How much printing will a set of inks do?

[GAC05]

This is what I got out of my 1304 this weekend:

End to end 4 rolls of 40" x 164' banner material
end to end 2 rolls of 54" x 164' adhesive vinyl
65ft of of 42" adhesive vinyl
Most of it was full coverage - layouts had some white space in them.
I totaled up all the square footage using the layouts and got around 3200 square feet

I have 5 empty 220mil carts
1 half empty 440mil cart
220 carts in the machine are at K11%(original cart that came with the printer) C98%, M74% & Y98%(440ml)


This translated into
84 18"x72" double sided vertical banners
9 3'x10' single sided horizontal banners
3 2'x10' single sided horizontal banners
100 40"x40" window posters (with a few odd larger and smaller sizes in the last 10pc)
100 12"x20" single sided posters
A bunch of small odd sized prints that ranged from 5"x5" to 14"x12" along with several scaled down proofs for each file to check the profiles for color and quality.

All this stuff is for outdoor display - 130z banner material - nothing laminated.
(It will all go in to the trash in 6 months)


Not sure how it all works out cuz this thing is brand new
but it seemed like a lot of print for the amount of ink used.


wayne k
guam usa

 

[grafixemporium]

I guess the more important question is how far away is more ink if you need it? We can get ink same day if we pick it up or next day if we want it delivered. So, we keep and as-needed inventory of ink with one extra set on hand at all times. When a cartridge gets replaced, we order another. If we're printing a fleet of wraps, we order a little extra.

There's no sense tying up $1000 in ink that just sits on your shelf if you can order it as needed.

By the way, We have used twice as many magenta 440ml cartridges than we have cyan or yellow. And maybe 3/4 as many blacks as cyans and yellows. So, just keep an eye on your magentas.

 

[Mainframe]

Pat, congrats on getting a printer, your gonna LOVE IT! & remember you heard it from me, your gonna say you shoulda done it sooner. And as far as ink goes you will be happy with the coverage you get, I remember wondering the same thing when I got my Roland & was surprised how far the ink goes, but how much you keep on hand depends on how quick you can get it, I just keep 4 to 6 carts on hand at all times, I usually order 4 every time I order to get free shipping & to keep overlap, just don't get busy & forget to reorder,,remember you heard that here also!

 

[Stealth Ryder]

Pat, congrats on getting a printer, your gonna LOVE IT! & remember you heard it from me, your gonna say you shoulda done it sooner. And as far as ink goes you will be happy with the coverage you get, I remember wondering the same thing when I got my Roland & was surprised how far the ink goes, but how much you keep on hand depends on how quick you can get it, I just keep 4 to 6 carts on hand at all times, I usually order 4 every time I order to get free shipping & to keep overlap, just don't get busy & forget to reorder,,remember you heard that here also!

Good Advice...

 

[Techman]

my usage is about as stated above...

Averages a total of couple milliliters per square foot of all the colors.. Then you add in usage for priming, cleaning, and spills.

I used about 1000 ML of ink last year and printed about 5 rolls of material of various widths.
Yellow goes fast and magenta goes just about as fast. Black uses very little and cyan is a distant third in usage.

Ink costs are negligible.. What hurts is when you get half done with a print and it drops a spatter, or ink misses a lap, or a cart quits.

It really hurts when you print a job and find a small error. It can never be fixed. You will use very little cut vinyl anymore and not much in clipart. You will use lots of photos...

 

[zmatalucci]

your ink usage will be determined by your designs. (IMO)
I love blues, and go through cyan a lot! Ink usage is negligible as stated above. I always keep an extra cmyk on hand.

 

[Mainframe]

As far as bad prints, I went & bought every color sharpie I could find & you would be surprised what you can cover with a few color combos from those pens!

 

[Stealth Ryder]

As far as bad prints, I went & bought every color sharpie I could find & you would be surprised what you can cover with a few color combos from those pens!

Smart Thinking Sir...