-
I want to thank all the members that have upgraded your accounts. I truly appreciate your support of the site monetarily. Supporting the site keeps this site up and running as a lot of work daily goes on behind the scenes. Click to Support Signs101 ...
EFI Rastek T1000
- Thread starter signswi
- Start date
T1000 - Rastek
I went to Las Vegas in October to look for a flatbed printer. The output was fine from what I could tell. The overall build quality appeared on the "light" side. The Rastek line was on my list. I wasn't getting good feedback from those I spoke to at the show regarding the Rastek line, though I have heard that this unit is made in USA.
I went to Las Vegas in October to look for a flatbed printer. The output was fine from what I could tell. The overall build quality appeared on the "light" side. The Rastek line was on my list. I wasn't getting good feedback from those I spoke to at the show regarding the Rastek line, though I have heard that this unit is made in USA.
HaroldDesign
New Member
For a small flatbed I don't think it's "the one" for the price point. I've read of a lot of reliability issues. I don't know this first hand, though. It may be a great machine. If you're looking at entry level flatbeds take a look also at the Mutoh 1608HS and the Gerber Ion. You may be able to swing a nice deal on the Ion these days...
cdiesel
New Member
Gerber Ion is now discontinued.. Also VERY slow.
I looked at the Rastek printers last year before we bought our HP FB950 (now replaced with the FB500 and FB700). I agree that it looked light. It was also a slow machine.
The Mutoh 1608HS is an even lighter printer. It can only handle a 12lb board and uses pinch rollers. Anyone with experience will tell you to steer away from pinch rollers for rigid media.
We are very happy with our FB950. They're more expensive than the Rasteks and the Mutoh, but well worth it.
I looked at the Rastek printers last year before we bought our HP FB950 (now replaced with the FB500 and FB700). I agree that it looked light. It was also a slow machine.
The Mutoh 1608HS is an even lighter printer. It can only handle a 12lb board and uses pinch rollers. Anyone with experience will tell you to steer away from pinch rollers for rigid media.
We are very happy with our FB950. They're more expensive than the Rasteks and the Mutoh, but well worth it.
We were ready to pounce (sorry for the pun, it's early) on the Gerber CAT UV but we're a bit unsettled and just doing the research. One of our sales guys talked to us about the FB500 but we're not sure about belt drive--not a huge fan of how pass distance can impact final size (or does the camera take care of that issue?). From what I can see the FB950 isn't for sale anymore, just the FB500/700/7500. How is the FB line on aluminum?
particleman
New Member
Last year when we were looking at new machines we demoed the T1000. Very unimpressed by it and the demo we got. They were happy to print on foam core for us but when we asked for a corrugated sample the engineer (yes he was an EFI engineer) said they weren't setup for that at the show. They ended up running a piece for us and then we figured out why they didn't want too, adhesion was horrible (scratched off by hand). The head height adjustment was really clunky too, has a screw you turn up and down I didn't really like. Just all around not impressed by the machine with the price tag.
We decided on an FB500. Take a look at one if you haven't. The belt is not a normal hybrid belt design, it is locked into place and permanent. This means no walking and trust me, it doesn't walk! Feed a square sheet in and you will get a dead on print, we do it all day long. Aluminum is good, however, the ink is more on the flexible side so you loose out a little on scratch resistance. Our old Agfa M series machine had a very hard ink set that did better on metals, not saying the hp is bad, but a hard ink set does better. It is also worth noting the 950 uses the same ink as the 500/700 series.
Not sure what you mean by pass distance impacting final size?
We decided on an FB500. Take a look at one if you haven't. The belt is not a normal hybrid belt design, it is locked into place and permanent. This means no walking and trust me, it doesn't walk! Feed a square sheet in and you will get a dead on print, we do it all day long. Aluminum is good, however, the ink is more on the flexible side so you loose out a little on scratch resistance. Our old Agfa M series machine had a very hard ink set that did better on metals, not saying the hp is bad, but a hard ink set does better. It is also worth noting the 950 uses the same ink as the 500/700 series.
Not sure what you mean by pass distance impacting final size?
Printers that move the piece to be printed instead of printers that move the head over the piece are subject to minute differences in final size due to how well the machine is calibrated (tiny gaps or overlaps between the head passes add up over long pieces). Hoping the optical active adjustment on the HPs negates that.
Have you tried hitting the printed aluminum with a spray laminate? We'd be buying this thing mostly for aluminum and coroplast, if the aluminum print is scratchable it's a big downside. Hoping to see an FB500 in a live production environment soon, the videos I've watched of it look pretty good but aluminum adhesion/scratch resistance is a big factor for us.
Have you tried hitting the printed aluminum with a spray laminate? We'd be buying this thing mostly for aluminum and coroplast, if the aluminum print is scratchable it's a big downside. Hoping to see an FB500 in a live production environment soon, the videos I've watched of it look pretty good but aluminum adhesion/scratch resistance is a big factor for us.
particleman
New Member
That isn't an issue with deal with at all. I am aware of what you mean though.
We liquid coat aluminum that needs to be extremely scratch resistant, however it takes quite a bit to get the ink off aluminum. In the end though you will need to get this test print done and decide for yourself what is acceptable.
We liquid coat aluminum that needs to be extremely scratch resistant, however it takes quite a bit to get the ink off aluminum. In the end though you will need to get this test print done and decide for yourself what is acceptable.
cdiesel
New Member
I agree with Clark. Feed calibration is a non-issue--the belt is 4' deep. It holds the media down extremely well, and we haven't touched the feed calibration setting since about a week after we received the machine.
We don't print on aluminum for a couple of reasons. One, the adhesion does leave a little to be desired. It's not horrible, but it's not great either. Second, we were printing a job on aluminum a few months ago and had a couple of head strikes. The corners on aluminum sheets tend to bend ever so slightly, and bad things happen. It's not worth the risk to us.
The FB950 and the FB700 are basically the same machine with some firmware upgrades. There are some other small changes, but nothing major. Same inks, heads, print speeds, etc. The 700 uses TCP/IP instead of the VideoNet protocol of the FB950. The 700 also replaces the lour locks (which can be a source of ink leaks) on all of the ink fittings with barbed fittings. It also has the option to print white. Very nice, and very competitively priced machine.
Our FB950 has been an absolute workhorse. We've had a couple of minor issues, with the largest being the scan pully that was slipping on its shaft, and the part was out of stock at HP. We were down a couple of days (and we ended up fixing ourselves by adding a set screw), but HP took the part off of another machine that they had and sent it over.
Right now, we're in the middle of a 1300 bed job (over 40k sf) that'll take a little over nine days to print running three shifts. We're considering the purchase of an FB700 to help out our 950 a little bit.
We don't print on aluminum for a couple of reasons. One, the adhesion does leave a little to be desired. It's not horrible, but it's not great either. Second, we were printing a job on aluminum a few months ago and had a couple of head strikes. The corners on aluminum sheets tend to bend ever so slightly, and bad things happen. It's not worth the risk to us.
The FB950 and the FB700 are basically the same machine with some firmware upgrades. There are some other small changes, but nothing major. Same inks, heads, print speeds, etc. The 700 uses TCP/IP instead of the VideoNet protocol of the FB950. The 700 also replaces the lour locks (which can be a source of ink leaks) on all of the ink fittings with barbed fittings. It also has the option to print white. Very nice, and very competitively priced machine.
Our FB950 has been an absolute workhorse. We've had a couple of minor issues, with the largest being the scan pully that was slipping on its shaft, and the part was out of stock at HP. We were down a couple of days (and we ended up fixing ourselves by adding a set screw), but HP took the part off of another machine that they had and sent it over.
Right now, we're in the middle of a 1300 bed job (over 40k sf) that'll take a little over nine days to print running three shifts. We're considering the purchase of an FB700 to help out our 950 a little bit.