Tattoosleeve
New Member
Hey all.
We've been looking at adding an FB550 to our shop. In recent discussions with our main technician he's really not a fan of the current generation of FB models and suggested that we look at the previous generation FB500 for higher print quality. I wonder how much of this is his bias as a technician and not looking at the machine for what it's general use would be (short term signage that doesn't necessarily need to wow the viewer as much as it needs to serve a function and have a quick and cheap workflow to produce.)
The other day a Konica rep walked through our door with information and print samples on the new AccurioWide hybrids. The surprising part about this is we are an 8hr drive away from any major center with technicians or vendors (we have to fly people in when required). We rarely see any reps in person (other than ND Graphics, who send someone up every 3-6 months). He was accompanied by two local Konica sales and service reps. When I asked about servicing the machine he said the local techs here who focus on Konica's office format printers in town would be able to service the machine for us locally. Which is a huge selling point if I was confident that the tech would be competent.
In doing more research I'm seeing people saying the FB550's are old technology as far as heads go and it seems lots of flatbed operators are happy with the KM1024I heads which are in this machine.
Questions:
I assume a printer tech who had gone through the proper training would adequately be able to service the machine even if he's used to working on smaller equipment or am I naive and they are completely different beasts and flying a tech in who works on wide and grand format normally would be a much better option than a recently trained local tech?
The sample prints the sales rep brought it looked great as far as print quality goes. These were of course run on the high pass options I'm sure. What sort of real time production times and quality are people achieving in a real world environment.
Is the extra $100,000 for the AccurioWide justifiable? Is it actually twice the machine as the FB550? At that price am I better off just looking at a true flatbed setup and running my roll to roll on our recently purchased S60600, note that we could also purchase the HP Latex for $30,000 to supplement the S60 workload if required.
Thanks in advance
We've been looking at adding an FB550 to our shop. In recent discussions with our main technician he's really not a fan of the current generation of FB models and suggested that we look at the previous generation FB500 for higher print quality. I wonder how much of this is his bias as a technician and not looking at the machine for what it's general use would be (short term signage that doesn't necessarily need to wow the viewer as much as it needs to serve a function and have a quick and cheap workflow to produce.)
The other day a Konica rep walked through our door with information and print samples on the new AccurioWide hybrids. The surprising part about this is we are an 8hr drive away from any major center with technicians or vendors (we have to fly people in when required). We rarely see any reps in person (other than ND Graphics, who send someone up every 3-6 months). He was accompanied by two local Konica sales and service reps. When I asked about servicing the machine he said the local techs here who focus on Konica's office format printers in town would be able to service the machine for us locally. Which is a huge selling point if I was confident that the tech would be competent.
In doing more research I'm seeing people saying the FB550's are old technology as far as heads go and it seems lots of flatbed operators are happy with the KM1024I heads which are in this machine.
Questions:
I assume a printer tech who had gone through the proper training would adequately be able to service the machine even if he's used to working on smaller equipment or am I naive and they are completely different beasts and flying a tech in who works on wide and grand format normally would be a much better option than a recently trained local tech?
The sample prints the sales rep brought it looked great as far as print quality goes. These were of course run on the high pass options I'm sure. What sort of real time production times and quality are people achieving in a real world environment.
Is the extra $100,000 for the AccurioWide justifiable? Is it actually twice the machine as the FB550? At that price am I better off just looking at a true flatbed setup and running my roll to roll on our recently purchased S60600, note that we could also purchase the HP Latex for $30,000 to supplement the S60 workload if required.
Thanks in advance
