News HP Latex R530

[victor bogdanov]

duplicate

 

[P Wagner]

duplicate

The cost of of quality polymeric calendared (54-inch x 50 yard) vinyl roll is roughly $200, this is close to $.30 per square foot - with many costing more than this. Even the least expensive economy grade monomeric vinyl is difficult to find at $.15 per square foot ($101 for a 54-inch x 50 yard roll), and it will likely shrink and fail in short order with outdoor exposure.

Yard signs on Corrugated Polypropylene are a very competitive market segment. To be cost competitive and grow rigid business is very challenging in today's market with print & mount. Second, there are a many higher value applications that print & mount cannot compete effectively with direct print, including printing to acrylic, glass, brushed metallic surfaces, high-end wood for interior, and more.

Finally, cost justification for lower volume rigid printers is simple and straightforward - and it doesn't take anywhere near thousands of boards to get there.

 

[victor bogdanov]

Second, there are a many higher value applications that print & mount cannot compete effectively with direct print, including printing to acrylic, glass, brushed metallic surfaces, high-end wood for interior, and more.

Finally, cost justification for lower volume rigid printers is simple and straightforward - and it doesn't take anywhere near thousands of boards to get there.

Wouldn't UV be more desirable for the higher value applications?

 

[ikarasu]

So let's say you save 15 cents/sq ft on vinyl printing direct and a few dollars in mounting labor per 4x8 ft board .

This hp printer is 90k, so you'll have to print a couple hundred thousand square feet of rigid before you come out ahead vs doing on roll2roll.

Again this is keeping in mind that this printer is for " low volume" rigid.

High volume I 100% agree need a true flatbed or good hybrid but for low volume this doesn't make much sense

Another way to look at it is it's like having another employee. You can load a 4x8 sheet in walk away doing other stuff while it's printing.. it's slow enough that you can print a board and go load printers / laminators / graphtecs while it's printing

We run almost everything on 50" x 100" sheets, while we're UV printing were operating our summa / graphtec / weeding stuff, and doing other preparations ... It takes 5-10 seconds to pull a sheet off and begin printing the next sheet... If we were using an applicator table, that same employee can't be weeding / finishing other products while doing it. Even if you're low volume in the direct to substrate portion.... It still allows you to use the 1 guy to do multiple things at once and frees up labor.


I do too feel like it's quite a bit expensive compared to UV printers of.similar speeds though... But I get what they're going after... Latex is a nicer print than UV flatbeds, and this allows them to do roll to roll as well in 1 machine.

I started with an fb500 though, and I hate belt / hybrid printing. Registration is much, much harder and it was never bang on for us.... The suction is nowhere near as good as a true flatbed... (Maybe you can turn off zones on this new printer?) or maybe it has a better registration system.


Would be interesting to know the sales of the r1/r2, see if it met hps expectations.... Or if the sales were bad so they came out with this model trying to compete.

i can see lots of smaller limited space shops picking this up though.

 

[victor bogdanov]

Another way to look at it is it's like having another employee. You can load a 4x8 sheet in walk away doing other stuff while it's printing.. it's slow enough that you can print a board and go load printers / laminators / graphtecs while it's printing

Yea but it takes under a minute to mount a 4x8 on flatbed table. Again if you're doing a sheet here and there idk how much time you're saving and if you are doing more then there are probably better flatbeds available in this price range

 

[balstestrat]

I started with an fb500 though, and I hate belt / hybrid printing. Registration is much, much harder and it was never bang on for us.... The suction is nowhere near as good as a true flatbed... (Maybe you can turn off zones on this new printer?) or maybe it has a better registration system.


Would be interesting to know the sales of the r1/r2, see if it met hps expectations.... Or if the sales were bad so they came out with this model trying to compete.

Like I said before it's nothing like FB but really it's the successor of it as the low-mid range machine. R1/2 has good registration and I expect this to have the same. Automatic vacuum zones as well and real vacuum pump (3) while FB just had some fans.

I think this model is the one people were waiting for all along. If this came 5 years ago before inflation and all, and sold for $70k a lot of FBs would have been converted to this.

Yea but it takes under a minute to mount a 4x8 on flatbed table. Again if you're doing a sheet here and there idk how much time you're saving and if you are doing more then there are probably better flatbeds available in this price range

Then again that flatbed is sitting doing nothing if you happen to have no board(job)s to print and no roll option. Problem with that is also the ink you have chosen to use. There's always a trade off.

 

[johnnysigns]

Is this the small format R2R printhead architecture? Looks like no cleaning station or intermediate tanks for ink delivery.

 

[balstestrat]

Is this the small format R2R printhead architecture? Looks like no cleaning station or intermediate tanks for ink delivery.

It's basically L800 inside. Small heads, maintenance cartridge (not separate roll) and yes it does have intermediate tanks.

The maintenance cartridge is apparently new as well in a way that you can empty the waste ink separate and keep using the main part longer.