-
I want to thank all the members that have upgraded your accounts. I truly appreciate your support of the site monetarily. Supporting the site keeps this site up and running as a lot of work daily goes on behind the scenes. Click to Support Signs101 ...
Latex vs epson 6k
- Thread starter HulkSmash
- Start date
MachServTech
New Member
how much sqft per day ate you planning to run through the machine,
or how many hours per day do you plan to print on your machine?
How much room do you have?
How critical is color accuracy to your day to day customers?
or how many hours per day do you plan to print on your machine?
How much room do you have?
How critical is color accuracy to your day to day customers?
HulkSmash
New Member
thanks.
HulkSmash
New Member
We hardly do POP. If i did Pop i'd buy a flat bed.
Mostly signage/banenrs/ and tons of wraps.
HulkSmash
New Member
yeah.
BigfishDM
Merchant Member
Well for wraps the latex is great cause there is no outgas time for lamination but if your one of the guys who doesnt wait anyways then I guess it doesnt matter. No fumes or harmful VOC's with the latex either. Both print great either way and either way I think you will be fine with either unit.
rfulford
New Member
I personally have Epsons and they have been exceptional. The quality and color gamut on the Epsons edges out the HP however, the HPs print faster and do not require outgassing before lamination. The Epsons also have a larger variety of printable substrates I believe but they use a low density ink that does not produce backlits well. I have seen backlits off the HP and they look fantastic. Ink cost is also a concern. I have been told that the small latex printers cost about $.28 to .30 per sqft to run. I average $.18-.22 per sqft. Yet another thing to consider is the power requirements on the Latex machine. I understand you need 2 22Ov power outlets per machine.
HulkSmash
New Member
Great Feed back - thanks.
MachServTech
New Member
Well in my opinion, if you are running that much the Latex is the way to go, here's why:
1.If you print with a solvent printer you should wait at least 8 hours or more for out gassing so the solvent doesn't creep on the edge of your prints deactivating the adhesive on the edges.
The HP latex does not have this issue and increases your production time significantly if you laminate or contour cut.
2. The latex in my opinion is a much better high volume machine because the parts that impact image quality are user replaceable (printheads, cleaning station) The machine has automatic drop detection and automatic optical media advance. This has eliminated banding and allowed me to print overnight, without worrying weather I had banding in the middle of a run.
3. I didnt get a chance to run the GS6000 in a production environment, but I use very little waste ink compared to what I used to use with solvent. I am paying about $.20 psqft so far.
4. I print a great deal of fabric. I have found I can print on a wider range of uncoated fabrics and material than with solvent. The only product I have found that doesn't print well is a cheap no name scrim banner from china. (it doesn't print worth a damn on solvent either)
It wasn't as much of a PITA to get my 2 220 outlets installed as I thought. Cost me $450 to get that done.
Cons:
I wish it started up from cold faster (great once I start printing for the day). Takes about 5-15 min to warm up (depending on the shop temp) first thing in the morning.
I would like to see a 8 color like the Epson
The dot size is larger than the Epson.
The takup reel is too flimsy. (I was concerned, so i ordered backup parts)
1.If you print with a solvent printer you should wait at least 8 hours or more for out gassing so the solvent doesn't creep on the edge of your prints deactivating the adhesive on the edges.
The HP latex does not have this issue and increases your production time significantly if you laminate or contour cut.
2. The latex in my opinion is a much better high volume machine because the parts that impact image quality are user replaceable (printheads, cleaning station) The machine has automatic drop detection and automatic optical media advance. This has eliminated banding and allowed me to print overnight, without worrying weather I had banding in the middle of a run.
3. I didnt get a chance to run the GS6000 in a production environment, but I use very little waste ink compared to what I used to use with solvent. I am paying about $.20 psqft so far.
4. I print a great deal of fabric. I have found I can print on a wider range of uncoated fabrics and material than with solvent. The only product I have found that doesn't print well is a cheap no name scrim banner from china. (it doesn't print worth a damn on solvent either)
It wasn't as much of a PITA to get my 2 220 outlets installed as I thought. Cost me $450 to get that done.
Cons:
I wish it started up from cold faster (great once I start printing for the day). Takes about 5-15 min to warm up (depending on the shop temp) first thing in the morning.
I would like to see a 8 color like the Epson
The dot size is larger than the Epson.
The takup reel is too flimsy. (I was concerned, so i ordered backup parts)
The Epson has one of the largest color gamut’s on the market today being 8 color, little maintenance, prints on every wide range of materials from Banners, PVC, Vinyl, Canvas, Translucents, etc…. Immediate Print when sending from RIP, low consumable cost, large ink cartridge capacity, & little to no VOC’s means no ventilation is needed. This is still a solvent based printer therefore out gassing is recommended before lamination.
The HP L25500 is an economy friendly printer with the Latex ink. No Out gassing so immediate lamination is possible. Consumable items are a must for this printer but the end user can do head alignments and replacement within minutes. The warm up and cool down times can be a little slow but necessary to cure the inks and this printer is limited to the types of materials that can be run through it. Such as anything with plastics in it, is prohibited. The Consumable items are as follows: Print Heads, Print Head Cleaning Kit, Waste Container.
The HP L25500 is an economy friendly printer with the Latex ink. No Out gassing so immediate lamination is possible. Consumable items are a must for this printer but the end user can do head alignments and replacement within minutes. The warm up and cool down times can be a little slow but necessary to cure the inks and this printer is limited to the types of materials that can be run through it. Such as anything with plastics in it, is prohibited. The Consumable items are as follows: Print Heads, Print Head Cleaning Kit, Waste Container.
MachServTech
New Member
Untrue.
The latex machines print on ALL of 3M, Oracal, Avery, Mactac, Ultaraflex products. I have not found one exception in the materials I have requested...in fact I have found I can print on a wider variety of materials than I could with solvent.
Also head alignment is automatic, with no intervention required.
ProWraps
New Member
keep in mind the latex throws off a TON of heat, and its a webbed printer meaning you have to feed material to the take up real before printing as the prints go back and forth to dry thus requiring the tension on the media.
we were gung ho on the latex. but after reading about it, talking to owners of it, we are going to probably go with rolands.
its first gen technology and im just not sold on the longevity of latex inks. coupled with the heat it gives off, the fact it requires two 220v lines and that it can be a fire hazard, just doesnt sit well with me.
we were gung ho on the latex. but after reading about it, talking to owners of it, we are going to probably go with rolands.
its first gen technology and im just not sold on the longevity of latex inks. coupled with the heat it gives off, the fact it requires two 220v lines and that it can be a fire hazard, just doesnt sit well with me.
rushworks graphics
New Member
we looked at the latex and roland side by side and mainly because of what prowraps said here is why we went for the roland.
Firefox
New Member
I went to an open house locally featuring the HP Latex printer and they were not feeding through to the take up, the media was coming out completely dry, being cut off and give away as samples. The HP also feeds from the front which is kinda nice if you don't have room to pull the machine away from the wall to load up. They demonstrated the loading and printing on various types of media and explained how important it was to get the heat set correctly, otherwise the ink will not dry if not hot enough... ever!
I ended up buying a Roland as it is tried and true equipment. Plus I would have needed to pull in two 220V circuits to power the HP.
I ended up buying a Roland as it is tried and true equipment. Plus I would have needed to pull in two 220V circuits to power the HP.
Not for all material. Banner material is the only material I feed to the take up reel because of how the heat effects it.
Vinyl is fine at least with me.
Firefox
New Member
That is the time to buy... down the road!
I can only imagine the last big job I had running on the HP with the heat it would make running 160 feet of banner through it.