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Need new flatbed - Advice please (NOT HP...)

Christian @ 2CT Media

Christian @ 2CT Media

Active Member
Brando said:
Tha

this is the same configuration we have. We got it in August of last year and I have had nothing but problems with the heads and the software and unprofessional tech support. I’m really surprised you like the machine.
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You would be an oddity amongst many. Not discounting your situation, but Vanguard has been nothing but helpful and supportive for us. Who are you working with there? Have you Spoken with Jang or Austin yet, both are incredibly knowledgable along with the many others we have interacted with.
 
B

Brando

New Member
I would hope we would be an oddity at this rate.
Abi installed our machine and didn’t turn on the white ink recirculating pump and I think it was Ely who replaced our defective chiller and discovered it wasn’t turned on. I’m pretty sure Austin has been here 2 times and the white heads are still clogging daily. I’m not sure of who the vanguard employee is who sent “VK Flex” inks instead of “VKM Flex” inks, but the bottles say they are for printers with different heads. Also the Flush says it is for printers with different heads on the bottles. We are still waiting on an operations manual even though there is a sticker on the machine that says not to operate the machine until you read and understand the operations manual.
 
FatCat

FatCat

New Member
Brando said:
I would hope we would be an oddity at this rate.
Abi installed our machine and didn’t turn on the white ink recirculating pump and I think it was Ely who replaced our defective chiller and discovered it wasn’t turned on. I’m pretty sure Austin has been here 2 times and the white heads are still clogging daily. I’m not sure of who the vanguard employee is who sent “VK Flex” inks instead of “VKM Flex” inks, but the bottles say they are for printers with different heads. Also the Flush says it is for printers with different heads on the bottles. We are still waiting on an operations manual even though there is a sticker on the machine that says not to operate the machine until you read and understand the operations manual.
Click to expand...

We entertained the idea of getting white ink but opted to stay away from it for now. Regardless of the machine, it seems almost everyone I talked to said unless you're running white ink frequently it becomes a problem due to the characteristics of it. I think the HP R-1000 and 2000 machines have a good system to deal with white - but I honestly don't know how it's working out for their users.

In regards to the machine itself, the relatively few issues we have had have always been dealt with promptly and professionally by Vanguard techs. We just had the machine installed in January, so it's still relatively new. Machine prints well, is very fast with the 2nd row of heads - we're doing a 4x8 sheet of coro in 3:15 on 3-pass.

In regards to the operations manual, didn't you get trained on the machine? We had a tech here for nearly a week setting up and training?
 
reprographicarts

reprographicarts

Premium Subscriber
iPrintStuff said:
If we ever get a flatbed it’ll likely be an Arizona due to our relationship with canon; I can guarantee you’ll find quicker machines for the same price point but the service we get from canon generally is immaculate. If we put a call In for the Colorado In the morning there’s an engineer there that day. Late morning/afternoon and they’re in the next day.

Whoever you go with. Just make sure when you have a 16k head strike, you get guys that will endeavour to get you up and running as soon as possible.
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Hello,
We have a Arizona 365 gt flatbed for sale. Works fine 25K.
 
MelloImagingTechnologies

MelloImagingTechnologies

Many years in the Production Business
MarkH42 said:
We purchased an HP FB550 in December of 2018, so it is just over 2 years old. It has been a bit of a lemon. We have had thermistor issues, encoder strip issues, but the final straw was an ACM headstrike we had last week. It was our fault (damaged leading edge on ACM) and it lead to the head dragging across the ACM, which seemingly ruined 6 or so heads. It is going to cost us $16,000+ to have them replaced by HP ($6,000 for labor and travel time) and they are taking their sweet time getting the ball rolling. (For anyone wondering how hard we worked to get the existing heads back, we cleaned them, soaked them overnight from the bottom with lint free cloth soaked in head flush, emptied the heads, filled them 2/3 full with head flush, ran 20+ purges, did an automatic jet nozzle mapping, ran countless jet replacement prints, etc., so if there are other tips and tricks that might help cut our losses, I'm all ears!!!)

So, I spent roughly $90K on this machine a little over two years ago. We like our two HP latex roll to roll printers, but this flatbed has been a huge disappointment. I am considering replacing this one in a few months with another brand, but I don't know anything about the other manufacturers and their machines. We primarily do ACM and coroplast, but we also print on some thin .020 and .040 rigid polystyrene. What recommendations do you have for a really dependable flatbed? It doesn't have to be a speed demon, but it also can't be too slow. Any recommendations and advice are greatly appreciated!
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I have many customers who are running styrene and cardboard on their Vanguard because of the high vacuum system.
When running materials which may swell when printing dark images exposed to the uv lights, you want to run it in a fast mode to expose it to less light.
For service- it’s best to buy from a local Vanguard dealer which can provide service. I know they are currently training dealers for service.
I’ve been doing this in NY for years because people won’t wait here in NY for weeks until someone shows up!
Bruce
bruce@melloimaging.com
 
StratoJet

StratoJet

Merchant Member
Check out the Shark line from StratoJetUSA.com
8x4

Shark 2512

StratoJet USA a Manufacturer of UV Large Format FlatBed and Roll to Roll Printers
stratojetusa.com stratojetusa.com
10x5

Shark 3216

StratoJet USA a Manufacturer of UV Large Format FlatBed and Roll to Roll Printers
stratojetusa.com stratojetusa.com

The StratoJet Shark series has a white ink parking system that allows you to press a button the will automatically, with a press of a button, park the white and/or clear ink until you need it again. It unloads the ink and pulls in the flush within 20 seconds. When you need white ink again, 2 hours, 2 days or 2 weeks later, push the button and the printer loads the white ink. And our printers are not made in China, nor do we just put a sticker on some else’s printer, we are the manufacture.
 
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DaveD

DaveD

New Member
MarkH42 said:
We purchased an HP FB550 in December of 2018, so it is just over 2 years old. It has been a bit of a lemon. We have had thermistor issues, encoder strip issues, but the final straw was an ACM headstrike we had last week. It was our fault (damaged leading edge on ACM) and it lead to the head dragging across the ACM, which seemingly ruined 6 or so heads. It is going to cost us $16,000+ to have them replaced by HP ($6,000 for labor and travel time) and they are taking their sweet time getting the ball rolling. (For anyone wondering how hard we worked to get the existing heads back, we cleaned them, soaked them overnight from the bottom with lint free cloth soaked in head flush, emptied the heads, filled them 2/3 full with head flush, ran 20+ purges, did an automatic jet nozzle mapping, ran countless jet replacement prints, etc., so if there are other tips and tricks that might help cut our losses, I'm all ears!!!)

So, I spent roughly $90K on this machine a little over two years ago. We like our two HP latex roll to roll printers, but this flatbed has been a huge disappointment. I am considering replacing this one in a few months with another brand, but I don't know anything about the other manufacturers and their machines. We primarily do ACM and coroplast, but we also print on some thin .020 and .040 rigid polystyrene. What recommendations do you have for a really dependable flatbed? It doesn't have to be a speed demon, but it also can't be too slow. Any recommendations and advice are greatly appreciated!
Click to expand...
What did you do to fix the issue you are having. Did you replace the heads or the whole machine? We are also having head issues and I'm looking for advice.
 
M

Mikee

New Member
Morning from the UK..
We use Vutek.
We have GS5000R and LX3 Pro
We also have an aging QS2000
Flat bed and roll to roll, good machines..
 
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