Question Does Anyone Make a Printer That Can Sit Idle Without harm?

[SignMeUpGraphics]

Yep, white on our UV is the hardest head to keep clean out of the 14 or so heads in various machines we print with.

 

[Notarealsignguy]

Buy a latex, then instead of cleaning it you can spend that time changing parts and figuring out how go get your colors to match.
Why is spending 2 mins a week swabbing a captop and wiper such a big deal?

 

[Notarealsignguy]

I've had the same experience with our Mimaki CJV 150-160. We usually do a three week holiday shut down around Christmas and New Year's day. With the last of our scheduled print jobs printed days before shut down and new jobs not going into production until perhaps a few days after reopening, our printer has easily sat for four solid weeks with no printing and prints a perfect test print the first time, every time. We also do minimal maintenance and see consistent performance.

Same here. Ive only cleaned it a handful of times in 3 years. Changed captop once, wiper once and thats it. Maybe the cleaning cartridge that it has helps?
Ive had missing nozzles after sitting but a few cleanings brings it right back

 

[Wide Image Solutions]

I've been a slave to my Mutoh printer for 8 long years, having to run a cleaning once a week to prevent the print head from clogging up. Is there anyone that makes a wide format printer of any type that is designed to sit idle for any length of time without causing some kind of harm or damage?

Thanks

I would go with Hp Latex. We sell them all. They are all part of Hp's smart series. So they'll go to sleep after 10 minutes of non use. And will wake up on their own to perform their own maintenance. Also their printheads have a 1 year warranty or longer. thx Wideimagesolutions

 

[Michael-Nola]

Buy a latex, then instead of cleaning it you can spend that time changing parts and figuring out how go get your colors to match.
Why is spending 2 mins a week swabbing a captop and wiper such a big deal?

HAAA hahaha oh man that is the best joke I've heard in a while!
Seriously I'm flabbergasted when I see a latex in any shop these days. A whole 150sq'/h to achieve wildly incorrect and unrepeatable color. Shrunk vinyl. Failed wraps. Maintenance intervals. Endless profiles. I could go on forever. That technology is a joke.

But to actually answer the post. No printer is designed to sit idle, they're designed to work. Instead of wasting energy looking for an investment designed to resist work, invest that time in chasing sales or firing your sales manager. Never buy another printer until your current one runs 20 hours a day.

 

[ikarasu]

I don't know. We've made millions off our latex. We just did two building wraps that took 2 full rolls of material... 15 ft panels, no alignment issues... No shrinking or shifts in colors.


IMO, All the problems people have with latex are user errors... Not machine errors.

 

[Bly]

You can get away with HP Latex shortcomings by printing all panels of a job in one run and make sure the panels print in sequence.
But if you have to reprint one panel the colour and length probably will not match.
We had latex machines for years and while they had some very good features I'm glad we don't have any in our shop now.

 

[Michael-Nola]

I don't know. We've made millions off our latex. We just did two building wraps that took 2 full rolls of material... 15 ft panels, no alignment issues... No shrinking or shifts in colors.


IMO, All the problems people have with latex are user errors... Not machine errors.

Two FULL rolls huh?

 

[ikarasu]

Two FULL rolls huh?

Two full rolls for this one job. Where we didn't rotate panels, or do anything special. 12-15ft long panels that aligned perfectly and didn't shift in color. I'm not saying that's impressive... Just that while some people can't print a wall wrap without issues.... We haven't had a problem.(These were special utility sheds for an electrical company, it technically took 2.5 rolls of material... But roughly 2 rolls of long panel lengths that went side by side with no issue)... While some people complain they can't print two 10ft panels without alignment issues.

As for color...
We do between 10-15 police cars a year - around 4-5 vehicle panel replacements when they crash or get scratched up... There's two gradients, 3 solid colors on each panel... And never had an issue with the color not matching perfectly.... These are panels printed a year apart.

Aside from running a color calibration every other week.... We don't do nothing special. Maybe the 560 printers are better at panel length and color consistency than the older machines, I don't know.


But 90% of the stuff we do is very color sensitive and a latex has never been an issue for us. We can pull an old onyx file from a year ago, reprint a panel and it'll match perfectly.

Latex does have their flaws. It just seems like those two that constantly get mentioned haven't been a flaw for us. Not sure if it's because we don't use cheap material... Got a lucky printer... Or the 560 just improved in those aspects.

 

[Notarealsignguy]

Two full rolls for this one job. Where we didn't rotate panels, or do anything special. 12-15ft long panels that aligned perfectly and didn't shift in color. I'm not saying that's impressive... Just that while some people can't print a wall wrap without issues.... We haven't had a problem.(These were special utility sheds for an electrical company, it technically took 2.5 rolls of material... But roughly 2 rolls of long panel lengths that went side by side with no issue)... While some people complain they can't print two 10ft panels without alignment issues.

As for color...
We do between 10-15 police cars a year - around 4-5 vehicle panel replacements when they crash or get scratched up... There's two gradients, 3 solid colors on each panel... And never had an issue with the color not matching perfectly.... These are panels printed a year apart.

Aside from running a color calibration every other week.... We don't do nothing special. Maybe the 560 printers are better at panel length and color consistency than the older machines, I don't know.


But 90% of the stuff we do is very color sensitive and a latex has never been an issue for us. We can pull an old onyx file from a year ago, reprint a panel and it'll match perfectly.

Latex does have their flaws. It just seems like those two that constantly get mentioned haven't been a flaw for us. Not sure if it's because we don't use cheap material... Got a lucky printer... Or the 560 just improved in those aspects.

The printer didn't bring the work to you and drop it in your lap. You would have made those millions with whatever you had. You understand how to make it work, profile it, the ins and outs, most don't. The complaint is that you have to know that stuff with a latex and you don't with an eco solvent. Most people don't know how to profile or care about it. Or how to flip panels. Have you ever had to reverse print something and forget to reverse it, hit go and walk away? Nobody wants to think about this stuff and it's even worse if you have to rely on an employee to get it right all of the time.

 

[rjssigns]

I have the answer to the OP's question: What printer can sit idle without harm? The ones your subcontractor has.

 

[Bingleardicus]

A UV printer can clog up as well. There is the whole negative pressure system your relying on. White on UV is even worse.

The Mimaki UJF 7151 is the most reliable white UV ive worked with, to the latex folks i have experienced latex units at idle for lengthy periods of time, with no maintenance that fire right up. While the latex 360 is the rubbermade tupperware roll printers, the interface is awesome, apart from the loading screens that freeze on older ones, they are easy to train and great for beginners.