Roland Wide Format Printers

[mandim16]

Me and my friends work with the community for charity and fundraising events so are keen to get a wide format printer that can print banners etc. We've put aside a healthy budget but only want to spend the money if its going to prove a worthwhile investment. We've been looking at the used market as we'd then get a bit more bang for our buck presumably. We've seen some HP's around the $1,000 dollar mark second hand but we've also been recommended to look at used Roland solvent printers as they are meant to be very good for creating banners specifically. The ones we've seen have been around 4x the price of the HP's for a similar used condition but they seem to have a lot more functions and built-in cutters. Does anyone have any knowledge on Roland products and whether they are worth spending the money on? Thanks.

 

[arossetti]

I'm guessing that the HP's are aqueous printers and the Roland's that you are comparing them to are solvent printers. Two different things... will these be going outside?

I would not buy a used inkjet unless it came from a dealer since an idle inkjet printer is a costly thing to correct, liquid ink quickly becomes a dried up solid clogging all your heads. What is your budget for repairs per year? Are you prepared to replace a head or scan motor?

 

[[email protected]]

I'd check out Canon and Epson too for wide format. I second the question of are the banners going to be exposed to the elements. You don't want the substrate or the inks to fade or wash away if going to be outside.

 

[EZPower]

After looking into the price of the machines, maintenance, cost of running, occasional print one throw one, and the number of other printers fighting for volume on the wide format, just have it done some where else. Slap a healthy mark up, 35-50 percent, and call it a day. Pure profit. No headaches.

 

[mandim16]

The banners would be exposed to the elements yes in some circumstances. Which kind of wide format printer would I need if the banners are going to be exposed to the elements? I'm guessing that I may be looking at a completely different style of printer all together. Stupidly I hadn't really thought about the kind of material and print method needed to make sure that the banners stay intact. So whatever I buy, its going to have to accept that vinyl material rather than just paper and the ink type needs to be the kind that's permanent and doesn't run. I'll have another look at outdoor banner vinyl printers and see what comes up. Will check out Canon and Epson as suggested.

 

[gregbatch]

I would use a trade service like B2Sign. At .89 sq.ft. for 13oz. banners, why invest in equipment? We keep some banner material for rush jobs, otherwise we job it out and mark it up 4X.

 

[[email protected]]

The banners would be exposed to the elements yes in some circumstances. Which kind of wide format printer would I need if the banners are going to be exposed to the elements? I'm guessing that I may be looking at a completely different style of printer all together. Stupidly I hadn't really thought about the kind of material and print method needed to make sure that the banners stay intact. So whatever I buy, its going to have to accept that vinyl material rather than just paper and the ink type needs to be the kind that's permanent and doesn't run. I'll have another look at outdoor banner vinyl printers and see what comes up. Will check out Canon and Epson as suggested.

You'll probably need a UV ink to print on vynil or plastic. I think Epson has UV ink.

 

[David Milisock]

I would use a trade service like B2Sign. At .89 sq.ft. for 13oz. banners, why invest in equipment? We keep some banner material for rush jobs, otherwise we job it out and mark it up 4X.

​Makes money, makes sense! We went that way a couple years ago.

 

[slush11]

UV ink printers are the way to go. If you are deadset on printing these yourself (factor in the cost of someone who knows how to operate one too), go with UV. Solvent printers like Roland can work for you, but then you need to also buy a wide format laminator to protect the ink from elements. UV inks do not require lamination. Typically what I've seen in the industry (and what I've worked) for banners using a Roland printer, we would print the graphic to a vinyl adhesive such as IJ35, wait the required 24 hours for it to off-gas, laminate it, then apply it to the banner material via the laminator. Another way to do it (more suited to text-only banners) is to buy a vinyl cutter and some colored vinyl. Not just any scrapbooking vinyl cutter would do. You need an industrial one that is roll-fed. Then you cut all the letters out on the colored vinyl, weed it, mask it via a laminator or by hand if you're good at it, then apply that to the banner.
With UV ink printers, you don't have to do any of that. You just print on the banner and it's ready to go.
Another thing to consider is hemming and grommeting and cutting wind slits (if these are meant to be bridge banners and the like. Check with your city to get their guidelines). You can buy 1" banner tape which is a heavy duty double sided tape from any vendor that sells banner and vinyl media. Grommets and a grommeter can also be purchased thru them. Or you can send it out to be sewn and grommeted at a place that specializes in that. I prefer to do the hem taping and grommeting myself but some folks would rather farm it out.

 

[slush11]

All of that said, I do believe (sorry it's been a couple years since I worked with a Roland) that you can purchase banner material that you can print directly to on the Roland. But you still need to be off-gassing it and laminating it if its going outdoors.

 

[gregbatch]

Slush11: things have changed in a short time. The EcoSolv inks are low VOC and last a very long time for most applications. I use an aqueous material for our super rush jobs on our Epson SureColor T-7200 series. I printed a test banner that has been out in the elements for months. The ink still looks good, though the banner is quite wind battered. We are in a very high wind area. The banner has outlasted 3 grill covers. Solvent inks should far outlast aqueous inks.

David: It works great for us. If we don't have banner jobs we have no cost and no worries. When we have banner jobs we can handle unlimited volumes and sizes.

 

[arossetti]

Roland EcoSolv has a 2 year outdoor life without overlamination.