Epson SureColor S30670 vs. HP Latex L26500

[Ditchmiester]

I'm interested in getting a solvent or latex printer. I know some of you will say what the hell this guy was just talking about used flatbeds or UV printers. But my boss has me researching pretty much everything, there are a couple of ways we can go about printing our products and with the roll to roll maybe even expand a little bit into new products or markets.

Here are a couple of my questions:

1) Will either of them print will on to 10mil clear polycarb?
2) Ease of use? As this will be our first foray into digital printing(besides printing film positives for screen printing).
3) Maybe other options for printers other than these two? Looking in the under 20K range.
4) RIP programs?
5) Anything new on the horizon I should be waiting to see. Not in any hurry to purchase anything.

Thanks again to all of you out there.

 

[Jack Knight1979]

You would need a full solvent machine to print on poly. I think latex may do it, but that sounds like a flatbed substrate.

 

[Ditchmiester]

Would a Mimaki JV33-130 be considered full solvent?

 

[artbot]

10mil poly is thin thin thin. a mimaki can print on up to 80mil and more. my jv3 can do 125mil after just sanding the tops of of to little screws letting the height adjustment go a tad bit higher.

 

[Ditchmiester]

Yeah, I figured thickness would be fine but how about adhesion? Do I have to find a Polycarb (lexan) that is treated with something to be solvent printable or are their companies out there who sell untreated rolls in widths to fit solvent printers like 54 or 60? I've seen a lot of stuff that is made for aqueous printers, but i'm having a hard time finding clear polycarb with a velvet finish made for solvent printers.

 

[artbot]

i've put the bayer (grained) 10mil in the jv3 before. get the heat just right and it prints and incredible resolution. it's clear of course, so over printing (2x) is usually recommended unless mounting it to an opaque backer. no coating would ever be required for polycarb. it's a very solvent sensitive plastic.

 

[Ditchmiester]

@artbot

Do you have a link for the bayer 10mil polycarb. I tried searching for it but couldn't find it. We would be mounting them to an opaque backer. Would you recommend a full solvent machine over something like the epson surecolor?

 

[artbot]

if you can get away with the hp latex, get that. it is a much friendlier printer and i believe it will make you more money. cheap heads, prints look better, cheaper, just a better printer tech. the 10mil bayer carb is the most common of them all. i figure you could call tekra

http://www.tekra.com/content/products

they are the leading industrial film reseller. they won't only have what you are looking for but 10 different version of it that you've never heard of that work better.

 

[Jack Knight1979]

That's pretty impressive that a mimaki can run that thick, artbot. I suppose I could do the same with a roland, if I modded it, but they are not setup to print very thick at all. Granted 10mil is the thickness of poster paper which a roland can run, obviously.

The feed calibration on a roland is minimal and will not accept much in terms of thickness.

 

[artbot]

if it weren't for the stupid pinch rollers being set so low on the gantry, 1/4" would be a piece of cake. but for now, if you have a jv3 (possibly other OEM's) you can at least run 1/8" with just an hour's modification. i have a folder with the pics of the modification somewhere. i'm building a giant flatbed right now. but still, i'm considering taking the gantry of the jv3 off and shimming it up 1/4". it would then be my "high res" pinch roller flatbed and the dedicated flatbed can be my texture printing machine.

 

[Slamboni]

1) Will either of them print will on to 10mil clear polycarb?

we have an L26500 that prints to High Intensity reflective. Pretty thick, but not ten mil.

2) Ease of use? As this will be our first foray into digital printing(besides printing film positives for screen printing).

The HP is pretty easy to Use. We use it with flexi and import .pdfs from illustrator and they look great riping through SAi Production Manager

3) Maybe other options for printers other than these two? Looking in the under 20K range.

I've heard Epson is one of the only printers that can match Pantones, so if that factors into your decision you might want to go that way.

4) RIP programs?

I've used Caldera, Onyx, and Flexi and Flexi feels more convenient. They all incorporate similar settings, I guess it would just be preference.

5) Anything new on the horizon I should be waiting to see. Not in any hurry to purchase anything.

I heard Mimaki is getting spanked by hp and they are looking to step their latex game up here pretty soon.

 

[CS-SignSupply-TT]

Tim Turner, CiberSupply with a question

That's pretty impressive that a mimaki can run that thick, artbot. I suppose I could do the same with a roland, if I modded it, but they are not setup to print very thick at all. Granted 10mil is the thickness of poster paper which a roland can run, obviously.

The feed calibration on a roland is minimal and will not accept much in terms of thickness.

pm sent!

 

[Ditchmiester]

@slamboni

Thanks for the input.

 

[Ditchmiester]

I ordered a roll of 48 1/2" by 100ft roll of .007" Polycarb from Curbell for test printing on solvent and latex printers. Anyone used this product for this purpose before?