Cartridge Life...

[bendeane]

I was wondering if anybody knew what a typical cartridge life in terms of possibly square feet for a Mutoh-made PrismJet VJ 48" with the 220ml Eco-Ultra Solvent Inks.
Thanks,
Ben

 

[Jackpine]

I heard a set of inks would print 3 rolls of 30"x150' material. However there are too many variables in the printing and the printer. I just keep an extra set of ink and cleaning cartridges on hand. I also set a cost of ink usage at $.50 per square foot if that is any help.

 

[bendeane]

That's a starting point for me to go off of. I know that there is no real way of estimating, but I know most companies try to give some kind of estimate on the specs page, but I can find no such estimate for this particular printer and ink set.
Thanks for the help, though.
Ben

 

[Graphics2u]

I agree with Jackpine, there are too many variables in printing to give any kind of accurate estimate of how long the carts will last. As you keep printing you'll get a rough idea. I keep extra set and just replace them as I use them so I always have them on hand. Well almost always!

 

[randya]

I was wondering if anybody knew what a typical cartridge life in terms of possibly square feet for a Mutoh-made PrismJet VJ 48" with the 220ml Eco-Ultra Solvent Inks.
Thanks,
Ben

http://www.mutoh.com/pdf/VJ13041614InkCostStudy.pdf

This will give you actual ink use for a couple of images and you can estimate cartridge life.

 

[Stealth Ryder]

Kuddos to Randy for this very good info...

 

[bendeane]

A printer tech at feller's told me that from a cost perspective, your ink cost is about 10 percent per square foot of what the media you are printing on cost. I'm not sure how accurate that is, but the guy has been a printer technician for 30 years and I would say it might be a good starting point to help figure out costs.

 

[ProWraps]

love all the info but eh... none of it means much until you get your profiles down and print enough to have a baseline. we alot .25 per sq/ft. full coverage may be more.

but to be real with you. ill tell you how we do it.. pay attention..

WE BUY INK. right.. right. notice that. no figures. no stats. we just order ink. if you arent charging enough to just buy ink. well. thats a problem you need to fix.

we order something around 20-30 220ml carts per month.

i know, non scientific, non what you were looking for, but its real. trust me. its our daily operation.

 

[Mosh]

We have all Roland printers. As an average I would say the $.25 sq ft is about right. Like everyone else says depends on profiles, material, coverage. We will go through yellow ink more than the other colors.
We always have extra of all four colors for all three of our big printers on hand. We use 440 roland carts.

 

[MaxxGrafix]

A printer tech at feller's told me that from a cost perspective, your ink cost is about 10 percent per square foot of what the media you are printing on cost. I'm not sure how accurate that is, but the guy has been a printer technician for 30 years and I would say it might be a good starting point to help figure out costs.

i would love to have an ink cost printing on my $0.17/sq.ft. banner or intermediate around 10% hell.... you'd have to be printing on diamond grade to get you still a low ball estimate of cost per sq.ft.