HP LX850 Doubts VS Efi r3225

[Khalil Raime]

Hello,

We are a small sign company in the caribbean. We currently have 2 63" mimakis, 1 98" dgi vt3 printer, 1 infinity 126", 1 teckwin uv flatbed. We are having problems with our workflow because of time and are two wide-format printers being down most of the time. So we were looking into the latex 850, after being almost certain we would purchase got a visit from a technician friend who recommended otherwise. After going online i see the machine is not that stable and that has some issues. So we started looking at efi r3225. Can anyone give us some insight on this issue.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Gino]

Welcome from Pennsylvania.....................

 

[Khalil Raime]

Welcome from Pennsylvania.....................

Thank you Gino!!!

 

[chafro]

Doesn't the Efi cost twice or three times as much as the LX850? I think that Efi is a much faster production printer than the lx850. First you need to decide if you want latex or UV.

we have three latex printers, two L26500 and 1 LX850.

We have printed the heck out of the three and are happy with them all. They have been a great investment for our company.

We have been printing with the lx850 for a year now, we print almost constantly 20 hours a day, 7 days a week. We leave it unattended at night printing a couple of rolls. We are printing mostly backlight with dual 60" rolls, it's been a work horse for us. Now this printer is not for printing low volumes,, it's made for printing complete rolls, this is where it shines. Changing rolls is not easy and wastes a lot of material.

Our lx850 has payed itself many times over in a year. We have had 4 days of down time only. The print heads have lasted way more than what HP guarantees. Heads have lasted an average of 60 liters of ink. The lights about 15 liters.

 

[Khalil Raime]

Doesn't the Efi cost twice or three times as much as the LX850? I think that Efi is a much faster production printer than the lx850. First you need to decide if you want latex or UV.

we have three latex printers, two L26500 and 1 LX850.

We have printed the heck out of the three and are happy with them all. They have been a great investment for our company.

We have been printing with the lx850 for a year now, we print almost constantly 20 hours a day, 7 days a week. We leave it unattended at night printing a couple of rolls. We are printing mostly backlight with dual 60" rolls, it's been a work horse for us. Now this printer is not for printing low volumes,, it's made for printing complete rolls, this is where it shines. Changing rolls is not easy and wastes a lot of material.

Our lx850 has payed itself many times over in a year. We have had 4 days of down time only. The print heads have lasted way more than what HP guarantees. Heads have lasted an average of 60 liters of ink. The lights about 15 liters.

Hello Chafro,

The efi r3225 is about 30k more expensive.

We need to take the leap to a more industrial printer we thought the hp was our machine for sure. But reading some posts here we are having doubts. In deciding between uv or latex we already have a uv machine but have never tried latex, we like that there is no smell, but other than that. Also in our country prices per sq ft are very low so we can't purchase premium substrates, almost 90% of materials printed in our country are cheap materials made in china, do you know if they can be printed in both machines.

Thanks again!!

 

[gregwallace]

The vutek heads pretty much never go out. I'm not sure if your looking at new or used printers but Global Garage has a used 2013 vutek gs3250r for $225,000. You wouldnt need any special materials for this machine either. I've never actually operated one but I have been operating a qs2000 for several years now and they are tanks. The GS model is suppose to be the faster version of the QS.

 

[Khalil Raime]

The vutek heads pretty much never go out. I'm not sure if your looking at new or used printers but Global Garage has a used 2013 vutek gs3250r for $225,000. You wouldnt need any special materials for this machine either. I've never actually operated one but I have been operating a qs2000 for several years now and they are tanks. The GS model is suppose to be the faster version of the QS.

Hello Greg

Thanks for the info. its a new machine they just launched it last year at isa. i will be looking at global garage to see the machine you recomend. how is the qs? how many sq feet you get per hour? do you have an idea on what the price per square feet is? Thanks again!!!

 

[chafro]

Hello Chafro,

The efi r3225 is about 30k more expensive.

We need to take the leap to a more industrial printer we thought the hp was our machine for sure. But reading some posts here we are having doubts. In deciding between uv or latex we already have a uv machine but have never tried latex, we like that there is no smell, but other than that. Also in our country prices per sq ft are very low so we can't purchase premium substrates, almost 90% of materials printed in our country are cheap materials made in china, do you know if they can be printed in both machines.

Thanks again!!

Latex has it's pros but it's really more for premium substrates, someone who wants to be able to print awesome quality, be able to print very good on almost everything or for better quality needed applications. You also need to client that pays for these things. For printing cheap materials latex it's probably not the best way to go. Also latex consumables are more expensive than most uv or Eco solvent.

Why not a uv hybrid? And be able to print also on rigid materials also.

 

[Khalil Raime]

Latex has it's pros but it's really more for premium substrates, someone who wants to be able to print awesome quality, be able to print very good on almost everything or for better quality needed applications. You also need to client that pays for these things. For printing cheap materials latex it's probably not the best way to go. Also latex consumables are more expensive than most uv or Eco solvent.

Why not a uv hybrid? And be able to print also on rigid materials also.

that sounds like a good idea we already have a flatbed and it can get really busy sometimes. can you recommend one but it has to be 10 feet wide.

 

[chafro]

10 feet wide Flat beds will be veryyy expensive. 8 feet is the most common.

8 feet on the same price range the FB700 could be a good option.

 

[gregwallace]

Hello Greg

Thanks for the info. its a new machine they just launched it last year at isa. i will be looking at global garage to see the machine you recomend. how is the qs? how many sq feet you get per hour? do you have an idea on what the price per square feet is? Thanks again!!!

Our qs is pretty solid. Its a 2006 I believe and its nozzles are about 99 percent. On its fastest setting it runs around 14-4x8 sheets per hour. This would be 4 pass bidirectional. We use this setting about 20-30 percent of the time. Our standard setting is 8 pass bidirectional and its closer to 6 or 7 4x8 per hour. Its really pretty slow compared to the new vuteks. The machine actually tells you the number of ml of ink that each print will take. We use 3rd party inks @ $90 per liter. 1 4x8 with pretty heavy coverage takes 35-40 ml of ink. So it cost us about 10 cents per sq foot or about $3 per 4x8 per side.

 

[fozzie]

If you are looking to mainly do roll to roll, I wouldnt get a hybrid flatbed. Hybrids, even vuteks, have problems doing long runs of roll material (tracking and "smiley faces").

 

[Khalil Raime]

Our qs is pretty solid. Its a 2006 I believe and its nozzles are about 99 percent. On its fastest setting it runs around 14-4x8 sheets per hour. This would be 4 pass bidirectional. We use this setting about 20-30 percent of the time. Our standard setting is 8 pass bidirectional and its closer to 6 or 7 4x8 per hour. Its really pretty slow compared to the new vuteks. The machine actually tells you the number of ml of ink that each print will take. We use 3rd party inks @ $90 per liter. 1 4x8 with pretty heavy coverage takes 35-40 ml of ink. So it cost us about 10 cents per sq foot or about $3 per 4x8 per side.

Thanks for the info.

regards

 

[Khalil Raime]

Decided

Finally decided to go with the hp lx850. Some guys form our sales department went to ISA and fell in love with all the new substrates we will be able to offer. Lets see how it goes!!!!

 

[KevSign]

We bough LX850 about 8 months now and being great luck so far. All print head from last company already out warranty but print solid.
We listen to our tech bought a set print head about 5 months ago for spare.

Recently got HP L360.