Is Roland really pushing the AP-640 as productive and fast?

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

So, I have considered expanding our fleet and integrating different technologies into our operations. A few Roland dealers told me I should look at the Roland AP-640 and then send me some reports. Here is the printer: https://global.rolanddg.com/products/printers/truevis-ap-640-resin-printer

According to Rolands' report, their machine is 4 Stars in Speed, and if you read the Report, it says its most productive mode on Wrap film can print two A0 size sheets in 11 minutes. For those who don't know, an A0 is roughly 10.75 sqft, so essentially, they say that it is roughly 120 sqft/hr in its most productive state. When will Roland take their remarkable print technologies and build a production machine? I get that this is a $10K printer, but come on, you'd need three to keep up with the Epson Resin or HP 700/800.

Rant over.

 

[victor bogdanov]

Stick to eco solvent, I think Roland and epson released resin/latex just to have resin go directly against HP and not because resin/latex has any real world advantages over their eco solvent printers.

More heat and optimizer are huge disadvantages over eco solvent roland and epson variants

I have an epson R5070L and while it is a good printer I see 0 advantages over eco solvent and a few negatives due to the higher heat and the need for the ink/optimizer to cure with heat (wont dry over time if not dry right off the printer like eco solvent would)

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

Stick to eco solvent, I think Roland and epson released resin/latex just to have resin go directly against HP and not because resin/latex has any real world advantages over their eco solvent printers.

More heat and optimizer are huge disadvantages over eco solvent roland and epson variants

I have an epson R5070L and while it is a good printer I see 0 advantages over eco solvent and a few negatives due to the higher heat and the need for the ink/optimizer to cure with heat (wont dry over time if not dry right off the printer like eco solvent would)

Do you know what your real-world speed is on your R5070? I was considering getting one and solvent to diversify.

 

[victor bogdanov]

Do you know what your real-world speed is on your R5070? I was considering getting one and solvent to diversify.

the fastest I can print on it is 9 pass which is 163 sq ft/hr according to epson . Anything faster and colors are washed out/drying problems

Get solvent, cheaper, faster, less complicated. 0 real world disadvantages

 

[ikarasu]

Do you know what your real-world speed is on your R5070? I was considering getting one and solvent to diversify.

It takes about 3 hours a roll on high quality - I print everything on 9 pass... so about 4, but you can do 6 pass with decent everything if you tweak the profiles and color calibrate the machine, then its 3 - , the default profiles suck below 9P though, reds are orange...everything looks muddy, etc. You can get good at 6, but it's not as vibrant as 9.

Personally I like latex for wraps because it doesn't gum up the media like solvent... We use our S40 for certain wraps that need perfect alignment because our 700W Sucks at panels, Even waiting a full day to dry you can feel the ink in the vinyl... It's not the end of the world, epsecialy if you're used to it - but the latex doesn't gum up the wrap at all. It can also print on a bunch of media our solvent printer cant

So I disagree with latex having zero benefits over solvent! It's not the end all be all compared to solvent, and like any technology it has its downsides. But nothing wrong with having Solvent and latex, and even UV in house. We went from Solvent to Latex.... Then there was 1 media we needed to print on that doesnt work with latex... so we bought a solvent... 90% of our work gets done on our Latex (700W) Then I'd say 5% gets done on solvent, and 5% on UV. At the time the resin came out.... it wasnt certified with any medias. 3M didnt have any warranty on it...avery didn't.... So for our "Shop" we didn't even consider buying one. I liked the demos I saw though, so I replaced my home 560 / 240 combo with the Resin... Glad I did, havent looked back at all and wished I kept either or!


The Roland AP-640 is a joke, it's super slow. It came out around the time I was buying my Resin..I E-mailed my equipment rep asking about it, and he said to stay away...They rushed it to get it out and compete with HP/Epson, but as you can see it's like 1/4 the speed. It's also only CMYK, no light colors... which is weird, especially on a latex. I havent seen the prints in person though, so maybe they made it work.

 

[Solventinkjet]

Roland transitioned away from Epson heads with the TruVis series for cheaper, slower heads. The fastest printers that still print high quality I'm seeing these days are using the Epson I1600 and 3200 heads. The Mutoh XpertJets use the I1600 head and are decently fast for a little more than your budget and the Mimaki JV330 uses 2, I3200 heads for fast speeds, high quality, and large color gamut for about double your budget.

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

Roland transitioned away from Epson heads with the TruVis series for cheaper, slower heads. The fastest printers that still print high quality I'm seeing these days are using the Epson I1600 and 3200 heads. The Mutoh XpertJets use the I1600 head and are decently fast for a little more than your budget and the Mimaki JV330 uses 2, I3200 heads for fast speeds, high quality, and large color gamut for about double your budget.

Oh, I don't have a budget... we have Colorados and a Vanguard... I'm just looking at alternative tech to what I have currently.