Need Help Considering HP Latex 115 P&C - some questions/concerns before I pull the trigger

[Drakem87]

I currently do t-shirt transfers using inkjet paper (terrible..but it's been paying the bills). I have some questions and concerns before I decide to upgrade to the Latex 115 system. I'd really appreciate if anyone can help me with this:

1. All of these posts about "grainy prints". I ordered samples from HP and they came in yesterday. The prints had some grain but nothing near as bad as I thought. Attached are some pics. First one is from 12 inches away and the second is from 3 inches away...my iPhone is exaggerating the grain a bit. If I were to download the profile from HP (it is available from printos.com) for the heat transfer vinyl that I will be using, is this the quality I should expect? Or do I have to jump through some hoops to get them to look the same? I am perfectly happy with this quality.

2. I currently use a GCC Expert 24 LX cutter. It has some hiccups with accuracy so I'm considering getting the Print and Cut bundle which comes with the HP Summa cutter. Would this cutter do at least 10 feet of accurate contour cutting of multiple designs (probably only a 30" roll)? I would have at least 30-50 designs on each print. I see that is only has 3 pinch rollers vs 4 with the HP Latex 315 but I'm not sure if that's a big deal or not.

3. I contacted SAi about this but no response: I currently create cut lines in Illustrator and prefer to keep doing it that way since I'm pretty fluent with it. Can I simply continue doing this, saving them as EPS and then easily import them and nest them into Flexi Design to contour cut? All videos online only show how much "better" Flexi design is than Illustrator so I can't find how well importing works. I'm concerned about some functionalities being disabled if I didn't create the contour lines within Flexi itself.

Any advice or information would be appreciated. Real excited to get this thing and eliminate some of the major headaches I get with the cheap inkjet paper transfers.

 

[ikarasu]

The graininess is mainly on solid colors. Anything coming directly for hp will be with perfect settings and conditions... Keep that in mind.

I've never got a complaint about graininess... You can see its there from an inch away, but not on most stuff. I like it better than solvents which had graininess and banding. Not everyone can see the banding...but even on perfect prints I can tell when the next pass.is on solvent. It's Not as noticeable.. But still there.


You can still create cutlines in Illy and bring them into flexi. And yes.... You can cut 100ft with it being accurate even. It puts marks every xx ft so it stays accurate and re adjusts.

One thing to consider is latex uses heat... There are some t-shirt iron ons that work with latex. I've never tried them... But odds are you'll be buying the mid-high range in quality and price for the t-shirt vinyl. Not sure what you use now, so it might not be an issue. But I'd only get latex compatible... I've.tried with a few non latex compatible and it just didn't work.

 

[bannertime]

1) There are some people that can't get good prints on their HPs. We generally print at 10 pass on our self adhesive and you have to be pretty freaking close to see any dots. We didn't really spend that much time on the profiles. We run the full set of profile test and calibrations for a new material, and then run color calibration as needed.

2) We've had a GCC machine in the past. We used to run 20ft sections cause that's how long our table is. We'd typically see about a half inch of movement. If your machine has some type of mark detection, then that may be fine, but I wouldn't trust it. The HP Summa has more wheels because It's a longer machine.

3) I've posted about this before, but importing PDFs with paths that are setup with the proper ContourCut naming convention can be imported into Production Manager and "nested" within PM. I prefer it for working with multiple contour cut designs. It'll create the marks for you. No need to import into Flexi and then send to PM just go direction into PM with a PDF.

As for the latex materials. We've used Siser ColorPrint PU, Chemica 1702, and plan on testing Briteline Tubro something (new latex heat transfer). We've preferred the Chemica. We use a Stahls Hottronix heat press.

 

[BigfishDM]

I currently do t-shirt transfers using inkjet paper (terrible..but it's been paying the bills). I have some questions and concerns before I decide to upgrade to the Latex 115 system. I'd really appreciate if anyone can help me with this:

1. All of these posts about "grainy prints". I ordered samples from HP and they came in yesterday. The prints had some grain but nothing near as bad as I thought. Attached are some pics. First one is from 12 inches away and the second is from 3 inches away...my iPhone is exaggerating the grain a bit. If I were to download the profile from HP (it is available from printos.com) for the heat transfer vinyl that I will be using, is this the quality I should expect? Or do I have to jump through some hoops to get them to look the same? I am perfectly happy with this quality.

2. I currently use a GCC Expert 24 LX cutter. It has some hiccups with accuracy so I'm considering getting the Print and Cut bundle which comes with the HP Summa cutter. Would this cutter do at least 10 feet of accurate contour cutting of multiple designs (probably only a 30" roll)? I would have at least 30-50 designs on each print. I see that is only has 3 pinch rollers vs 4 with the HP Latex 315 but I'm not sure if that's a big deal or not.

3. I contacted SAi about this but no response: I currently create cut lines in Illustrator and prefer to keep doing it that way since I'm pretty fluent with it. Can I simply continue doing this, saving them as EPS and then easily import them and nest them into Flexi Design to contour cut? All videos online only show how much "better" Flexi design is than Illustrator so I can't find how well importing works. I'm concerned about some functionalities being disabled if I didn't create the contour lines within Flexi itself.

Any advice or information would be appreciated. Real excited to get this thing and eliminate some of the major headaches I get with the cheap inkjet paper transfers.

I don't think you will have any problems for what you are doing. I know a really great latex dealer who has a branch in Illinois and they will take great care of you! Let me know if you need any help.

 

[Drakem87]

Thank you all for your replies.

The graininess is mainly on solid colors. Anything coming directly for hp will be with perfect settings and conditions... Keep that in mind.

Since the profile is available to download from http://printos.com for the specific vinyl that I'd be using, is it safe to assume that I'd be all good?

We didn't really spend that much time on the profiles. We run the full set of profile test and calibrations for a new material, and then run color calibration as needed.

Do you know of a video or some instruction somewhere that shows how to do these tests and calibrations? This is my biggest concern because from what I've read, the "grain" seems to be from the profiles but I don't understand that stuff much. I've made color profiles for sublimation inks using my i1 spectrophotometer but I completely forgot how to do it and I'd prefer to stay away from doing that whole process. It was a major headache.

I don't think you will have any problems for what you are doing. I know a really great latex dealer who has a branch in Illinois and they will take great care of you! Let me know if you need any help.

I actually have a few posts saved from you and planned to reach out to you when I make a decision. I would definitely appreciate if you can give me the dealer's information.

 

[bannertime]

Do you know of a video or some instruction somewhere that shows how to do these tests and calibrations?

This is where I watched a lot of stuff before purchasing. That was about 3 years ago though.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL961oV9sNePD4fOot3TiWeTe9rXE1Nzq2

It's really simple. I believe it's just Settings>Image Quality Settings> and run just about every calibration under that menu. Some will require user input after examining the test plots. Some don't. There's a bit more to it, but that's the gist of it.

 

[ikarasu]

Thank you all for your replies.



Since the profile is available to download from http://printos.com for the specific vinyl that I'd be using, is it safe to assume that I'd be all good?



Do you know of a video or some instruction somewhere that shows how to do these tests and calibrations? This is my biggest concern because from what I've read, the "grain" seems to be from the profiles but I don't understand that stuff much. I've made color profiles for sublimation inks using my i1 spectrophotometer but I completely forgot how to do it and I'd prefer to stay away from doing that whole process. It was a major headache.




I actually have a few posts saved from you and planned to reach out to you when I make a decision. I would definitely appreciate if you can give me the dealer's information.

Don't quote me on this.. But I believe siser had a vinyl that was rated for latex, or at the very least everyone said it worked with latex... Then all of a sudden people started to have problems with it. It used to print perfect then it started to print really grainy, and didn't adhere well after it was printed on. That's going by memory...

So long as the media says it is latex compatible, it should work. Some.companies have a solvent and a latex version.... Take 3m 480 for example. Tjey have two different versions of.the material.. One for solvent one for latex. So be sure you're buying the right media and you'll be fine. Yourvinyl dealer should have a working knowledge of what's compatible and what isn't.

Find a dealer for any hp latex printer (115,315,etc all print same quality
. Difference is in speed) bring your roll in and ask for a test print. Most won't have a problem doing the test print for you... Then you'll see what the prints look like on non hp media, on a printer that's not been tweaked for countless hours.

 

[FrankW]

Grainy prints results often from wrong feed adjustment. While this would be no problem with the OMAS-machines (except with some media), the machines without OMAS (110/115, 310, 330) can run into that problem easily (this machines needs to be calibrated manually). While a lot of printers get banding if the feed isn‘t correctly adjusted, the HP will have grainy prints and blurred borders on printed graphics in media feed direction.

 

[SteveT]

I currently do t-shirt transfers using inkjet paper (terrible..but it's been paying the bills). I have some questions and concerns before I decide to upgrade to the Latex 115 system. I'd really appreciate if anyone can help me with this:

1. All of these posts about "grainy prints". I ordered samples from HP and they came in yesterday. The prints had some grain but nothing near as bad as I thought. Attached are some pics. First one is from 12 inches away and the second is from 3 inches away...my iPhone is exaggerating the grain a bit. If I were to download the profile from HP (it is available from printos.com) for the heat transfer vinyl that I will be using, is this the quality I should expect? Or do I have to jump through some hoops to get them to look the same? I am perfectly happy with this quality.

2. I currently use a GCC Expert 24 LX cutter. It has some hiccups with accuracy so I'm considering getting the Print and Cut bundle which comes with the HP Summa cutter. Would this cutter do at least 10 feet of accurate contour cutting of multiple designs (probably only a 30" roll)? I would have at least 30-50 designs on each print. I see that is only has 3 pinch rollers vs 4 with the HP Latex 315 but I'm not sure if that's a big deal or not.

3. I contacted SAi about this but no response: I currently create cut lines in Illustrator and prefer to keep doing it that way since I'm pretty fluent with it. Can I simply continue doing this, saving them as EPS and then easily import them and nest them into Flexi Design to contour cut? All videos online only show how much "better" Flexi design is than Illustrator so I can't find how well importing works. I'm concerned about some functionalities being disabled if I didn't create the contour lines within Flexi itself.

Any advice or information would be appreciated. Real excited to get this thing and eliminate some of the major headaches I get with the cheap inkjet paper transfers.

I currently do t-shirt transfers using inkjet paper (terrible..but it's been paying the bills). I have some questions and concerns before I decide to upgrade to the Latex 115 system. I'd really appreciate if anyone can help me with this:

1. All of these posts about "grainy prints". I ordered samples from HP and they came in yesterday. The prints had some grain but nothing near as bad as I thought. Attached are some pics. First one is from 12 inches away and the second is from 3 inches away...my iPhone is exaggerating the grain a bit. If I were to download the profile from HP (it is available from printos.com) for the heat transfer vinyl that I will be using, is this the quality I should expect? Or do I have to jump through some hoops to get them to look the same? I am perfectly happy with this quality.

2. I currently use a GCC Expert 24 LX cutter. It has some hiccups with accuracy so I'm considering getting the Print and Cut bundle which comes with the HP Summa cutter. Would this cutter do at least 10 feet of accurate contour cutting of multiple designs (probably only a 30" roll)? I would have at least 30-50 designs on each print. I see that is only has 3 pinch rollers vs 4 with the HP Latex 315 but I'm not sure if that's a big deal or not.

3. I contacted SAi about this but no response: I currently create cut lines in Illustrator and prefer to keep doing it that way since I'm pretty fluent with it. Can I simply continue doing this, saving them as EPS and then easily import them and nest them into Flexi Design to contour cut? All videos online only show how much "better" Flexi design is than Illustrator so I can't find how well importing works. I'm concerned about some functionalities being disabled if I didn't create the contour lines within Flexi itself.

Any advice or information would be appreciated. Real excited to get this thing and eliminate some of the major headaches I get with the cheap inkjet paper transfers.

We were also looking at the HP latex machines to do heat transfers along with other work. I could be wrong but it seemed we had a hard time finding media for latex heat transfers, especially for light garments. Our dealer told us latex is about 5 years behind solvent printers in available media. If we were just printing banners and such we would have pulled the trigger on latex but since we print a wide variety of media we went with solvent. Please let me know what you decide and how it works out

 

[Drakem87]

We were also looking at the HP latex machines to do heat transfers along with other work. I could be wrong but it seemed we had a hard time finding media for latex heat transfers, especially for light garments. Our dealer told us latex is about 5 years behind solvent printers in available media. If we were just printing banners and such we would have pulled the trigger on latex but since we print a wide variety of media we went with solvent. Please let me know what you decide and how it works out

I've seen a few posts online with people saying that same thing but the selection seems plenty for me.

So far, I tried Chemica's Easyprint 1702 and Hotmark 1792, which Chemica says are both latex compatible, and they were both great for me (without printing on them since I don't have the printer yet). The Easyprint was a bit thicker but I was happy with both. My standard is low though since I've been using Inkjet Transfer Paper for 6 months.

I have also tried Siser Colorprint PU in the past and it seemed very thick and rubbery so I'm not sure I'll go that route. I'll be ordering more samples from different suppliers and see which one works best.

Also, you mentioned materials for light garments. Honestly even with the inkjet papers, I use the same material for dark and light garments and will be doing the same when I switch over to these vinyls.

 

[FrankW]

We were also looking at the HP latex machines to do heat transfers along with other work. I could be wrong but it seemed we had a hard time finding media for latex heat transfers, especially for light garments. Our dealer told us latex is about 5 years behind solvent printers in available media.

I have sold Eco-Solvent-Printers for a long time, and have switched by start working for a HP dealer. One of my first clients in 2012 was someone where I have tried to sell a Roland for years, but he told me permanently that Eco-Solvent-Prints washes out too fast. After testing heat transfers on a Latex (2nd Generation 26500), it takes weeks only until he orders the latex.I have tested 8 different solvent heat transfer medias for another customer on a Latex 360, none of them failed. This customer have confirmed to me that the prints last longer than eco-solvent.

When checking if latex is written on the spec sheet, it could be that latex is 5 years behind. But from my point of view, with latex experience for 6 years and eco-solvent-experience for nearly 10 years, there is much more usable media available for latex than for Eco-Solvent. Better results on textile banners, easier to handle with papers, more effectively on banners (less need for lamination) and much more.

 

[BigfishDM]

I actually have a few posts saved from you and planned to reach out to you when I make a decision. I would definitely appreciate if you can give me the dealer's information.[/QUOTE]

No problem, I can give you any information you need sir. My email is jcormany@gansink.com and you can reach out anytime.

 

[BigfishDM]

We were also looking at the HP latex machines to do heat transfers along with other work. I could be wrong but it seemed we had a hard time finding media for latex heat transfers, especially for light garments. Our dealer told us latex is about 5 years behind solvent printers in available media. If we were just printing banners and such we would have pulled the trigger on latex but since we print a wide variety of media we went with solvent. Please let me know what you decide and how it works out

There are more compatible materials for latex than any other machine. Heat transfers are no problem with Latex either.