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Colors developed for Rolands: Manoukian Argon

messmedia

New Member
Hello.
After one year of using our Roland RS640, we are thinking of switching to third party colors.
I must accent: we were very happy with Eco Sol Max, it printed good, no drying issues except on translucent paper, and most importantly: no problems on our printer caused by color, no clogging, no missing nozzles ... ... Only, we would like ESM are little bit more scratch resistant.

So, the reason why we need the switch is purely economic - and not to lower our cost, but to be competitive on our very small market, with our colleague companies making their prices so low - we kinda can outsource to them and still have same expenses as on our equipment! So, we must lower our expenses only to be able to justify owning the machine! :{)
If it sounds odd to You people, example would be - we can outsource vinyl prints for 6 euros (7-8 $) per square meter (1sqm is around 10.7 sqft), and I have information that the price for 4000 sqmt of vinyl, with application on windows glasses was sold 7 euros/sqm!
I am not saying it is right, or something we will do, but, with that low prices, people (clients) easily forget these "minor" things as print quality, enviromentaly more hazardous colors ... ... And we do need to adjust our prices a little, at least for our regular customers.

So, a roland dealer we bought our machine from, started selling MANOUKIAN ARGON colors, as they say, specially developed for roland printers. They are 3.5 times cheaper than ESM, have better scratch resistance, little stronger reds (which is good thing I think, since roland reds are a little "soft"). Also Eco Solvent color, little odor, and best of all: very compatible with rolands - no need to flush, and as a test, they even used one color from argon and rest from roland on a machine - no problems at all.

It all sounds very good. ... too good maybe?? Does anyone outthere use it? Did You hear anything - good or bad?
Needles to say: i do not WANT to "go third party", but if it will help my business, and if I will not have problems with head etc - and my printer will stay reliable as it was - i am for it.
So, please, any experience will be highly appreciated.
 

CropMarks

New Member
I am giving a 3rd party in a try... it is made by a company in the UK called DigITL. I guess the engineers who make it came from another company that makes inks for Roland and Mimaki (I can't remember exactly how it was explained to me... but they worked for somebody???) Anyway... of all the places that I've asked that are using it say they've had no problems with it so far. One guy here in GR said he has used it for the past 6 months with no head issues.

I hear you about the cost of ink. I converted my FJ540 from dye to eco-sol and couldn't be happier. Even still, $70 for a 220 of the real stuff is hard to swallow when I can get a 1 litter bottle of the stuff for $110.... Roland equivalent = $280 for four 220's.

here is where i get it from...
http://www.richdistinc.com/?q=node/5
 

Paper&co

New Member
I have been using alternative inks since 2 years. No problem at all, except when using Triangle inks.

One of the things tyou have to accept is that you will need to clean and maintain your machine more carefully, beccause these inks are not so oily than the original ones, so they dry quickly inside the machine.
So, the fix of this trouble is to print every day, no time with stopped machine.
 
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