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Best printer to print on clear material

bigben

bigben

New Member
So I'm looking for a printer that could print white and colors on clear material for window designs. I prefer quality over speed. I would prefer a UV printer for other kind of jobs/material (I already have a HP latex).

Does a Roland LEC-540 is a good choice? Is there any other printer similar to this on the market?

If I forgot to give some details, let me know.

Ben
 
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clarizeyale

New Member
We currently have the Epson Surecolor 70675 that can print white and metallic inks. We currently have the metallic inks disabled but the white has been an adventure so far! We've had a few mishaps but overall, we like the capability.

It needs to be lightly cleaned/maintained everyday but we don't use the printer every day so it gets cleaned/maintained before it gets used.

The only downfall is the take up reel. The techs told us we had to take the vinyl and attach it to the take up reel losing quite a few feet of vinyl so we instead use clamps. If the vinyl is not taut, the print will most likely scuff.

Since we don't use this printer as often as we should, we had a time where the ink waste bottle over filled and spilled alllll over our floor so be aware of that!

The printer is only about a year or so old so we're still getting used to things.

I'd suggest maybe going to a print show and checking them out in action.
 
bigben

bigben

New Member
clarizeyale said:
We currently have the Epson Surecolor 70675 that can print white and metallic inks. We currently have the metallic inks disabled but the white has been an adventure so far! We've had a few mishaps but overall, we like the capability.

It needs to be lightly cleaned/maintained everyday but we don't use the printer every day so it gets cleaned/maintained before it gets used.

The only downfall is the take up reel. The techs told us we had to take the vinyl and attach it to the take up reel losing quite a few feet of vinyl so we instead use clamps. If the vinyl is not taut, the print will most likely scuff.

Since we don't use this printer as often as we should, we had a time where the ink waste bottle over filled and spilled alllll over our floor so be aware of that!

The printer is only about a year or so old so we're still getting used to things.

I'd suggest maybe going to a print show and checking them out in action.
Click to expand...

Tanks for the small review. How is the opacity of the white ink? Can you print white + color at the same time?

Like I said in the original post, I would prefer a UV printer but I don't know if there is other manufacturer than roland that make a roll-to-roll uv printer. The fact there is an included cutter, would be a great feature also if it can accurately cut let say a 4ftX8ft rectangle after the printing.
 
petepaz

petepaz

New Member
we have the LEJ-640 so we can print rolls and rigid materials. have had the machine for a few years. it's a work horse. we run it pretty much everyday. in 4 years we have replaced 2 heads (that one is on use from bad head strikes) the white is pretty good. sometimes we do have to do a double pass but for 75-80% of the jobs 1 pass is fine. i clean it once every 7-10 days unless we are having a printing issue. i have replaced many cap stations and a couple of dampers but that's about it. quality is pretty good. the only down fall is it is slow as hell. takes about 45 min to print a 4x8 sheet
 
bigben

bigben

New Member
petepaz said:
we have the LEJ-640 so we can print rolls and rigid materials. have had the machine for a few years. it's a work horse. we run it pretty much everyday. in 4 years we have replaced 2 heads (that one is on use from bad head strikes) the white is pretty good. sometimes we do have to do a double pass but for 75-80% of the jobs 1 pass is fine. i clean it once every 7-10 days unless we are having a printing issue. i have replaced many cap stations and a couple of dampers but that's about it. quality is pretty good. the only down fall is it is slow as hell. takes about 45 min to print a 4x8 sheet
Click to expand...

45min for a 4x8? wow. Speed was not an issue in my original post, but there is limit. lol. I'm guessing the LEC-540 has the same speed.
 
ProColorGraphics

ProColorGraphics

New Member
I too have an Epson S70 and it works great. I do run white and color at the same time.

As far as a UV roll-2-roll, Fuji has one. It is called the Acuity LED1600. I would look into that one if you are going to go that route!
 
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ChaseW

New Member
Vanthu said:
CET makes a hybrid that can print roll to roll, and will print much faster than the Roland.
Click to expand...

We have had a lot of success with our Arizona. They make several sizes depending on budget and you can get it with an RMO "roll media" option. We print on clear cling CWC process that is extremely high quality..
 
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usdsoccer

New Member
The new Epson SureColor S80600 lets you swap between white and silver. White opacity is really good and image quality has been great so far. They have a red and orange ink which really takes the quality above what latex and other eco-sols can do. Haven't had any take-up issues so it seems like they fixed whatever problem the earlier post referred to with the S70.
 
Pauly

Pauly

Printrade.com.au
Oce Arizona with the RMO option. There's a few models to choose from. 460 CMYKWW configuration. 480 CCYMMKWW config. Or you can go the 660gt. which is the same as the 460 just twice the amount of print heads staggered (prints quicker) or the 680 which is the same as the 480 but again double the amount of print heads staggered.

** Note each letter is the nummber of print heads i.e CC = 2 cyan print heads.

Having extra print heads eliminates banding from nozzle outs.
Having staggered heads will print much faster, but there's more maintenance, and more chance of banding if a print head moves.

The colour gamut is very good. I have not had issues hitting specific colours.

IMO you need to keep these printers looked after. If you pay for an oce service and use all genuine parts, you will never have an issue with it.
If you decide to maintain it your self with generic parts. I'd wish you all the best.
 
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clarizeyale

New Member
bigben said:
Tanks for the small review. How is the opacity of the white ink? Can you print white + color at the same time?

Like I said in the original post, I would prefer a UV printer but I don't know if there is other manufacturer than roland that make a roll-to-roll uv printer. The fact there is an included cutter, would be a great feature also if it can accurately cut let say a 4ftX8ft rectangle after the printing.
Click to expand...

Hi! I'm so sorry I never responded! This will be an update from what I previously said :p

We've stopped using our Epson as it started becoming very fickle (would load then every time there'd be a scuff. Miraculously would load and print and no scuff. Send next job.. SCUFF. UGH.) The white is opaque enough and the printer does 2-3 layers but I believe it rolls back to do the second/third layer. Sometimes, it's off though.. Cleaning everyday before use was a hassle. :/

We have since then purchased the HP Scitex 550 UV Flatbed which does substrates and roll to roll with CMYKW options. This has been really great for us and the white is pretty opaque as I use these for 2nd surface window graphics.

We are actually looking to get the HP Latex flatbed with White ink options. I believe this also has roll to roll... and since it's latex, we can do car wraps on it :)

I hope you got something good since then!
 
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