GS6000 vs. the new Seiko W-64s

[Rydaddy]

Good info. I agree... the JV33 is a work horse adn we love ours. We looked at the HP latex in Vegas. The price was good but there were too many variables this early in the game. I think a latex flatbed would be cool if they can figure ou the temperature vs. substrate battle.

We unloaded the Epson off the truck about 2 hours ago. Can't wait to have it built and running.

Really looking forward to your input as you move along with it. I'm considering trying to find a used jv33 to replace a jv3 to go along with our gs6000.

Make sure that you, the install tech, whoever... levels and measures that the infeed roll and take up reel are both level to the platen, each other, and then pat it on the back and say "good girl" before your first print job. I think not everyone of these that come off the line are built as well as the next. Here's hoping you get a good one!

 

[boxerbay]

We looked at both and bought the Epson GS6000. The new seiko is the same old tech as the old 64s but new covers. ink smelly too.

Tired of hearing these "I heard the yellow fades in a year" please send a link.

We have prints outside with no lam on a tool box in a boat yard exposed to sea salt, sun and harsh enviro and the decals are good as new.

It all depends on your market. If all you do is outdoor banners then get a machine that does that well. If you do more indoor fine art stuff then get the machine that does that well.

we print simple banners in 2 pass mode and they fly out of the machine with decent quality. colorburst rip works well and hit pantones really good.

we're happy with the Epson gs6000 - I see for others it wasn't a good fit. Not all shops have the same work. Buy what works for well your shop.

 

[FishnSigns]

We have been up and running for a few days now with the new GS6000. The machine prints great on vinyl but we are still working through some issues printing banner material. The ink saturation isn't quite what it needs to be and the material continues to buckle. We are trying to turn down the heaters and increase the ink limits. Is anyone out there using Wasatch to drive their Epson? We have had great luck with Wasatch running our Mimaki printers but we may need a little help building a solid profile for banners on the Epson. Any suggestions? Thanks for the help.

 

[Letterbox Mike]

The machine prints great on vinyl but we are still working through some issues printing banner material. The ink saturation isn't quite what it needs to be and the material continues to buckle. We are trying to turn down the heaters and increase the ink limits.

This is a huge issue with it, in our experience. It can't handle heavy material. On our JV33 we run our banner material at 45/45/50 all day long without a single head strike, we can't run a foot of banner material without getting head strikes, we've tried lowering the heat "dangerously" low down around 32/32/40, and that reduces head strikes a little but doesn't eliminate them, and scratch resistance and durability are greatly reduced at those temperatures. We've tried raising the ink limits to flood it with ink, to increase durability but at lower temperatures, then you have a real drying problem unless you're printing at a super slow speed, which isn't an option, even with our Digi Dryer in front of it...

 

[FishnSigns]

Hmmm.... the things we learn AFTER purchasing a printer. Our JV33 has always been our "go to" for durable banners so I guess we will just keep it that way. I will still do some trouble shooting on the Epson to see if we can figure something out. If we do, I will be sure to post the results so others can use the info. The quality has been amazing for vinyl prints, hope that continues. Thanks for the feedback.

 

[parrott]

We run colorburst and have printed tons of full rolls of 18oz bantex with out any issues. Yes it does walk a little bit, but our operator seems to know how to get through it. The thin/cheap banner material on the other hand does give us issues. Horrible head strikes and even worse ink adhesion due to the low heat settings.

We run this machine every day and have very few issues. We print tons of psv, banners, static clings and posters. The quality is always top notch. The ink duration does have me a bit nervous, but we overlaminate everything. Only time will tell...

 

[Letterbox Mike]

We run colorburst and have printed tons of full rolls of 18oz bantex with out any issues.

That doesn't surprise me about the Bantex, their 18oz stuff is so stiff you can pretty much throw any heat at it and it stays flat as glass. It's thinner banner that's the trouble. We print on Ultraflexx 13oz, which isn't paper thin, nor cheap crap material. It can handle a tremendous amount of heat on our Mimaki, it comes down to Epson's media handling system causing something to go funky. I'm pretty convinced it's because the roll holder is so high up and close to the preheat platen, to me it seems like if it were 6" lower it would feed a lot smoother. Their rigged-up new media feeder lowered the rolls a bit, but it's a jacked up solution at best...

 

[FishnSigns]

Yea, we printed a banner on 18oz Bantex yesterday. We finally got the saturation right and it looked great. There was a "neon" green the client was trying to hit and would not have been possible on the Mimaki. The 18oz stayed flat, it's the darn 13oz that tunnels.

 

[parrott]

The 13oz Bantex prints wonderfully as well. Its the cheapo material that you will have issues with. Better materials = better products.

 

[Rydaddy]

What profile are you using for the bantex 180z.? Do they have a canned profile at 720 4pass? We use 720 4 pass for all banner. Try printing at 30 30 30 for heat and slowly go up until it starts to buckle on you. I think we print it at 43 38 50 with good results.

 

[boxerbay]

we run starflex 13oz at 40-40-40 and it runs all day, no buckles. the buckling is the media/weight/quality. different media have different buckling due to amount of heat. just drop the heat a few clicks until you find the sweet spot for that media. it not the machines problem, it's the material and operators problem. every machine is different. learn to use your tools.

 

[FishnSigns]

We ended up tweaking one of the Wasatch banner profiles to print on the 18oz. We increased the overprint to 2x, this fixed the saturation problem. The client wanted a "neon" green wich up until we purchased the Epson would not have been possible. Still having problems with the cheap banner materials... Even with low heat, still buckling.