Flat bed ink supplier

[cmwpmm]

Is anyone familiar with Shanghai Super Image Technologies Co? I'm looking into lowering the costs for my CET inks and found these guys. They're really cheap, but being in China I just wanted to see if anyone here has had any dealings with them. I guess you could say I trust the strangers on this site more than the strangers on theirs

 

[greysquirrel]

UV Curable inks are already the cheap...why compromise you 100k printer?

 

[cmwpmm]

Well, I'm obviously not too excited about risking my machine, but my boss is pushing us to cut costs and this was a vendor he came up with. We are making some pretty substantial cuts in other areas, and saving money on ink would always be nice, but I don't want to risk my equipment. I plan to give him a cost analysis showing our potential savings (including several vendors) vs our potential losses (from damage/down time). I was just trying to see if anyone knew this particular supplier. I am looking at some others as well.

 

[VISCOM]

I have a CET Q5 - 1000 gen5 print heads I'm paying $200.00 a liter

 

[JBusch260]

Be sure to factor in cost analysis of color management, or anything that could possibly go wrong with putting new inks in there. I run a CET myself and plan on sticking with genuine CET parts and inks simply to avoid that. They're relatively low maintenance, but if anything goes wrong, be sure to factor in potential downtime also. On top of that, consider how long it could take for that ink to arrive if you are ever in a pinch. Lastly, will that void any warranty you currently have? Best of luck.

 

[Gino]

Unless you go through gallons a day, why would you need to cut costs on about the least costly part of the equation ?? If you go through that much ink, you must be billing out tens of thousands a day in goods. If not, like mentioned..... why risk a machine for a few dollars a month.

Cutting costs should not impair you or your ability to do good work. It would be better to save on the waste of paper towels, heat, air conditioning, deadbeat employees and things which you can let get out of control without thinking. Not vital tools or supplies.

 

[greysquirrel]

Boss pushing to cut costs...how bout check it twice print it once or measure twice and cut once...
compromising a flatbed printer to save pennies is ridick

purchase an eye one and create your own color profiles reducing ink...or even linearize go existing profiles long before changing out the ink...

tell your boss by not switching the ink you just saved him thousands...

''that's the ticket"

 

[truecolors]

I would also echo the same sentiments as everyone else. Cutting costs by using an unfamiliar ink supplier is risky. I would stick with the CET inks because it is a tried-and-true formula, and look into other avenues to cut costs.

 

[BigfishDM]

There are many factors that are never talked about with 3rd party ink. Extra maintenance which equals time which equals money, potential color shift issues from batch to batch, do they offer any print head warranty? What is the protocol when a problem comes up? Is their any local support when it does screw up? (I guarantee to you it will screw up at one point) Who else is running those inks in the printer you have? (They should be able to provide you this information)

 

[Andy D]

We changed inks a few times on our Jeti printers, due to the fact that the Gandi inks sucked,
And just switched from Agfa G1 inks to G5 inks on our Anapurna.

I don't know about your printer, but it has never been a simple thing to switch UV inks
for us, a tech has always had to come in and flush the whole system, change ink filters, ect.
It typically costs $3,000 to $5,000 for the switch over. I agree with everyone else, unless you having
issues with your UV inks, don't switch... but If I were to switch, I would stick with a reputable ink supplier
like Nazdar, Agfa, or Fuji..... or You're just asking for a world of headaches and misery.

 

[Andy D]

Just wanted to add, the main difference between a high quality and cheap ink, vinyl, ect. is quality control.
It may look great and last just as long outside at first, but eventually, cheap will screw you over.

The Gandi ink I mentioned was like that, worked fine for a long time, and then I would get bad batches
in that would shut down production. The last straw was when they changed their ink up (apparently they would
always switch their ink product supplier to whoever was cheapest that month) and there was a bad reaction to
their cleaning solvent that basically turned the ink into jello in our lines and printheads... I switched over to Agfa
3 years ago and haven't had an issue since...