. Color Shifts while printing, color doesn't match panel to panel on a tiled job, Vertical banding on certain colors, service is horrible, it will print lines across an image with no error and I'll say it again Vertical banding? What is that. Oh and it is just down right slow.

 

[UVPrinter]

We combat vertical banding with airflow and heater adjustments, and a lot of times it is bad media. We send back media and record batch numbers of what we load. Color shift is not a problem, we relinerize every Monday. L2600 and L2800 are what were running in latex.

 

[Seeking Knowledge]

Thanks for the reply, I have tried everything for the vertical banding and nothing helps, especially on Greens and Purples. In fact I contacted HP and got a letter stating that it is a known issue an there was no fix, but to try the same things you listed, heat and airflow settings, wish that was in the brochure. The color shift I was mentioning was when we printed 250 posters of 1 image on one roll of media. When the posters were trimmed and in a stack, I fanned through them and there was color drift throughout the run. Oh and I forget another issue, if someone is handling the prints and they touch it with a finger nail the ink scratches.

 

[UVPrinter]

One last adjustment for vertical banding is vacuum adjustment. We get some ink scratching on backlit material, but we hang our prints for awhile before any finish work is done to them. The color shift is no good, haven't run into that on a single job.