Thoughts on the new Epson SureColor printers??

[TSG]

We are looking in to something new for our shop...The most important thing i am looking to do is speed up our printing. Right now we are running the Sp540v. I am able to print at about 144sqft/hr. now (360x720) with good results, but looking get faster with better results. What are anyone's thoughts about what they've seen in the new Epsons?

Would really like to print unattended without worry as well.

 

[CS-SignSupply-TT]

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[Matt-Tastic]

The new epson is a beast. the S30 is more than 3x faster at a higher resolution (720x720) for the quality you're quoting, and still faster at 720x1440. the S50 nearly doubles that. It's also ridiculously good color gamut for a CMYK only printer.

I'm not going to sugarcoat it, there have been some issues. most have been resolved, but Epson is good on their word to fix issues. Some are gun shy after the issues with the GS and print life, which is to be expected. The heavier feed and TUR are nice, and for most printing, the automated feed advance and alignments are more than acceptable. they have manual overrides for both, if you're picky on being exact.

I think the main issue is some people have had issues with the drivers not doing right from the RIP. I don't have specifics, but it seems most things I've heard relate to RIP issues.

 

[TSG]

That's some great info...Thanks Matt. The rip issues...Would they be able to be resolved by just running a different rip?? 720x720 at 3 times the speed...I like the sound of that.

 

[Matt-Tastic]

the 720x720 3 pass is great for banners, and above 300sf/hr i believe. the 720x720 4 pass is 215 (according to the paperwork) and 720x1440 8pass is over 100 i think.

So my numbers were a bit over, but these are a bit more in line. The only RIP I've seen it with is ONYX. I haven't had any problems with the printer personally, so it may just be a hardware/software thing with ONYX and the computer it's on.

 

[TSG]

Going back and fourth between the three S models...I'm wondering a bit about the difference in operating costs...I called Epson and their sales guy new less than i did...Any idea how much different the S50 would be from the S70 in printing costs...The S70 using 8 colors vs 4. But the S50 uses 8 cartridges...(two of each cmyk)

 

[PrintItBig]

We've been looking at these along with the HP latex machines.

We could find very little end user data on them and what we did find wasn't all positive.

One company local to us has one (one of the first machines in the country) and they're now on their 3rd print head. These were replaced under warranty but still sends alarm bells ringing.

They were also complaining about materials particularly PVC banner raising up in the centre causing the head to slightly scuff the print. From talking to them, I just didn't get the impression they were confident in the machine especially leaving it printing unattended.

Also these machines are what, 6 months old? As mentioned above, the inks from the previous Epson machines had problems with premature fading. At the time of release, Epson rated those inks at 3 years as well. Are the new inks going to last 3 years? What happens if they fade in 18 months again? Is Epson just going to change their minds to 18 months like they did with the last ink?

Anyway, it was enough to put us off, at least temporarily until we can get some more end user opinions.

 

[TSG]

Yeah...I didn't realize how new these were...There isn't alot of info out there from end users like you say...I'm not sure if they are even shipping the S50, or S70's yet. But a dealer in town here (near Minneapolis) has an S30 on the floor that they claim is an excellent machine. So i will be taking a drive down to check it out...But i think you have the right idea not to jump in right away!

Will be glad to post my thoughts an opinions on the S30 when i see it.

 

[F1225hgB42w]

Our Epson Experience

Here is my experiences with the SC printers. We have a demo S30 at one of our local dealers and it's printing is AMAZING for a 4 color printer.

After doing a demo on the s30, we purchased 2 of the S70s for deliver next month as soon as they are shipping - both will have the extra heavy TUR and the built in dryer to ensure the prints are dry. We also purchased the silver and white inks. We will be replacing three GS6000s with the two new S70s.

We've been printing 3M and Avery PSV for the past four years wit the GS6000s - got our first unit in Sept. 08. We've never seen fading issues with any of the inks (indoor or outdoor) - but we are in Seattle, WA where there isn't much intense UV light.

I've talked with the PM for the GS6000s and now the SC's at Epson and I was told that they did have to decrease the life time of the warranty for the Yellow inks on the 6000s because it was only about 18 months outdoors but the new SC yellow will be about twice that at 3 years give or take - still not the industry standard practice of a 5 year ink, but all the other inks should be at 5 years. One real bummer is that I've been told the life for the white and silver inks is only 6 months...

Seems they have had some issues in troubleshooting the mechanics behind the printers since they are making these printers rather than buying printer bodies from other printer manufacturers. I've been told they have done several retrofits and improvements to the S50s and S70s that came from the testing and initial release of the S30s.

Once we have our printers installed and running I'll take some print samples and photograph them along with do some color gamut testing. We use a G7 workflow and have all our printers certified. I'm planning on using the EFI FX RIP with the S70s instead of the Onyx RIP that comes with the S70s. Also, we have been sent some free backlit films from Epson to test them with the ne S70s and I'll also report on that product on a new thread.

Once I have more information I'll report back.

Disclaimer - we are a big Epson printing house - right now we have 10 Epson Printers running full time (8 -16 hrs a day) 5 days a week. We like Epson and may be biased!

 

[TSG]

From what I can tell, these machines seem like they have been thought out well...I'm excited to hear more on them as they work their way in to some shops.

When your talking about the print life, your talking un-laminated correct? We pretty much laminate everything, so I'm not sure there are too many worries about that.

Also...From what I understand, (heard this the other day, and correct me if i am wrong) Epson is making all the print heads that go in to Roland printers...So why isn't Epson using some of Roland's ink technology? Just kinda wonder why a company such as Epson would have an issue with ink?

 

[ironchef]

Our Epson Experience

Here is my experiences with the SC printers. We have a demo S30 at one of our local dealers and it's printing is AMAZING for a 4 color printer.

After doing a demo on the s30, we purchased 2 of the S70s for deliver next month as soon as they are shipping - both will have the extra heavy TUR and the built in dryer to ensure the prints are dry. We also purchased the silver and white inks. We will be replacing three GS6000s with the two new S70s.

We've been printing 3M and Avery PSV for the past four years wit the GS6000s - got our first unit in Sept. 08. We've never seen fading issues with any of the inks (indoor or outdoor) - but we are in Seattle, WA where there isn't much intense UV light.

I've talked with the PM for the GS6000s and now the SC's at Epson and I was told that they did have to decrease the life time of the warranty for the Yellow inks on the 6000s because it was only about 18 months outdoors but the new SC yellow will be about twice that at 3 years give or take - still not the industry standard practice of a 5 year ink, but all the other inks should be at 5 years. One real bummer is that I've been told the life for the white and silver inks is only 6 months...

Seems they have had some issues in troubleshooting the mechanics behind the printers since they are making these printers rather than buying printer bodies from other printer manufacturers. I've been told they have done several retrofits and improvements to the S50s and S70s that came from the testing and initial release of the S30s.

Once we have our printers installed and running I'll take some print samples and photograph them along with do some color gamut testing. We use a G7 workflow and have all our printers certified. I'm planning on using the EFI FX RIP with the S70s instead of the Onyx RIP that comes with the S70s. Also, we have been sent some free backlit films from Epson to test them with the ne S70s and I'll also report on that product on a new thread.

Once I have more information I'll report back.

Disclaimer - we are a big Epson printing house - right now we have 10 Epson Printers running full time (8 -16 hrs a day) 5 days a week. We like Epson and may be biased!

Hello, what's wrong with the rip that comes with the epson? Why is the one you use better?

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