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Eco-sol vs. UV printer pros and cons

DAHVID

New Member
Hi. I have an older Roland SG 300 which has been a workhorse. It's having quirks and I'm thinking about upgrading to a larger format 55 inch printer. I'm wondering if staying with Eco or changing to UV would be beneficial. I run a graphic design program at a high school and we print banners, stickers, wall decals, etc. Any expertise here is much appreciated. I've been really happy with Roland.
 

Smoke_Jaguar

Man who touches printers inappropriately.
As a person who works on both, I only run UV. It's more tolerant to neglect (inks don't dry up, but you need to shield them from light), no need for heated platens, and the ink tends to cost less depending on model. Still good to do your daily maintenance, but as long as powered, I don't have to worry about being out of town for a week or two and losing tons of nozzles or entire heads. Also fun things like clear and white are good to have and it gets people more familiar with modern workflows.
 

tulsagraphics

New Member
Eco-sol all the way IMO, but it depends on your market. Most of my work is for universities, corporate, etc... folks who are very particular about color matching and long term durability. UV is great for low cost runs... so you can run yard signs all day... and super fast too. Dries instantly. Nobody minds the ink flaking off in 6 months when you're producing sign that only need to last a few weeks. It's hard to laminate UV -- lots of silvering (from what I've seen). But for really high quality work, finer details and much larger color gamut... it's Eco-Sol all day. Also, I don't see anyone having much success with wrap jobs using a UV printer -- the ink is so stiff/brittle. (granted, there are really high end UV or hybrid UV printers out there that do a pretty good job, but they're unaffordably expensive for the little guys) Also, Eco-Sol costs quite a bit more (e.g. consumables), so it's all relative. What works for me isn't necessarily the best choice for you.

I think Eco-Sol is a lot less smelly than UV (then again, I've been around solvents for so long, it could just be me). Occasionally if I farm out a flatbed print job to someone, I definitely notice the smell when opening the box. The UV smell is terrible. I imagine the smell in a shop running UV all day would be pretty unbearable without proper ventilation / air filtering.

One other thing is electrical requirements. Most UVs require 220v, which could be a deal killer for some smaller shops.
 

jharler

New Member
For stickers, I'd recommend eco-solvent. UV stickers don't look as good as eco-solvent stickers in my opinion. You can can see the difference in ink height between different colors when viewed at even a slight angle. It's a look I don't like. For banners and wall decals, it probably isn't a big deal, but I specialize in stickers, so my UV is used primarily for embossed stickers only.

I have an Epson s80600 and a Mimaki UCJV330 and they are both easy to maintain. The Epson needs cleaned once a month, the Mimaki is supposed to be cleaned daily, but I doubt many people do that. The cleaning procedure only takes a few minutes on each, so it's not a big deal.
 

DAHVID

New Member
Eco-sol all the way IMO, but it depends on your market. Most of my work is for universities, corporate, etc... folks who are very particular about color matching and long term durability. UV is great for low cost runs... so you can run yard signs all day... and super fast too. Dries instantly. Nobody minds the ink flaking off in 6 months when you're producing sign that only need to last a few weeks. It's hard to laminate UV -- lots of silvering (from what I've seen). But for really high quality work, finer details and much larger color gamut... it's Eco-Sol all day. Also, I don't see anyone having much success with wrap jobs using a UV printer -- the ink is so stiff/brittle. (granted, there are really high end UV or hybrid UV printers out there that do a pretty good job, but they're unaffordably expensive for the little guys) Also, Eco-Sol costs quite a bit more (e.g. consumables), so it's all relative. What works for me isn't necessarily the best choice for you.

I think Eco-Sol is a lot less smelly than UV (then again, I've been around solvents for so long, it could just be me). Occasionally if I farm out a flatbed print job to someone, I definitely notice the smell when opening the box. The UV smell is terrible. I imagine the smell in a shop running UV all day would be pretty unbearable without proper ventilation / air filtering.

One other thing is electrical requirements. Most UVs require 220v, which could be a deal killer for some smaller shops.
This is great info. I was hoping UV would be less smelly. Thanks!
 

DAHVID

New Member
For stickers, I'd recommend eco-solvent. UV stickers don't look as good as eco-solvent stickers in my opinion. You can can see the difference in ink height between different colors when viewed at even a slight angle. It's a look I don't like. For banners and wall decals, it probably isn't a big deal, but I specialize in stickers, so my UV is used primarily for embossed stickers only.

I have an Epson s80600 and a Mimaki UCJV330 and they are both easy to maintain. The Epson needs cleaned once a month, the Mimaki is supposed to be cleaned daily, but I doubt many people do that. The cleaning procedure only takes a few minutes on each, so it's not a big deal.
We print stickers all day long and that's the primary use of our current printer set up. I'll check out the epson because less is more when it comes to maintenance. Thanks!
 

Smoke_Jaguar

Man who touches printers inappropriately.
UV is a differnet smell. As for durability, UV for me has been way better than solvent. But ink formulation is far more varied in UV. I love being able to print on material that isn't coated to take ink. Metallic films and such just don't print without being smudgy messes on some plastics, especially metallic films. When shopping around, ask for samples and demonstrations.

As for laminating, we do tons of stickers, but I don't even own a laminator with the exception of stuff for UVDTF.
 
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