Question Best flatbed for printing corrugated plastic

[Barry Carl]

We're currently screen printing our corrugated election signs which are mainly two colors. I'm looking for a flatbed printer so I can off load the smaller runs to the flatbed. I'm concerned about PMS matching for colors like reflex blue, purples, yellows etc. The other concern is the speed of the flatbed and what level off print speed I can get away with without causing banding. Most of the entry level flatbeds are doing about seven 4 x 8's and hour. It's too slow but I also don't want to spend 200k. We'll also be putting our 4 color work on the machine that I'm currently brokering out. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[equippaint]

I cant answer your questions but consider looking at globalgarage for a used printer that will get you the speed you are looking for at a better price. You may be able to find a low hour "$200k machine" at a reasonable price. Ive seen a lot of low hour units on there and would assume people are upgrading in a good economy with cheap dollars.

 

[Barry Carl]

I cant answer your questions but consider looking at globalgarage for a used printer that will get you the speed you are looking for at a better price. You may be able to find a low hour "$200k machine" at a reasonable price. Ive seen a lot of low hour units on there and would assume people are upgrading in a good economy with cheap dollars.

Thanks, I'll check that site out.

 

[DerbyCitySignGuy]

You don't want a flatbed. Go for a hybrid. The wider you go, the more sheets per hour you can print. I know you don't want to spend $200k, but if you're looking to do more than 10 sheets an hour, you're going to have to. For $250-300k you can get a nice printer that'll do around 20 sheets an hour (with a good operator).

 

[AGCharlotte]

I know my EFI H1625 is only doing about 4 boards an hour (i run at 600x600 so I could probably go faster if I cut the resolution). I've heard its replacement 16h is ~2x as fast, but that's still nowhere near 10. If you're mainly doing coro, I'm not sure I'd recommend the H1625 as on heavy coverage, I don't think it cures fully (works fine on other media), the 16h uses different heads so I'm not sure if it's better on coro or not.

 

[axelmk]

We are upgrading our flatbed to a new Latex FB. R1000
Looking for a new home for our FB550 if you are interested, let me know
Perfect working condition. Still in operation. Houston TX

 

[jwilde]

I was just going to recommend the FB550 or 750. Great machines and should work well for what you need, but you're probably looking at around 10 sheets an hour on a production speed.

Global Garage has them all the time and they're not too bad on price.

 

[Ron the Sign Man]

FB700/750. We are the same type shop as you, 1/2/3 color screen printing. We bought used FB700 last year and it is great for the short runs as well as small full color jobs. On express (2nd lowest/fastest setting) we get decent prints at 50 ds 18X24 an hour and around 12 4'X8' ss an hour. As far as color matching goes we are still working on that one also. Good luck.

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

We have a fb750, depending on quality required we can get up to 21 4x8s /hour. That's in billboard more which is suitable for political or bandit signs, if you need slightly better express gets us around 15/hr. In outdoor which is overkill for coro we get 7-8.

 

[ChrisN]

We have a CET Q5-1000 flatbed, and at the fastest speed (2 pass), I can do approximately 6 full double-sided 4x8 sheets per hour (12 if only single sided). Normally I print yard signs either 2 pass or 3 pass depending on the design. We have 3 Ricoh Gen 5 printheads (KC,MY,WW) installed, and we do have the option to add an additional row of printheads for theoretically twice the print speed.

We bought our printer before Vanguard and CET came out with their printers using Kyocera printheads, so I'm not sure how they would compare with pricing, but I would definitely take a look at them. Our Q5-1000 with 3 Ricoh printheads was sub-$150k, and if you don't need white, that would drop the price down even further.

 

[Barry Carl]

We have a fb750, depending on quality required we can get up to 21 4x8s /hour. That's in billboard more which is suitable for political or bandit signs, if you need slightly better express gets us around 15/hr. In outdoor which is overkill for coro we get 7-8.

We have a fb750, depending on quality required we can get up to 21 4x8s /hour. That's in billboard more which is suitable for political or bandit signs, if you need slightly better express gets us around 15/hr. In outdoor which is overkill for coro we get 7-8.

Thanks, I'll check out the FB750. I'm also looking at the vanguard and looking at the efi 16h. I'm trying to calculate whats the minimum boards per hour I need to make it work. I"m thinking 12-15 per hour.

 

[KSTrooper]

Agreed on the FB550. We picked up a used one two years ago and it's been great for us. Hybrid is definitely the way to go, we have a flatbed Oce Arizona as well but it's just not as quick as the HP.

 

[V. V.]

Don't even try efi. Ferry slow, loads of bugs, pretty week vacuum and to sensitive jam sensors to run on coro.

Concider FB, pay your attention to the printing quality. When using without lc lm its output quality rather outdoor than indoor and droplet size stricter to 12pl.
Also pretty slow and equipped by murcury lams affecting on a heat sensitive media.

CET is actually chinese Handtop machine. Pretty fine in comparison to other Chinese ones. Have no idea BTW about its price in states. I would may stay on the last one, but you will need a really experienced engineer to install it properly.

 

[jay etheredge]

We're currently screen printing our corrugated election signs which are mainly two colors. I'm looking for a flatbed printer so I can off load the smaller runs to the flatbed. I'm concerned about PMS matching for colors like reflex blue, purples, yellows etc. The other concern is the speed of the flatbed and what level off print speed I can get away with without causing banding. Most of the entry level flatbeds are doing about seven 4 x 8's and hour. It's too slow but I also don't want to spend 200k. We'll also be putting our 4 color work on the machine that I'm currently brokering out. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

What’s entry level? Seven an hour? I formerly installed flora printers (about 230 flatbeds) and the current flatbed I’m selling uses Konica i printheads and on the high end can print a 4x 8 in 90 seconds and that’s at about $130k or less. 7 boards an hour is 2012 speeds my friend. Feel free to email me at uvprinttech@gmail.com or call me at(714) 651-8053. I’m not a sales expert, I’m the guy who installs and fixes these printers. I’ll give you a no nonsense real talk about these printers.

 

[MelloImagingTechnologies]

Barry, I can highly recommend the CET and Vanguard products I'm sure in Ma. you heard of Alpha Imaging which I ran in NY for 17 years. I've sold and supported many of these as well as the HP Fb's and the Colorspan printers they used to be before HP bought them. I've also sold quite a few Oce Canon flatbed UV printers.
One of the things you should seriously consider is purchasing one that has LED UV lights instead of the old school UV Lights which get incredibly hot and don't last too long.
If speed is the issue, the CET and Vanguard can be updated down the road or right up front for the quickest printing. If double sided is a high volume of what you do, Hybrid printers are not your best choice. The FB printers from HP are decent hybrid printers but the future of them is an issue.

 

[Megagrafix]

Major factor in printing yard signs is cost of ink per square. I’m surprised no one has mentioned Agfa. Agfa makes their ink and prints in thin layers and will guarantee low ink cost.
We have competed for yard signs many times and machine speed is important but ink cost can be even more important.

 

[Quark]

Look at all those budget sellers on here

 

[MelloImagingTechnologies]

Major factor in printing yard signs is cost of ink per square. I’m surprised no one has mentioned Agfa. Agfa makes their ink and prints in thin layers and will guarantee low ink cost.
We have competed for yard signs many times and machine speed is important but ink cost can be even more important.

What is the Agfa ink cost per liter?

 

[DerbyCitySignGuy]

Major factor in printing yard signs is cost of ink per square. I’m surprised no one has mentioned Agfa. Agfa makes their ink and prints in thin layers and will guarantee low ink cost.
We have competed for yard signs many times and machine speed is important but ink cost can be even more important.

Everything I've seen from Agfa looks GREAT on top of that.

 

[jay etheredge]

We have a CET Q5-1000 flatbed, and at the fastest speed (2 pass), I can do approximately 6 full double-sided 4x8 sheets per hour (12 if only single sided). Normally I print yard signs either 2 pass or 3 pass depending on the design. We have 3 Ricoh Gen 5 printheads (KC,MY,WW) installed, and we do have the option to add an additional row of printheads for theoretically twice the print speed.

We bought our printer before Vanguard and CET came out with their printers using Kyocera printheads, so I'm not sure how they would compare with pricing, but I would definitely take a look at them. Our Q5-1000 with 3 Ricoh printheads was sub-$150k, and if you don't need white, that would drop the price down even further.

a 3 head Ricoh printer is very slow.