man, if i knew my epson 9600 could make banners & magnets that last, i wouldn't have bought my Roland sp540
I looked pretty hard at aqueous printers before I bought a Mutoh. A 44" Canon would have only cost $5000, while the Mutoh was over twice that much. However, after running the numbers the conclusion I came to was . . .
The cost of the printer doesn't matter.
HUH??? Whadayamean "cost doesn't matter?"
Take the Mutoh VJ1204 I bought. It cost $11k delivered. I expect to use it for the next five years, so it costs $2,200 per year to own this printer. Assuming my store is open 360 days per year that's $6.11 per day. Considering that media and ink cost at least $0.50 per sq. ft., if I print 13 sq. ft. per day my consumables cost more than the printer.
. . . and that's where aqueous printers bite the big one. The consumables are horribly expensive. On the Canon printer I looked at ink costs about $475/liter vs. $272/liter for Mutoh eco-sol ink. Coated banner material was about $1.40/sqft, where the Mutoh can print on cheap vinyl banner scrim that costs $0.20/sqft. Add to that the fact that aqueous print needs to be laminated for outside use which adds another $0.25/sqft. Also the heads on an aqueous printer need to be replaced regularly at a cost of hundreds of dollars.
If you are printing for outdoor use, and want to be price competitive with other shops, you need a solvent printer. The Roland was the right call.
