HP latex 360 waste

[jawdavis]

I understand your frustration 100% but I don't believe this machine was designed with the idea in mind of maximizing every single square inch of material usage. I have some materials that I can load, then rewind to where the origin is only 1-3" from the leading edge and start , much like our old Roland and but that can be risky of course. I have other materials where the liner paper is so rigid, that I have to feed it all the way out the front just to get it to lay flat and feed properly. If it were me, I would cut 12-18" strips of a much cheaper material with a similar thickness then tape it to the leading edge and let it do all the loading and hard work and start the print just inside your masking tape to maximize usage. If you get in the habit of this, it probably won't even add 60 seconds to the whole process.

 

[BIG EASY DOES IT]

There is alot alot going on in this thread. To touch on the OPs question though about reducing waste. Don't with this material. If you print on HIP or DG you should always use edge holders and give yourself 12" of space from the pinch rollers out. This material buckles and warps alot. Especially when the heaters are revving up. A good headstrike will cost you way more then the 12" of material. If you don't want to wait to gang stuff up on jobs. Just take your 5 signs quoted as normal and then divide the $9 of waste accross all 5 and add them up. If I have to buy a roll of vinyl for a customer special they pay for the full roll even if they only want one sticker. If you have to run the printer to make their signs then they should pay for any waste associated. All of this should be figured into the cost of all your signs so your pricing never has to change.

 

[BIG EASY DOES IT]

Ha! Welcome to the pitfalls of the HP360. I keep trying tell people but do they listen? We change our media type 5-6 times a day. Some jobs as small as 2 or three inches. Change from wrap vinyl to banner stock, to decal, back to wrap vinyl, and so on and so on. the 360 is a pia

That is more a poor choice in production method. You shouldn't be using a Large Format Printer to print 3" of material. It is a roll printer. Made to print full rolls of material. You should try changing the way you operate. Take orders, classify orders as decal, banner, or wrap. Monday is Banner print day, Tuesday is Decal print day, Wednesday is Wrap day. Load a material for the day and be done. If your changing that often then you could hold on to some and gang everything together. Just a thought.

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

I thought we were penny pinchers... some on here take the cake! You can turn off top margin in the printer settings... for the people wasting $9 worth of material are you pre-webbing the take up? Even on reflective materials we only lose the first 9" so that's what $4.50 tops for 680Cv3.

We are currently running a project for a large client that involves 55 rolls printed end to end seamless 4pass Black and white. On a 1800" roll we lose 30" - 6" leader and 2' Tail (This tail is mostly because of the pattern) and on the 3600" rolls we only lose 24" - 6" leader 1' tail. Its a great machine when used as intended... its not a short run champ.

Since we adopted Latex in 2010 we had to change our print/operation methodology to as suggested earlier to reduce material loading and unloading, guess what... Our productivity has sharply increased.

 

[BIG EASY DOES IT]

I thought we were penny pinchers... some on here take the cake! You can turn off top margin in the printer settings... for the people wasting $9 worth of material are you pre-webbing the take up? Even on reflective materials we only lose the first 9" so that's what $4.50 tops for 680Cv3.

We are currently running a project for a large client that involves 55 rolls printed end to end seamless 4pass Black and white. On a 1800" roll we lose 30" - 6" leader and 2' Tail (This tail is mostly because of the pattern) and on the 3600" rolls we only lose 24" - 6" leader 1' tail. Its a great machine when used as intended... its not a short run champ.

Since we adopted Latex in 2010 we had to change our print/operation methodology to as suggested earlier to reduce material loading and unloading, guess what... Our productivity has sharply increased.

We print Reflective materials meant for permanent traffic signage. 3M Diamond Grade $2.50 sq/ft and that's cheaper then most will get it. 12" leader on a 48" roll is 4sq/ft. $10. We have more expensive material then that also but for obvious reasons I don't print on it. That school yellow/green can be almost $4.50sq/ft.

 

[PRS Bryan]

I thought we were penny pinchers... some on here take the cake! You can turn off top margin in the printer settings... for the people wasting $9 worth of material are you pre-webbing the take up? Even on reflective materials we only lose the first 9" so that's what $4.50 tops for 680Cv3.

We are currently running a project for a large client that involves 55 rolls printed end to end seamless 4pass Black and white. On a 1800" roll we lose 30" - 6" leader and 2' Tail (This tail is mostly because of the pattern) and on the 3600" rolls we only lose 24" - 6" leader 1' tail. Its a great machine when used as intended... its not a short run champ.

Since we adopted Latex in 2010 we had to change our print/operation methodology to as suggested earlier to reduce material loading and unloading, guess what... Our productivity has sharply increased.

If i was printing roll to roll, as you are, I would not care about the $9 either. Unfortunately I may be printing 10 projects over 3 days resulting in $90 of profit loss. This is not a necessary waste, my VS-540 wastes very little material. A feature that HP never mentioned in their literature or their clearly selective cost comparison with the Roland.

Also the 300 series "intended purpose" was never disclosed. I would never have bought a printer intended for roll to roll, because that is not what I do. It's intended purpose was reveled after many people spent many thousands of dollars for a machine that does not fit their needs.

 

[Vinyldog]

I do all things previously mentioned. You can also save the 24" x 54" leaders you cut off and tape them end to end. Put them on a core and make a 24in wide roll.
Not saying it's worth the time but it works if you want to do it.

 

[BIG EASY DOES IT]

You could also donate them to a school or daycare for activities and then write the whole amount off as a charity donation.

 

[myront]

That is more a poor choice in production method...

Unfortunately neither I, the designer, nor the actual print tech was consulted when the purchase of this printer was considered. You think the HP salesperson would have disclosed this information? Why would they? They made the sale, right! Oh well, we're stuck with it now.

And yes, we gang up as many jobs as possible when printing on certain medias. Very rarely do we print full rolls.

I too, suggested using a leader for the take up to reduce waste but hasn't been implemented as of yet. We also use a workaround for the tensioner rod which, ironically, is the way the 560 has it now.

And just to clarify, I have no complaints to the quality of the latex prints. just wish the color "vibrancy" was there at the advertised speed i.e. lower passes.

 

[Vinyldog]

My SP540V requires a leader also unless I want a head-strike. Not as much as the HP but, if you're going to obsess on material waste you really need to look at only how much more that printer uses than the usual, not how much total. Because you are going to have waste no matter what machine you run.
To me the leader is much less of a problem than the issues I've had with mis-tracking and head-strikes on other machines I've worked with. That wasted a LOT of material.
I think after you use the machine a while this is just not going to seem like as big of a issue.