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summa dc4sx: keep or sell?

bigben

Not a newbie
Hi folks!

I've bought a summa dc4sx for very cheep from a friend. I currently have an HP L26500 and a summa cutter. My main business is related with interior designing (mainly wall covering types). Now I'm struggling between keep it or sell it. I know there is some possibility's I would be able to do with the summa I can not do with the hp like printing white and special color like silver, gold, etc. But I also know that the consumables are very expensive.

So what ''cool products'' I could do with this I can't do with my hp?
Would I be able to combine like printing a picture with the hp and add gold/white details with the summa or vice-versa?

thanks for your ideas.

Ben
 

bigben

Not a newbie
no one? Maybe if I ask differently...

For the ones who have those printers, what you do with them? What kind of products do you make?
 

letterman7

New Member
While I don't have one, typically the shops that do sell lots of decals. Since the machine can print and cut in one fell swoop, it's sort of a no-brainer. It can also be used for printing just about anything else, of course, from posters to wraps, but like you said, the consumables can get pricey.
 

rjssigns

Active Member
Keep it. As bad as my first thermal printer was I wish I still had that capability. Best part is nothing will happen to it from sitting unused.
 

FrankW

New Member
Regularly, the DC4 is made for printing on vinyl only (some work well, other vinyls not). The consumables are more expensive than for inkjets, but the prints are much more resistant, and the white is more opaque than on e. g. Eco-Solvent-white. The machine not only print and cut, it could laminate at the same task too by using an additional "scratch guard"-ribbon (but mostly not needed because of a very good basic resistance). The bare prints are very resistant against chemical influence (e. g. alcohol) and scratches without lamination. The UV-resistance of the regular ribbons is up to 5 years (white 3 years, metallic and holographic for indoor use only and can't be used with scratch guard) unlaminated. An additional feature is the possibility of cutting and punching labels at the same time on separate contours.

The printer prints spot colors very well, the graphics have sharp edges and the colors are very powerful. In addition to more than twenty spot color ribbons, there is a possibility to mix two spot colors to generate hundreds of additional spot colors (DuoSpot). A lot of special effects are possible. As soon as needing halftones or print photos, the prints are not state of the art in comparison to inkjet because the DC4 prints with a rough AM-Screen. Printing with spot colors is strongly recommended too because it saves costs (Printing red for example can be done with a red ribbon or with yellow and magenta - double costs).

Because printing with spot colors need special preparation of the graphics, the DC4 is no real "no brainer". And there is a need to carefully manage the printer settings to minimize banding (the ribbons are around 9cm wide, for larger pictures one band will set after the other, no multiple passes are printed who could hide banding).

The DC4 is a real powerful printer for industrial labelling, and for any other kind of labels. And it is really low maintenance, because of it prints dry (no liquids in it), it don't need any care if not used for weeks or months (only protecting it from dust is needed). Most of the consumables are replacable by the users and are very cheap (Cleaning pads and such things), one of my customers (I sell that units) have printed until now around 10'000 square meters in 4 years with the first head and no other maintenance than what he himself could do. He mainly prints labels of one or two colours, very often for example white text on olive green vinyl for military use. The printer is very environment friendly (refill-ribbon-cartridges, no smell, no VOC's). The printhead itself is not as cheap as the HP's printheads (I don't know the US-prices), and some experience is needed to set it up, but it lasts very long.

BUT: the machine is very special, data preparation and printing is 95% different in comparison to inkjets. If you don't have someone who knows that machines and do an instruction to you, you have a real chance that this unit drives you into a heart attack. My company sells HP and Summa, and we will NOT deliver any DC4 to customers without an instruction. The same applies to users of early roland thermal printers, they have perhaps more basics, but can't handle the machine too right out of the box.

For someone like you who do mainly wall decals the machine will not fit your needs. If you like to make labels, and you haven't paid much money, it could be worth to try.
 
FrankW gave a very good explanation of it's capabilities. Just keep in mind that , as you said, the consumables are very expensive. One ribbon (according to Summa) will print 369 square feet, 100% coverage (White spot a bit less) and run from $159 to $249 ($349 for the Rose Holographic) + shipping. So you're looking $.47 (process) to $.68 (spot) per square foot per color JUST for the resin. So a CMYK image will cost you almost $2 per square foot + vinyl + lam. And it is INCREDIBLY hard to get a CMYK image to print with no pass lines (banding). We also have an L26500 and a full size DC4 and I avoid printing on the Summa as much as possible. It's SLOW and it's EXPENSIVE.

But it does have a large selection of spot colors and some pretty cool ones so it does do small decals (smaller than 3.93 inches) very well.

Another thing to remember with it is the fact that if you print something and it has a .01mm size dot of a certain color then it will use that ribbon for the entire width of the material to print that .01mm dot (does that make sense?).

*Edit: And the Scratchguard ribbon is for flat surfaces only. The second you stretch it at all it will start to crack and flake off. Don't even think about using it for wraps (we made this mistake).
 
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