Fading Issues on Gerber ION

[Rooster]

How would you feel if you dropped $100K on a UV printer and were told this new UV ink will hold up 3+ years outdoor with no over laminate. You buy the printer and 6 months later you have customers returning signs which are fading. I guess in Texas, the Gerber ink does not work well.
I have printed signs with my Roland printer which have been outdoors for 2+ years and they have not faded at all.

I'm not trying to make light of your situation as I feel your pain. There are sometimes disadvantages to early adoption of new technologies. For all the years I've been printing inkjet, the main issues tend to be related to the inks. UV inks are still pretty new in the grand scheme of things. I'm sure they'll get better with time.

Once you guys sort out all the issues I'll probably put a UV printer on my floor. Right now the equipment seems very specialized as is the ink. Nobody seems to make a machine that does everything well. Gerber had the adhesion down, but the inks fades. You might find an ink that will last for 10 years, but will it stick to the variety of products you bought the printer to produce?

I think it's close, but for my conservative (cheap) ass I'm holding out a little longer.

 

[Craig Malmberg]

Up to now, I have had great success with the ION. Colors are great, the inks stick well, and now running at the fastest speed for 4mm coro signs with great success. I am hoping it was just a bad batch of ink. I bought this machine to print on MDO. I am now selling alot more aluminum and coro than before. I bought it for the speed of getting a sign out the door. I did not buy it to add to the process by having to now laminate everything. I was trying to get out of painting and laminating everthing.

If you think investing in equipment as throw away you must not be a stakeholder. Put your money up an see how you feel when sometells you what you invested in is going to be a paperwieght in five years.

 

[Tom Dalton]

I wonder if the fading issue is JUST in the Ion. The CAT-UV uses Cationic inks that are different than what the Ion uses.. Nobody in this thread has said anything negative about the CAT-UV fading early, so I'll assume that the issued (for those that have it) is only on the Gerber-Ion and not the Gerber CAT-UV.

For our company it wouldn't be an issue anyway because we don't print "long-term use" signs on our CAT-UV, but I'd still want to know if a similar issue appeared on the CAT-UV.

T

 

[econolinesigns]

Cationic Ink is the same for both the Ion and the Cat-UV as far as I know. The only difference between the two printers are the print heads. Fading is an issue but it is no different that any other UV printer. It all depends on the environment the prints are installed into.

 

[HSG_IN]

We've had one of these since they came out. It's been nothing but problems and expensive repairs. It is a very versatile machine but it's not worth the trouble. We've not had anyone come in complaining of fading yet. Probably just luck, as I'm sure they'll be in sooner or later.