HP FB700 Purchase

[cdiesel]

The white's going to depend on your needs.. I just wouldn't recommend going back and forth. Waste of time & $$$. We've had a bunch of jobs that could've used white, but we had to come up with other ways of doing it instead.

Also, like supersm is saying, don't get the roll to roll option. We have it, but often don't use it. We do just like he does--set the roll on the table and go. Sure, there's no take-up reel, but if you start the roll rolling itself up, it'll actually keep going most of the time by itself on the output table. Oh, and the roll option is like $20k.

 

[HulkSmash]

The white's going to depend on your needs.. I just wouldn't recommend going back and forth. Waste of time & $$$. We've had a bunch of jobs that could've used white, but we had to come up with other ways of doing it instead.

Also, like supersm is saying, don't get the roll to roll option. We have it, but often don't use it. We do just like he does--set the roll on the table and go. Sure, there's no take-up reel, but if you start the roll rolling itself up, it'll actually keep going most of the time by itself on the output table. Oh, and the roll option is like $20k.

ahhhh. Thanks. Saved me quite a few bucks there.

 

[10sacer]

Colorado,

I have a colleague running two of these in Atlanta. he likes the machine, leaves the white out, has roll machines to do roll goods, and has to constantly hound HP to get service and HP's demo center is literally 15 miles away.

Stay on them for good service and support and you should be ok.

Sean

 

[Gino]

I was told many times by almost all of the various manufacturer's reps, don't get white, unless you are going to use it almost everyday. Even in the bigger machines with their huge agitators, it can't keep it properly mixed, unless you use it at least everyday. That could mean a great waste of money just for keeping it printing and then the cleaning of it and the white to my understanding is more expensive than the regular colors.

Ours is six colors and I'm glad we got that instead of the first one we looked at with only four. Not many people will see a difference, but it makes it that you can do virtually anything that comes down the pike, especially nice backlits. It does wonders for that.

We have the roll to roll, but rarely use it. Just last week, I had to make a couple of replacement panels for a job where some panels got damaged and while they were on the job, instead of wasting the time setting it up, because I was in the middle of printing Cor-X, I had to reset the head height and I just put a new roll on one of our 15" double rollers for the old Gerber's and it unrolled fine for almost 40' If you're careful, and don't need the roll to roll capabilities, you can go without it. I would think if you're intending to run full rolls of 150' of banner or vinyl at a time.... then I'd re-consider and get it.

 

[Dice]

Few details on the FB700.

- It's difficult to print thin sheet materials like posterboard and sentra. You can do it, but the alignment bar doesn't go all the way down on the belt causing thin materials to slip under it.

- It has issues printing and sending files to it at the same time.

- Older than 4 months ago the FB700's had a different motherboard than the current ones. The new one has a faster chip and a gigabit network card.

- If you don't get white off the bad, you can convert it, it's a small change to convert it over. Does not require a tech.

- When you get it installed make sure you look over everything for damage. Be there and watch your installer, don't trust these guys to know how to run a forklift properly.

This thing costs more than some Ferrari's. Make them treat it as such.


All and All it's an awesome printer, can't beat the quality.

 

[HulkSmash]

Thanks for all the information.
Sean, i was always leaning towards the CET, it just seems the FB has more versatility.

 

[parrott]

Thanks for all the information.
Sean, i was always leaning towards the CET, it just seems the FB has more versatility.

These are the two that I have been eyeing and like you, I am leaning towards the FB. I am no expert on flatbeds, but to me it seems that you would get much more production out of the belt driven as opposed to a true vacuum flatbed. No masking off and continuos production is key.

 

[particleman]

The FB is designed to keep substrate moving through the machine, if you haven't seen a demo of how it loads you should, it is really slick. Just the savings in loading time alone has been a big benefit for us. The way the belt is designed really makes it hard to justify a true flatbed for most people. The belt is permanent, fixed, and cannot walk, a common issue on other hybrid machines. It realy does track great.

 

[SignManiac]

+1. Yep!

 

[10sacer]

As with any equipment purchase - there are many options and a wide variety to choose from - it all boils down to what will work best for you in a day to day production environment.

There are folks that love HP and folks that will never buy another piece of equipment from them - same with Vutek, Durst, Fuji, etc. Same goes with cars and hamburgers - I guess. Everyone has different experiences and come to sites like this to get real world experiences to help make a determination.

I wish you the best of luck in whomever you buy this thing from and going forward with it in production.

 

[pro rapper]

I'm just going to say you both give good service. I've bought a bunch from big fish, and I've talked to Matt. Thanks both of you for good service.

Boy o boy was that a safe answer

 

[HulkSmash]

Boy o boy was that a safe answer

I'm not the one who needs a safe answer. I'm the buyer.

 

[pro rapper]

I'm not the one who needs a safe answer. I'm the buyer.

Your 100%right tim

 

[johnnysigns]

No bendable inks for this thing yet?

 

[signs2trade]

No bendable inks for this thing yet?

Inks seem to bend fine, its the stretching that becomes a problem.

 

[johnnysigns]

You're heat bending the inks with good success? What about bends on coroplast?

 

[signs2trade]

No heat necessary, you can fold a piece of coro and the ink will not crack or peel.

 

[ForgeInc]

I think I mentioned in this thread or another one some problems we have our machine. It is still not functioning properly. Our local tech has replaced everything he could think of, and after many phone calls, we finally have a higher level HP tech flying in from Chicago today to hopefully get us running normal again.

I'm tellin ya. When your only flatbed is down for nearly a week and you have orders for stuff we can't print properly, it really makes you re-think the whole "we are almost getting busy enough to purchase another one of these flatbeds" scenario.

I'll keep ya posted.

 

[cdiesel]

That sucks Forge. HP's service is definitely a weak spot for them. We've been fortunate enough to not have many issues. The big issue that we had took longer than acceptable to fix.

 

[parrott]

Sorry to hear about your printer going down, but also appreciate your honesty. You never want to hear just the positives on a piece of equipment. I want to hear about all the real world experiences and headaches that you face on a day to day basis.