-
I want to thank all the members that have upgraded your accounts. I truly appreciate your support of the site monetarily. Supporting the site keeps this site up and running as a lot of work daily goes on behind the scenes. Click to Support Signs101 ...
Hp fb700
- Thread starter cwb143
- Start date
Robert Gruner
New Member
FB700 is an excellent production UV printer. It is a hybrid model which simply means belt fed as opposed to flat table. Actually, if your work profile calls for printing various size flat stock, the hybrid is often a lot easier than a flat table.
I would be glad to provide you references in the TX, OK area.
Bob Gruner
I would be glad to provide you references in the TX, OK area.
Bob Gruner
FishnSigns
New Member
We have been running our FB700 for 3 months now and couldn't be happier. Our standard mode for most projects is "indoor signage". For higher quality prints with large solid areas you may need to switch to "photo" mode. If you are printing text only, short term coro, run in express or billboard mode. The ink is very sticky on coro. We researched the heck out of flatbeds and made the right decision for our operation. Best of luck.
jasonx
New Member
Have you had any adhesion problems or durability issues on coro? I've read alot of people sometimes can have issues (Not FB500/700 specific).
artbot
New Member
i've been jobbing out projects to an fb700 for the last two months. i can't speak to the coro, but the fb700 ink compared to all the flatbed samples i've come across is very delicate and has no solvent resistance whatsoever. my partner was preaching that he wanted an fb and i really feel like i dodged a bullet after working with fb output for the last two months. you have to handle it carefully. and the ink stinks for days. it must be a dual cure ink. because it is not at full cure coming off the printer. i had a freshly printed 4x8 sheet in my van for a day and i had do drive around with the windows down, and i can handle some pretty nasty fumes.
jasonx
New Member
Hey artbot,
I've read your post before. I have no smell coming straight off the machine. All the prints I've done are very scratch resistant I don't have to handle them carefully at all. These substrates have been coro, foamed pvc, comp panel.
Here's a video of a scratch test with my finger nail. I can only remove ink if I basically scratch the coro like make an indent with the corner of my nail etc.
http://videobam.com/iuDMk
Was yours worse then this or at the same level?
artbot
New Member
the print room that i pick up the prints from is fine. of course that room has a scrubber. when you pack up the prints and have them sitting in an unscrubbed room, that is when i can smell them outgassing for a few days. the scratch resistance, i'll have to do the same type of test with. all my parts are cut with either a track saw or a router. so the edges are fragile (not so with other inks). but what you are showing does make me think that my vendor isn't using enough UV. i've got some more parts being printed soon. i'll ask them if they are half dosing or what.
jasonx
New Member
Cheers for that. I'll let you know in the future when I print onto a substrate I'm going to rip through with a circular saw and let you know how the ink holds up. Most of our work is display type work and cutting through it with a blade type cutter isn't an issue with the ink cracking etc.
I did a pressure hose test also. From 2" + distance no problem. From less then 1" I could start to remove the ink. This was on coro.
ForgeInc
New Member
I replied to this before the site got hosed and lost a few days of posts...our prints have no smell whatsoever either. Only adhesion problems we run into is a bit of chipping when cutting acrylic or petg post-print, and if we use an adhesion promoter it pretty much solves it.
speaking from experience our prints smell way less than vuteks, perhaps you can mess with lamp settings or the amount of ink that is getting layed down?
speaking from experience our prints smell way less than vuteks, perhaps you can mess with lamp settings or the amount of ink that is getting layed down?
I dont notice the Offgasing until I go next door and grab a beer to bring back to the shop (of course only after closing) Then I still can't smell it, but I taste it. Its weird. You do need a good 24 hour cure on the Prints. Mine the print is fairly fragile up to about 24 hours, then its Rock solid.
I hear ya! I think we need some kind of ventilator. We found out the FB700 dosn't like thin material. say .015 or less. There simply isn't enough vacuum on a hybrid style printer. Its not as fast as I'd hoped. All said and done I think we are slower than we were but print nicer quality. It only has 12 print heads so the banding is bigger than I'm used to. It has alot of automation features that are good.
ForgeInc
New Member
Did you try printing shuttered vs non shuttered? It sometimes helps with our banding in black areas.
We also had some weird banding issues we couldn't resolve when one of our machines had a vacuum issue. Once it was fixed, banding lessened.
Tried it. The glossier it gets the worse it is for just Solid 1 color or 2 color prints. Because we do alot of scree printing. We try to take on some of those jobs and they don't quiet look good as the screen prints. I believe just about anyone can digitally print photos but when it comes to artwork the lawnmower effect comes into play and then speed becomes an issue. Because you have to go up to a higher quality mode and that slows you way way down. But for small runs this isn't much of an issue but for large runs say 2 or 300 and more that is an issue.