There are a lot of options in both the used and new entry level flatbed market, the most common names on this forum are
Vanguard and
Digitech. They both offer good machines and have pros and cons.
Vanguard is owned by
Durst and the founder recently passed away - in my opinion these are drawbacks as they are losing some of their competitive advantage they had as a smaller independent company and their leader was the key to their success. Their printers are very impressive and many people on this forum have Vanguards and swear by them. Plus their pricing used to be competitive - but since the buyout it seems they are becoming more expensive, but still a good value. One other note, since they got purchased by Durst, I've noticed it takes longer and is more difficult to get support - before I could call or email one of the techs I had as a contact in my google contact list and get a response. The last time I called for support I was lost in the Durst Support queue for like 3 - 4 days before I got a call back.
Digitech makes machines everyone who has one raves about. They are made in the USA from a lot of USA made parts/patent designs and seem to have great support. The issue I have with Digitech is that they mainly focus on CMYK only, high speed machines - so print quality isn't as good as some other machines. Also, they tend to be more expensive for an entry level machine (because their machines are not really entry level - they are mid to high volume level and also made in the USA - which probably adds costs).
Other machines you can consider (grouped with explanations - probably missing some but this is a pretty good list - I also excluded higher end machines like
SwissQ because the are not entry level):
Flora,
StratoJet, Fluid Color,
CET -
This group either makes or imports their printers (CET and Fluid Color both sell Handtop machines, Flora imports and sells Flora's from China - which is the same printer Vanguard imports and retrofits - also Vanguard use to be part of CET but split off due to ownership disputes in 2015 or 2016). If I had to choose, I would probably be in this category or with one of the two companies listed above, because their main business is these types of large format, flatbed printers and they offer the best value when factoring quality of equipment, capacity of equipment (most machines can print 8+ boards an hour in sellable modes), and support. Also, I think all of these companies offer CMYKW, or CMYKlclmW, and possibly CMYKlclmNW ink configurations with good print head technology giving some of the best imaging quality on the market.
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HP Large Format,
EFI,
Agfa,
Oce Arizonas,
Fuji Acuity
This group is made up of big names that are large corporations offering a variety of printing equipment. Most of the equipment in this group is going to be on par with the listed group above, but you might not get the support/special knowledge of a smaller company like StratoJet or Fluid Color. Some machines such as the HP and Oce are proprietary tech, and others are reselling machines that they may or may not modify (such as Fuji and EFI). All these machines are going to be a good option for small to mid and even some high volume print shops, but the real value/difference will be in the support - we have a Fuji Acuity and the support is nonexistent, so we will not buy another fuji in the future. Oce makes the Fuji printer and people tend to love the Oce support - so the machines are good, just need to have the correct support for the machines which Fuji doesn't have in the Pacific Northwest in my opinion.
We had an HP (not their flatbed) but it wasn't nearly as good as we wanted and since there wasn't much local support (sold through several distributors, large and small) we had issues we couldn't resolve/get support on so we moved on and sold the HP.
EFI and Agfa are huge names in the printing industry and their entry machines are decent, but I still think you pay more for the names/support vs. with other companies.
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Mutoh,
Mimaki, Epson,
Roland
This group is what I consider the low end, targeting small mom and pop sign shops, offering an entry level price point but a cheap printer typically. For example I've seen Roland offer printers that only print one or two boards an hour. The Epson is a nice printer, but doesn't have nematic registration pins and cuts corners that just don't make sense to any production shop. I don't have much experience with Mutoh or Mimaki but I see on a lot of threads people are having issues with their flatbed machines. All four of these machines remind me of the HP printers - they are typically sold through distributors who sell them machines and then can offer little training or support after the sale (which is different when working with a company who sells their printers and services them directly vs. relying on distributors to do the servicing). If this is all you got/can afford it will probably work with a lot of effort, but it's not the options I would look to build a strong large format printing business around, it's more for the small shop that wants to be able to offer direct printing in house at a lower cost because they don't have a ton of demand (like a shop that prints 100 boards a day or so vs. a shop that might print 4-6 boards a day).
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What I'd recommend is looking at each of these companies' websites and then going to a site like
Global Garage to see what brands are selling as used - you might be able to pick up a steal of a deal. You also have to ask yourself though why are so many of "x company" being sold as used machines vs. other companies that only have one or two machines being sold. For example Fuji and Oce have a ton of resales on Global Garage, but DigiTech doesn't even have a single machine being resold...
Next, I'd consider hybrid vs. true flatbed printers. We have both flatbed and hybrid printers and if I could only have one - I would go hybrid all day long. We use our hybrid printers to print banners, wall covering, vinyl decals, static cling, etc. which we can't do on a fixed bed - but our fixed flatbed can do great registration front to back and has a vacuum that is strong enough to print on many materials that have some warp that we can't run on the belt system.
Finally, how big and what capabilities do you want - I wouldn't buy anything smaller than a 4x8 table if it is a fixed flatbed or any hybrid smaller than 64 inches. I consider a 2 inch print thickness a minimum, and at least CMYK+W for ink sets - we only run CMYKlclm and have N channel inks in some of our printers, but we do fine art printing onto wood, metal, etc. so it's important to have large color gamut and smooth gradients with the light inks. We use white ink quite often and for some customers who spent 50K a year plus with us, it was the key to getting their business so that is also a factor. IF you are only going after the occasional yard sign job or some direct print on foam board your needs will be different. Also, LED cured bulbs are the most popular nowadays and I wouldn't consider a mercury vapor system anymore (but I still have three UV machines with MV bulbs).
Feel free to message me if you want any more feedback, I have worked with/purchased/demoed almost all the companies listed above and have contacts at many of the companies I can refer you to.
Best of luck!
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