Honest Opinion on the HP Scitex FB 700

[labelkills1331]

Currently, my shop is using a Vutek Pressvu 200/600. It's quite a few years old, and the print heads seem to lose jets regularly. Our printing on this machine has slowed down dramatically, we no longer ever print zero smoothing. Given how expensive a full new set of heads are, and a thorough top to bottom cleaning, it almost makes sense to start looking at new machines. Plus, we've been out of warranty for a few years, and have already had to come out of pocket for a few expensive parts. The machine that caught my boss's eye was the HP Scitex FB 700. I wasn't at the last trade show, so I can't post an opinion one way or another. That's why I need your help! What are your thoughts on this machine, upsides, downsides etc. We do a lot of 6mm pvc for tradeshow graphics, acrylic (normally we back paint white), some coroplast, lots of banners, and various ultraboard, 3mm pvc, and sometimes plywood. Is there another machine in the HP's price range that you guys feel would work better for what we use it for?

 

[danno]

We have a FB700. It's a good machine. To verify that it would be the best fit for your shop, I would go and test that machine and a couple others to make sure that it would be the correct fit for you.

 

[Molenbeek]

I would consider how old the technology is. its the same printer that has been out for 5-6 years. It uses a fixed dot picoliter with the Ricoh Gen 3 heads. They are out at the 5th generation now..