Any NEW Roland Users?

[grafixemporium]

I'm thinking it's time to bring in a new printer. Mostly for vehicle wraps. We can keep the vp540 around for small jobs and cutting.

So, I was looking at the RE640. Anybody have any experience with this printer? I saw it in action at a tradeshow in Dallas a while back. It was ok. I'm not in love with the single print head. It would be a good addition to our shop. It prints a little faster than the VP540... but not really much.

Now theres the XR640. This is a bit up there in price... but at 500+ square feet per hour, it could be just what I need to get a few extra hours of sleep every night. We don't really need another plotter. I wish the XR640 came in a print only version. That would be perfect. The Light Black ink could finally be the end-all solution to everyone's biggest complaint with Rolands... printing greys.

Anybody see the XR640 in action at SGIA? Don't think there are any in Houston just yet. I'd love to take a look at one though.

I know some of you are gonna tell me to ditch Roland and go buy an HP latex. I say nahhh. Too much infrastructure would have to change. Electrical. Ventilation. Have to buy Onyx. Plus, I'm not a fan of 10+ minute setups. I'm sticking to what works for us for now.

Andrew

 

[WildWestDesigns]

-500sqft. - these are not real world numbers. If you're primarily printing wraps (or anything that requires a quality print) I wouldn't even pay attention to their "top speed" numbers. Our Soljet III (XC-540) is supposed to print 440sqft/hour....and I've never even come CLOSE to that. You may already know all this...but just in case you're counting on printing full rolls of wrap vinyl in an hour and a half, I thought I would mention it.

I can't help specifically about the printer, however, I do agree with the above. My embroidery machines can go 1200 spm flat out. However, most applications it's at 700 spm and in the case of hats, the machines force me to max out at 650 spm. Although I'm running hats now and I have it going at 500 spm due to small, thin lettering.

Those numbers are great, but not something that I would lend much weight to.

 

[ProColorGraphics]

If you were looking at the HP, the electrical shouldn't be that much. I don't have any special ventilation with mine, and my setup time MIGHT be 5 minutes. I hit print and go do something else, so I don't know exactly what it is. I had a VP540 still when my L25500 was installed and printed a test print off of each one. The HP using Caldera and the VP using VersaWorks. The quality, detail and greys from the HP blew away the Roland. Yes, both were setup to print at similar print qualities. I saved the test prints, so I will try to post some pics.

 

[KevSign]

Interesting.....

Is there any chance Caldera had anything to do with the better print quality?

Yes, We had project print on BigFish banner stand material last year for 300 banner stands 36". We made NuSign tech come and test on Caldera v8 between Onyx and our Wasatch. The Caldera quality and dot print very smooth.

 

[synergy_jim]

we have the XC540 and will be adding the XR640 soon. We can realistically print around 240sf per hour on the XC with great quality.

One thing that sets Roland apart from everyone else..... I have replaced 2 capping stations in 5 years on our Roland..... Hows that for reliability.....

Looks like the XR will print about the same SF per hour at the quality we need, but having the inline multi channel heads looks like banding will be eliminated. Not that we ever have much of a problem with banding on our XC....

 

[BALLPARK]

we have the XC540 and will be adding the XR640 soon. We can realistically print around 240sf per hour on the XC with great quality.

One thing that sets Roland apart from everyone else..... I have replaced 2 capping stations in 5 years on our Roland..... Hows that for reliability.....

Looks like the XR will print about the same SF per hour at the quality we need, but having the inline multi channel heads looks like banding will be eliminated. Not that we ever have much of a problem with banding on our XC....

Do you know when the XR-640's are shipped out to new customers?

 

[Andrew O]

Installations are taking place as we speak, and there are containers arriving from Japan weekly. The response to the product has been overwhelming, and we are sold out past the end of the year, but we're getting them out there as fast as we can.

 

[synergy_jim]

we are about 90 days out til we purchase our new machine. Gotta get the flatbed installed and running first.

 

[ProColorGraphics]

Interesting.....

Is there any chance Caldera had anything to do with the better print quality?

It could be. I was going to take any time setting up the Roland with Caldera as I was selling it. The initial print I did from Caldera didn't look good as I am sure none of the color settings were right. I just got a new i1 Pro2 and Caldera's EasyMedia Profile Creator to start making my own profiles, so hopefully I can fine tune it even more.

I will say though that after getting used to Caldera, I wouldn't want to switch back to VersaWorks.

Sorry, didn't mean to be a

 

[neil_se]

I've got both and I wouldn't even consider printing a wrap on the Roland when the HP offers so many advantages (better print quality, no degassing, easier installation, unattended printing, lower ink costs). I dismissed latex for years because it all seemed to hard, in reality it just makes everything so much easier. I actually only got it as a bonus when I bought my flatbed a few months ago, but it's so good I'll phase out my Rolands over the next year.

My 2c.

 

[BALLPARK]

Installations are taking place as we speak, and there are containers arriving from Japan weekly. The response to the product has been overwhelming, and we are sold out past the end of the year, but we're getting them out there as fast as we can.

Sweet...

I cannot pick up an XC-540 until the company I am buying it off gets their XR-640. They were told by the end of this month. I am hoping for an early delivery.

I love XC-540's...