HP Latex Decisions...

[TomK]

Been shopping for upgrades to our Gerber equipment for a couple of months now, as we expand our business...

Looks like Roland is going to lose another potential sale to HP Latex...


I can get the HP 110 or 310 with Graphtec FC8600-130 Plotter for cheaper then Roland will do for the VS-540i, and slightly more expensive than the VS-300i. If I "drop down" to the HP 110 and same plotter, I'm still cheaper than the Roland SP-540i.


And this is talking to 2 different Roland dealers, they just don't care about moving off of list price, nice to be Roland I guess, for now anyhow.


All of this still cheaper than a Gerber Edge FX upgrade, if anyone wonders why Gerber will be getting out of the print business, here's your answer.


And Summa, as soon as I asked for gradient samples, they stopped responding to me.


Have to make a decision tomorrow, now the tough part is figuring out which HP model to go with, the cost delta between the 110 and 310 is pretty minimal, the ink cost savings on the 310 makes the ROI pretty short.


Exciting stuff!

 

[Robert Gruner]

Tom,

If you want to save more money, buy an FC8600-75 for $2K less than 54" cutter. You can die-cut decals with 30" cutter all day long.

 

[Hotspur]

Been shopping for upgrades to our Gerber equipment for a couple of months now, as we expand our business...

Looks like Roland is going to lose another potential sale to HP Latex...


I can get the HP 110 or 310 with Graphtec FC8600-130 Plotter for cheaper then Roland will do for the VS-540i, and slightly more expensive than the VS-300i. If I "drop down" to the HP 110 and same plotter, I'm still cheaper than the Roland SP-540i.


And this is talking to 2 different Roland dealers, they just don't care about moving off of list price, nice to be Roland I guess, for now anyhow.


All of this still cheaper than a Gerber Edge FX upgrade, if anyone wonders why Gerber will be getting out of the print business, here's your answer.


And Summa, as soon as I asked for gradient samples, they stopped responding to me.


Have to make a decision tomorrow, now the tough part is figuring out which HP model to go with, the cost delta between the 110 and 310 is pretty minimal, the ink cost savings on the 310 makes the ROI pretty short.


Exciting stuff!

You might regret choosing Graphtec over Summa.

ignoring the usual benefits a Summa brings...for Latex only Summa will give you accuracy.

latex will give a bit of distortion to all SAV so your cut lines will never quite match the print - especially in the middle of the print.

Summas have a unique feature - OPOS XY - which prints in the rip a long black line in front of your image.

the Summas measure the line to see if the latex has distorted the print - if so, the cut lines are distorted to match so your cut job is accurate.

if you have a latex and require accurate cutting you really need a Summa.

 

[BIG EASY DOES IT]

Tom,

If you want to save more money, buy an FC8600-75 for $2K less than 54" cutter. You can die-cut decals with 30" cutter all day long.

Why would you want to limit your capabilities by getting a 54" printer and then getting a 30" plotter. DO NOT DO THIS.

 

[BIG EASY DOES IT]

You might regret choosing Graphtec over Summa.

ignoring the usual benefits a Summa brings...for Latex only Summa will give you accuracy.

latex will give a bit of distortion to all SAV so your cut lines will never quite match the print - especially in the middle of the print.

Summas have a unique feature - OPOS XY - which prints in the rip a long black line in front of your image.

the Summas measure the line to see if the latex has distorted the print - if so, the cut lines are distorted to match so your cut job is accurate.

if you have a latex and require accurate cutting you really need a Summa.

I think his issue wasn't with summa the plotter but with summa the foil printer/plotter. The summa cutter especially a tangential cutter is awesome and no one will go against that. But the foil printing capabilities leave much to be desired especially when talking about the gradients.

 

[Bly]

Why would you want to limit your capabilities by getting a 54" printer and then getting a 30" plotter. DO NOT DO THIS.

We got a 48" Summa cutter on price.
Buying a wider cutter would have saved hours of labour cutting down 54" rolls after printing to fit.

It was a great cutter but the 64" means we can load any width vinyl straight off the printer.
And yes the OPOS XY is worth the price alone.

 

[Robert Gruner]

Big Easy,

Unless you are cutting decals like "fatheads"; why do you need a 54" cutter married to 54" printer?

Most end users are looking to cut small decals. Buy a 30" cutter and print on 30" vinyl. End user can save $2K plus on vinyl cutter.

Just a thought! I rarely see end users cutting 54" wide graphics?

 

[TomK]

Big Easy,

Unless you are cutting decals like "fatheads"; why do you need a 54" cutter married to 54" printer?

Most end users are looking to cut small decals. Buy a 30" cutter and print on 30" vinyl. End user can save $2K plus on vinyl cutter.

Just a thought! I rarely see end users cutting 54" wide graphics?

Agree on 54" cut only jobs, but this month alone, we had 5 or 6 jobs that were > 30" decal only, and the wife is getting sick of paneling these together. The $$ on the larger cutters is very minimal compared to the cost of the larger printers, so what the hell, why not.

 

[BIG EASY DOES IT]

Big Easy,

Unless you are cutting decals like "fatheads"; why do you need a 60" cutter married to 54" printer?

Most end users are looking to cut small decals. Buy a 30" cutter and print on 30" vinyl. End user can save $2K plus on vinyl cutter.

Just a thought! I rarely see end users cutting 54" wide graphics?

Because printing on 54" takes the same amount of time as printing on a 30" roll. But if I print on 54" I get more sqft. per pass then If I print on a 30" Thus giving me more decals in a shorter amount of time. The price point on larger rolls is better per sq.ft saving me additional money there. You also have the ability to go larger if you need to but with a smaller couple you would be stuck at 30" Which after crop marks and the space for rollers is more like 26"MAX printer decal area. So really your final stickers are 24" max size. With the larger materials you leave yourself the possibility of more options.

I can print and cut 200 stickers in 2 hours or I can print and cut 200 stickers in 5 hours.

Also Graphtec plotters seem to have better accuracy going left to right the forward and backward on long runs. With a wider material you would be able to keep your batches shorter but wider and still do a large number of decals in one batch without having to break it up for a more narrow material.

There are more and more reasons and I could go on and on.

Some materials are not offered in smaller then 48" rolls especially wrap vinyls. Can you do small stickers with a 30" plotter and printer YES but when it comes time to do anything larger you are going to be SOL. $2,000 is worth it in my opinion.

 

[Robert Gruner]

Big Easy

Tough crowd! Everything you noted was absolutely correct!

The initial poster seemed to be "cost conscious". If $2K savings makes a difference then I was simply pointing out that a 24", 30", or 42" cutter works fine with L110 54" printer.

BTW, I would print all decals on cheaper 54" vinyl and then slit before die-cutting!

If the poster can afford the additional $2K for 54"cutter, I would recommend spending $2K+ additional for the L310 instead of L110.

 

[TomK]

Big Easy

Tough crowd! Everything you noted was absolutely correct!

The initial poster seemed to be "cost conscious". If $2K savings makes a difference then I was simply pointing out that a 24", 30", or 42" cutter works fine with L110 54" printer.

BTW, I would print all decals on cheaper 54" vinyl and then slit before die-cutting!

If the poster can afford the additional $2K for 54"cutter, I would recommend spending $2K+ additional for the L310 instead of L110.

I did just that, went for the HP 310 and the FC8600-130.

 

[Robert Gruner]

Tom,

I think you have made a great decision! Enjoy the HP Latex experience.