Colorado or not

[Glennw]

We have a Colorado 1640, and we are ready to swap it in. It has been a good machine but a little unreliable, a one the M3 or M5 are cheap enough to buy but the ink price is very high. Also Canon can be difficult to deal with, does anyone have any ideas on other printers with a similar spec to the Colorado that we should consider? UV printer but white ink is not needed, thanks

 

[balstestrat]

There is no direct competitor for it currently.
You either need multiple units to match it or go completely to the next level which is way up.

 

[Pauly]

The colorado are in their own class. HP latex 800 will get you close. but not near enough.

 

[MarkSnelling]

Not entirely true. Fluid Color has a device which competes with the Colorado. It is a 70" hybrid with three rows of Ricoh Gen 6 (awesome heads) CMYK and a white head in the middle row so you can lay down white before, after, or in between colors. It is also very fast. Best of all, most of the repairs can be done by the end user. It comes with a 2 year parts, one year labor warranty. No service contracts needed at all. Ink is in the same ball park estimated around $.10/ft2.

Speeds:
12 Pass @ 329 sq ft/hr
6 Pass @ 722 sq ft/hr (sweet spot)
3 Pass @ 1073 sq ft/hr
2 Pass @ 1290 sq ft/hr

It is a unit worthy of more examination for sure. You can learn more at www.fluidcolor.com or hit me up for more information. Pricing is similar to the Colorado as you'll be paying in the mid $70K range after delivery, installation, training, and initial inks.

I love the Colorado, but this is a nice alternative to those worried about the expensive parts on a Colorado or dealing with Canon service. Lastly, they have a great "Advanced Operator Training" class which teaches the operature how to run and do most of the big repairs which is free and hosted at Fluid Color. Their assembly plant is adjacent to the Cincinnati airport.

I sell both products and would be happy to discuss either should you want to have a conversation. Since we only really sell and service in the midwest USA, I can give a pretty unbiased review of the technology if you aren't in our servicable area.

The biggest advantage of Fluid Color is the people. Not a huge company so you talk with the people who make decisions and get things done. A human answers the phone who gets you directly to the person you need to speak with. Old school approach at helping customers! Their lineup of flatbed and hybrid printers are fantastic across the board.

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

Not entirely true. Fluid Color has a device which competes with the Colorado. It is a 70" hybrid with three rows of Ricoh Gen 6 (awesome heads) CMYK and a white head in the middle row so you can lay down white before, after, or in between colors. It is also very fast. Best of all, most of the repairs can be done by the end user. It comes with a 2 year parts, one year labor warranty. No service contracts needed at all. Ink is in the same ball park estimated around $.10/ft2.

Speeds:
12 Pass @ 329 sq ft/hr
6 Pass @ 722 sq ft/hr (sweet spot)
3 Pass @ 1073 sq ft/hr
2 Pass @ 1290 sq ft/hr

It is a unit worthy of more examination for sure. You can learn more at www.fluidcolor.com or hit me up for more information. Pricing is similar to the Colorado as you'll be paying in the mid $70K range after delivery, installation, training, and initial inks.

I love the Colorado, but this is a nice alternative to those worried about the expensive parts on a Colorado or dealing with Canon service. Lastly, they have a great "Advanced Operator Training" class which teaches the operature how to run and do most of the big repairs which is free and hosted at Fluid Color. Their assembly plant is adjacent to the Cincinnati airport.

I sell both products and would be happy to discuss either should you want to have a conversation. Since we only really sell and service in the midwest USA, I can give a pretty unbiased review of the technology if you aren't in our servicable area.

The biggest advantage of Fluid Color is the people. Not a huge company so you talk with the people who make decisions and get things done. A human answers the phone who gets you directly to the person you need to speak with. Old school approach at helping customers! Their lineup of flatbed and hybrid printers are fantastic across the board.

Is their ink flexible and wrapable like the colorado?

 

[MarkSnelling]

Is their ink flexible and wrapable like the colorado?

No....typical UV ink. It has some flex but nothing I'd want to sell someone who is wrapping cars all the time.

 

[FireSprint.com]

Hard to beat the M5. We love our pair of em so far.

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

No....typical UV ink. It has some flex but nothing I'd want to sell someone who is wrapping cars all the time.

That's what I thought, so it wouldn't be a direct competitor but it can do what 75% of people need. This may be an interesting printer for my next phase, what is the dot size?

 

[micadesign]

ricoh gen 6 are 4pl, right??

 

[White Haus]

That's what I thought, so it wouldn't be a direct competitor but it can do what 75% of people need. This may be an interesting printer for my next phase, what is the dot size?

Does indeed sound really interesting at that price point/size. I wonder if they have distributors up in Canada.

 

[Pauly]

That's what I thought, so it wouldn't be a direct competitor but it can do what 75% of people need. This may be an interesting printer for my next phase, what is the dot size?

I have learnt that dot placement is far more important than size.

I have seen printers with smaller PL droplets print less accurate then printers with larger PL droplets.

 

[MarkSnelling]

Does indeed sound really interesting at that price point/size. I wonder if they have distributors up in Canada.

They do....you can direct message me if you want their information.

 

[ProColorGraphics]

I have learnt that dot placement is far more important than size.

I have seen printers with smaller PL droplets print less accurate then printers with larger PL droplets.

I would have to agree. The SwissQ doesn't tout a super small dot size, but I have samples from them with LEGIBLE 1pt text!!

 

[parrott]

Not entirely true. Fluid Color has a device which competes with the Colorado. It is a 70" hybrid with three rows of Ricoh Gen 6 (awesome heads) CMYK and a white head in the middle row so you can lay down white before, after, or in between colors. It is also very fast. Best of all, most of the repairs can be done by the end user. It comes with a 2 year parts, one year labor warranty. No service contracts needed at all. Ink is in the same ball park estimated around $.10/ft2.

Speeds:
12 Pass @ 329 sq ft/hr
6 Pass @ 722 sq ft/hr (sweet spot)
3 Pass @ 1073 sq ft/hr
2 Pass @ 1290 sq ft/hr

It is a unit worthy of more examination for sure. You can learn more at www.fluidcolor.com or hit me up for more information. Pricing is similar to the Colorado as you'll be paying in the mid $70K range after delivery, installation, training, and initial inks.

I love the Colorado, but this is a nice alternative to those worried about the expensive parts on a Colorado or dealing with Canon service. Lastly, they have a great "Advanced Operator Training" class which teaches the operature how to run and do most of the big repairs which is free and hosted at Fluid Color. Their assembly plant is adjacent to the Cincinnati airport.

I sell both products and would be happy to discuss either should you want to have a conversation. Since we only really sell and service in the midwest USA, I can give a pretty unbiased review of the technology if you aren't in our servicable area.

The biggest advantage of Fluid Color is the people. Not a huge company so you talk with the people who make decisions and get things done. A human answers the phone who gets you directly to the person you need to speak with. Old school approach at helping customers! Their lineup of flatbed and hybrid printers are fantastic across the board.

Definitely sounds appealing but have yet to see a hybrid do roll to roll as good as a true roll to roll. Tracking, walking, etc seems to always be an issue. Would never feel comfortable setting a roll and walking away. How does it handle those issues?

 

[MarkSnelling]

Definitely sounds appealing but have yet to see a hybrid do roll to roll as good as a true roll to roll. Tracking, walking, etc seems to always be an issue. Would never feel comfortable setting a roll and walking away. How does it handle those issues?

It is technically a hybrid, but really is just a roll-to-roll. It is one of those "it can print on a board if you have to" kind of units. It tracks quite well. We've got a customer in Ohio who cranks out pallets of cling every month...all roll-to-roll. To my knowledge, no issues there.

 

[RabidOne]

Definitely sounds appealing but have yet to see a hybrid do roll to roll as good as a true roll to roll. Tracking, walking, etc seems to always be an issue. Would never feel comfortable setting a roll and walking away. How does it handle those issues?

Interesting. What Flatbed's have used with roll to roll?
I used to work in a shop that had a couple of Arizona's we would load up with 150' rolls at the end of the night and just let them run out of material.
Never had any issues.

 

[MarkSnelling]

Just to further my comments on this model as I may have been vague.
The R70R is a belt-driven roll-to-roll printer. It is similar to a Hybrid style printer.

However, the platen area below the media belt is more narrow, and it does not have an alignment bar for rigid boards.

The printer has a media belt alignment guide that ensures that it tracks straight.

I've seen issues myself with media belt tracking on many different models of Hybrid printers and I was skeptical the first time I watched it.

But surprisingly, it tracks very well.

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

I have learnt that dot placement is far more important than size.

I have seen printers with smaller PL droplets print less accurate then printers with larger PL droplets.

On most of the industrial UV printheads (Ricoh, Kyocera, etc) you can build dot patterns and adjust placement mapping, but much like the Latex and Colorados 10pl is just too large for smooth colors without lights or specialty colors. All this is why I asked the dot size.

 

[Pauly]

On most of the industrial UV printheads (Ricoh, Kyocera, etc) you can build dot patterns and adjust placement mapping, but much like the Latex and Colorados 10pl is just too large for smooth colors without lights or specialty colors. All this is why I asked the dot size.

Colorado lowesr isn't 10pl ?

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

Colorado lowesr isn't 10pl ?

What's the lowest on the Colorado? That's the document size and the smallest I could measure, our vanguard is right around 4pl