White ink printing for under $5000? Go Uno?

[ZeeBees]

Hi, I've been looking into white ink for transfer papers forever.
We do alot of customer heat transfers, but we outsource them for screen print transfers. the process takes time, and is starting to get to the point where customers are being lost.
I've looked into the roland, mimaki, and other brands of wide format printers that do white ink. but the price point of 20k is too high for consideration.
we do a wide variety of materials, not common in most t-shirt shops. we manufacture medical goods, and have in the recent years changed almost all of our materials to black.
We used to also do alot of dvd printing before our disk publisher broke. the ability to do hard surface items without resorting to pad printing would be a bonus.
we can usually get 20 to 40 heat transfers from an 8 1/2 X 11 print. outsourced at low volumes, dependent on color, can cost almost a dollar a transfer.
I see epson has some new tech with white solvent ink, but want to get a good ROI at a starting price under 5 grand.

Has anyone had experience with the GO UNO, OKI 920 WT?
would love to get a transfer printer that can do white ink low volume work for this price point.

 

[bean66]

Try looking at the Epson Stylus Pro WT7900. The Epson site has it starting at $6995.

 

[Stephen Marsh]

Really look into the consumable costs over life of the equipment when factoring in your ROI, it is not just about the initial hardware purchase price (which can be fast overtaken in consumables).

Will the white ink bond and be fast on the substrates that you wish to use? How prone is it to scratching and wear?

The Epson WT7900 is a niche product specifically designed for packaging proofing on specific substrates.


Stephen Marsh

 

[ZeeBees]

Thanks,
was thinking the epson might have a clogging issue because it comes with a cleaner cartridge, maybe not production ready for the purposes intended. more I look into it, I'm liking the OKI LED printers with white cartridge. 711 model has a very nice starting price, but replacement white sounds kind of high. I'm rounding up samples of each low cost printer capable of white ink.
LED is kind of new, but has advantages because we have so many different varieties of fabric/materials we transfer or pad print onto.

 

[Ed_]

White Toner

White Toner

Thanks,
was thinking the epson might have a clogging issue because it comes with a cleaner cartridge, maybe not production ready for the purposes intended. more I look into it, I'm liking the OKI LED printers with white cartridge. 711 model has a very nice starting price, but replacement white sounds kind of high. I'm rounding up samples of each low cost printer capable of white ink.
LED is kind of new, but has advantages because we have so many different varieties of fabric/materials we transfer or pad print onto.

When the epson WT7900 is shut down the white ink in the head is swopped out for the cleaning fluid so the white does not settle in the head.
I have had mediocre results with the opacity of the epson white on anything other than epson's media.

These laser printers are only 4 color machines so there is no black. CMY is used to make the black. I have seen small text printed on a clear label and the text was rather poor however I am not sure which machine it was printed on.

 

[ZeeBees]

thanks Ed, we do have a lesser need to print on clear UBL (on a roll though). will see if we can do a test sample on it.
I think I'm ok without black, we have an inkjet that does pretty ok white/light garment transfers.