Making the switch to Latex?

[SKD937]

Hey Everyone,

I've been running solvent printers close to 10 years and about 5 for UV Inks. Been thinking about making the switch to Latex. Specifically looking at the HP Latex 560. I just wanted to reach out and see if there was anyone else that has made the switch to Latex and any input would be awesome. Thanks for your time!!

 

[Jburns]

What type of work do you primarily print?

 

[BigfishDM]

Hey Everyone,

I've been running solvent printers close to 10 years and about 5 for UV Inks. Been thinking about making the switch to Latex. Specifically looking at the HP Latex 560. I just wanted to reach out and see if there was anyone else that has made the switch to Latex and any input would be awesome. Thanks for your time!!

What are the main applications you are looking to do? What is your biggest hangup with what you run now?

 

[SKD937]

What are the main applications you are looking to do? What is your biggest hangup with what you run now?

Hey Bigfish! When it comes with our UV printer, its a little slow. With fastest settings, I'm looking at around 25 minutes to print off a 4'x8'. When things start getting super busy I'll do some print/wraps just to help get jobs completed. I work at a fair, so its a lot of signage that only needs to live for about 3 weeks. With the solvent printer, a lot of the prints are almost 100 coverage. I know you should let the prints Gas Out before trying to apply them. So that would be the biggest hangup with the solvent printer.....I hope that makes some sense.

 

[iPrintStuff]

You can apply solvent prints without out gassing, you do have to wait before laminating however, not that you’ll need to with a 3 week life.

If you’re not laminating these prints, any printer on the market should be fine. Though if it’s a lot of seasonal work or the printer gets unused for long periods then latex would probably be a good bet.

 

[BigfishDM]

Hey Bigfish! When it comes with our UV printer, its a little slow. With fastest settings, I'm looking at around 25 minutes to print off a 4'x8'. When things start getting super busy I'll do some print/wraps just to help get jobs completed. I work at a fair, so its a lot of signage that only needs to live for about 3 weeks. With the solvent printer, a lot of the prints are almost 100 coverage. I know you should let the prints Gas Out before trying to apply them. So that would be the biggest hangup with the solvent printer.....I hope that makes some sense.

Ok I understand. Well the latex should be a faster solution for you in that aspect. I think you will find more happy clients with Latex than you will find that are not. I can run some of your files and time them off a 300 series as well as the 500 series. I think even a 300 series could be fine for what you are dealing with, the 500 will be about 30% faster on the lower pass counts. If you run everything at 10 pass and higher, I don't see much difference between the 2 models.

 

[SKD937]

Ok I understand. Well the latex should be a faster solution for you in that aspect. I think you will find more happy clients with Latex than you will find that are not. I can run some of your files and time them off a 300 series as well as the 500 series. I think even a 300 series could be fine for what you are dealing with, the 500 will be about 30% faster on the lower pass counts. If you run everything at 10 pass and higher, I don't see much difference between the 2 models.

The more I think about it, the more I'm leaning towards the Latex. How often to have to replace the print heads with those? I think the fact that you can change them out yourself. Thanks again for all your time!!

 

[BigfishDM]

The more I think about it, the more I'm leaning towards the Latex. How often to have to replace the print heads with those? I think the fact that you can change them out yourself. Thanks again for all your time!!

The print head replacement will vary, typically you should be able to run multiple ink sets through each head BUT some people get much higher life. You will have to wire 2-220v into the space, will that be an issue?

 

[SKD937]

Awesome, yeah no issue with the power......only other hurdle would be getting space for a cutter lol.

 

[BigfishDM]

Awesome, yeah no issue with the power......only other hurdle would be getting space for a cutter lol.

Well, the latex is a front loading machine so you can put it right against a wall and that should make plenty of room for a stand alone cutter.

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

Hey Bigfish! When it comes with our UV printer, its a little slow. With fastest settings, I'm looking at around 25 minutes to print off a 4'x8'. When things start getting super busy I'll do some print/wraps just to help get jobs completed. I work at a fair, so its a lot of signage that only needs to live for about 3 weeks. With the solvent printer, a lot of the prints are almost 100 coverage. I know you should let the prints Gas Out before trying to apply them. So that would be the biggest hangup with the solvent printer.....I hope that makes some sense.

What fair company do you work for? We do alot for the fair industry and have been for over 10 years, I can give you lots of insights as to what we have done over the years.

 

[DrunknMonk]

I jumped from Solvent to Latex (365) works great, my only bugbear is their delamination because of the anti-scratch wax in their inks.

 

[SKD937]

What fair company do you work for? We do alot for the fair industry and have been for over 10 years, I can give you lots of insights as to what we have done over the years.

Wisconsin State Fair

 

[SKD937]

Well, the latex is a front loading machine so you can put it right against a wall and that should make plenty of room for a stand alone cutter.

Right, that's pretty neat for sure with the front load! Yeah I think we can move some things around and will be able to make things work.

 

[Z SIGNS]

We switched from solvent to latex about a year ago.The pros of latex outweigh the cons in our opinion.Plus they are super cheap.

 

[SKD937]

Awesome! Thanks Z, I'm starting to think the same thing!

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

We do alot of work for RCS and have done a little for NAME and a few others.

For the last 10 years we have used latex for everything from signs to wraps and Bally's. It works great, what kind of projects are you working on, I might be able to shed some insight on what we use or different ways to accomplish high visibility end products.

 

[SKD937]

We do alot of work for RCS and have done a little for NAME and a few others.

For the last 10 years we have used latex for everything from signs to wraps and Bally's. It works great, what kind of projects are you working on, I might be able to shed some insight on what we use or different ways to accomplish high visibility end products.

Its a lot of banners, coroplast signs, fridge wraps, booth wraps plus anything else we can think of, lol