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Any UV Flatbed printer suggestions?

R

RichardAdvertising

New Member
I am looking into getting a UV flat bed printer and any suggestions would be great. I need to able to print at least a 4x8 sheet of corrugated plastic, larger would be even better.

Thanks!!
p.s. I am new to this site.
 
oldgoatroper

oldgoatroper

Roper of Goats. Old ones.
Just a bit south of you there's a little company called Gerber havin' a fire sale on some UV flatbeds....


:smile:

Just kidding...

Welcome to this place.
 
artbot

artbot

New Member
there are some expert flatbed guys on this site. after asking myself this very question the final consensus seems to be. used/cheap vutek 200/600. new medium use/high res hp fb. overal customer satisfaction cet. there are far more lemons out there than dependable machines so i'd stay away from salespeople and stick with the message boards on this one.
 
particleman

particleman

New Member
Just a heads up...this question gets asked about once a month it seems. So give the search a try or browse back through the flatbed forum for some good info. Artbot summed it up pretty well though
 
artbot

artbot

New Member
bring 10 x 12 substrates with you! don't let any booth dictate what that machine can do. for all you know the coro or whatever they are printing on has four coats of adhesion promoter sprayed on it.

get there early and head straight to the CET booth. that was the busiest flatbed booth at the show. they will talk to you forever if you need. when you get a look at the guts of the machine, the first thing you will think is "i can work on this thing". there are sensors and chips recognition all over it.
 
HulkSmash

HulkSmash

New Member
bigben said:
Can you tell us why you will go with a CET over a HP fb series? I'm learning about thoses flatbed.
Click to expand...


CET is faster, and has better quality output. It's also a true flatbed. Where HP is a hybrid. The only advantage of the HP over the CET is banner printing... but most don't buy a flatbed for banners....

CET has better pricing, and i like how close the business is to all their customers...It also seems more user friends when it comes to maintenance... which is really important
 
Letterbox Mike

Letterbox Mike

New Member
Coloradosigns said:
CET is faster, and has better quality output. It's also a true flatbed. Where HP is a hybrid. The only advantage of the HP over the CET is banner printing... but most don't buy a flatbed for banners....

CET has better pricing, and i like how close the business is to all their customers...It also seems more user friends when it comes to maintenance... which is really important
Click to expand...

This is why we chose the CET as well. Except we're actually going with the hybrid because we want to move banner and wallpaper production over to it and away from our solvent printers. Plus what Artbot said about end-user service. CET actually tells you they recommend you learn to service it yourself and it's built in a way that allows for that easily.

We also like that it's field upgradeable, we went with 4-colors plus white but at any time we can add additional spot color or varnish channels, or upgrade to dual CMYK to double the already fast output speed.

All in all, the CET is a LOT of printer for the money, much more so than anything else in it's price range.
 
Grizzly

Grizzly

It’s all about your print!
AGFA Jeti Line 1224 HDC

I currently have 2 of the Jeti Printers. Rock Solid Machines. My 1224 HDC prints production speed all day a little over 500 sq/ft per hour at 480x1200 dpi. My older Jeti I've had for over 5 years and it still runs on a weekly basis. Let me know if you want any more info on the Jeti line!
 
National Sign Co. - Print

National Sign Co. - Print

Merchant Member
buy more than you need. you are gonna need more than you bought!
the truth on flatbed purchases..

no matter what brand or throughput do yourself a favor and drop the extra dime based on growth. you will be bummed if you do not and stuck with an inferior machine wishing you bought more...

been there done that ... trust me!,!

jeti is good machine we have 2 that are 4 years old and run 24/7 . would never buy another !,!,, agfa SUCKS!

invest in Vutek... sure costs more up front but you will be happy and very profitable in the end
 
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Letterbox Mike

Letterbox Mike

New Member
Merritt Graphics said:
buy more than you need. you are gonna need more than you bought!
the truth on flatbed purchases..

no matter what brand or throughput do yourself a favor and drop the extra dime based on growth. you will be bummed if you do not and stuck with an inferior machine wishing you bought more...

been there done that ... trust me!,!
Click to expand...

It's true. Like I said, a big reason why we went with the CET machine. We're a small operation but I could see us outgrowing the HP FB500/700 (or most other machines in our price range) very quickly, if not immediately. For the money, the CET allows for more throughput than we'll need for the immediate future. But we know (or hope I guess) we'll outgrow it eventually. The final selling point for us was that when we outgrow it we can drop $50k into it and effectively double the throughput (from about 500 sf/hr to about 1000 sf/hr). That's way more attractive to a small shop like ours than facing completely replacing it in 2 years with something that cost 2-3 times as much, just to keep up with production demands.
 
National Sign Co. - Print

National Sign Co. - Print

Merchant Member
insignia said:
It's true. Like I said, a big reason why we went with the CET machine. We're a small operation but I could see us outgrowing the HP FB500/700 (or most other machines in our price range) very quickly, if not immediately. For the money, the CET allows for more throughput than we'll need for the immediate future. But we know (or hope I guess) we'll outgrow it eventually. The final selling point for us was that when we outgrow it we can drop $50k into it and effectively double the throughput (from about 500 sf/hr to about 1000 sf/hr). That's way more attractive to a small shop like ours than facing completely replacing it in 2 years with something that cost 2-3 times as much, just to keep up with production demands.
Click to expand...

Nice bro... Wish you the best . you are gonna grow like a crazy weed having the new machine...

your purchase makes total sense..! awesome investment!, I would say good luck ... but no way you need from me!,!, your success is way beyond luck!,
 
I

Indusign

New Member
I'm new on here and also looking to get into a flatbed or hybrid. like many i like the look of the CET's but not ready to jump in the new market from a budget standpoint and am looking used. Any advice on a good machine in the 50K range. I have not seen a used CET yet. I print on mostly coro,styrene,sintra and aluminum. any advice appreciated.
 
Nicky Zhou

Nicky Zhou

PrintLinks
Indusign said:
I'm new on here and also looking to get into a flatbed or hybrid. like many i like the look of the CET's but not ready to jump in the new market from a budget standpoint and am looking used. Any advice on a good machine in the 50K range. I have not seen a used CET yet. I print on mostly coro,styrene,sintra and aluminum. any advice appreciated.
Click to expand...


If you are looking for a used with 50K. why not go for a brand new flatbed, 4x8. with konica 512/14pl/, 5 colors (CMYK+W). The price almost the same..
 
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