HP L25500 Latex vs Mimaki UJV-160 Hybrid

[poster printer mutoh]

Which one and why?

we mainly print vinyl banners and polypropylene posters.

 

[Freese]

Which one and why?

we mainly print vinyl banners and polypropylene posters.

Right away I'm thinking Latex.

UV printing is best for rigid materials, which banners are NOT.

UV ink hardens like a thin plastic, so printing it on such a non-rigid substrate won't end well.

let me know if you have any other questions

 

[MikePro]

solvent and latex can be used in many more applications than UV printing... including vehicle wraps, banners, and nearly everything a UV printer can produce.
Printing direct to substrate is nice tho', if you're into that kind of thing, but that's about all it will do.
solvent/latex = flexibility. ...literally.

 

[BigfishDM]

Well if you go to latex you can now buy poster gloss paper for $0.08 a sq.ft and your banner pricing will be in line with normal solvent banner so $0.13-$0.18 a sq.ft

42" Latex is only $7900.00 and 60" is about $17,500.00

there is a user group just for latex users at:

http://hpl25500users.ning.com/

 

[97GTB]

Right away I'm thinking Latex.

UV printing is best for rigid materials, which banners are NOT.

UV ink hardens like a thin plastic, so printing it on such a non-rigid substrate won't end well.

That depends on what UV ink you use Mimaki do 2 types for the UJV-160 LH-100 which hardens like most UV inks and is designed for rigid material.

And the also have LF-200 (made by 3M under licence) which is a flexible ink and has been specially designed for non-rigid material even conformable for wraps. I think the ink can stretch by 200% before causing problems.

 

[National Sign Co. - Print]

solvent and latex can be used in many more applications than UV printing... including vehicle wraps, banners, and nearly everything a UV printer can produce.
Printing direct to substrate is nice tho', if you're into that kind of thing, but that's about all it will do.
solvent/latex = flexibility. ...literally.

Not true... We have a Roll 2 roll UV production machine that prints on banner and vinyl just as well if not better than our solvent machines. The ink is 200% flexible in both directions we do not do wraps with it due to the silvering effect you get when you lam dark colors. Throughput is over 2000 s/f per hour at better print quality than solvent produces at half that speed.

Latex is the next best however s/f/h is slower. Quality is the best of all R2R printing technology but you will lack in overall speed.

Solvent is a dated technology and you will never get speed or quality from those machines in real time production.

Solvent is still best solution for wraps but that is about the only benefit.

 

[Kentucky Wraps]

Not true... We have a Roll 2 roll UV production machine that prints on banner and vinyl just as well if not better than our solvent machines. The ink is 200% flexible in both directions we do not do wraps with it due to the silvering effect you get when you lam dark colors. Throughput is over 2000 s/f per hour at better print quality than solvent produces at half that speed.

Latex is the next best however s/f/h is slower. Quality is the best of all R2R printing technology but you will lack in overall speed.

Solvent is a dated technology and you will never get speed or quality from those machines in real time production.

Solvent is still best solution for wraps but that is about the only benefit.

The silvering under the laminate is only half of it...don't forget the innability to stretch the image on the vinyl like you can with solvent.

 

[National Sign Co. - Print]

like i said the ink in our UV r2r is flexible up to 200% in both directions.
I stretches just like solvent no problem..

We have wrapped two of our own HHR shop vehicles UV just to see how it would work when we fist got the machine.

Silvering is the issue... Because ink is on media not in it...

 

[poster printer mutoh]

Thanks for the replies, all good info from everyone. :U Rock:

 

[MachServTech]

Solvent is still best solution for wraps but that is about the only benefit.

I think most who have a Latex machine will agree it is far superior than solvent for wraps beause of no wait to lam and its stretchability.

 

[signswi]

Not true... We have a Roll 2 roll UV production machine that prints on banner and vinyl just as well if not better than our solvent machines. The ink is 200% flexible in both directions we do not do wraps with it due to the silvering effect you get when you lam dark colors. Throughput is over 2000 s/f per hour at better print quality than solvent produces at half that speed.

Latex is the next best however s/f/h is slower. Quality is the best of all R2R printing technology but you will lack in overall speed.

Solvent is a dated technology and you will never get speed or quality from those machines in real time production.

Solvent is still best solution for wraps but that is about the only benefit.

Not sure I'd agree Latex is the best quality of all R2R, Epson GS6000 is pretty hard to beat in image quality. Latex is great tech though, can't wait to see what the R2R market is like in a couple of years with these recent disruptors.

 

[National Sign Co. - Print]

Not sure I'd agree Latex is the best quality of all R2R, Epson GS6000 is pretty hard to beat in image quality. Latex is great tech though, can't wait to see what the R2R market is like in a couple of years with these recent disruptors.

Epson is not a production printer what is the max speed 100s/f/h?
Same arena as Mimaki,Roland and Mutoh

In my world our LX800 has the best quality I have ever seen on a Grand Format R2R printer.

Solvent is a dying breed with no new innovation in technology since 2005.

 

[MachServTech]

Not sure I'd agree Latex is the best quality of all R2R, Epson GS6000 is pretty hard to beat in image quality. Latex is great tech though, can't wait to see what the R2R market is like in a couple of years with these recent disruptors.

I liked the GS6000 especially for the image quality, but recently I have heard of issues with the yellow ink fading far too quickly.