New printer advice

[The Sign Depot LLC]

Hello everyone, we're looking to replace aging or problematic roll-to-roll printers and I'm looking for advice on simply what is the best. We run ONYX and build our own profiles. Our roll-to-roll work consists primarily of contour cut graphics, banners and wraps.

We are currently running an HP Latex 570 and a Roland XC-540 in addition to an HP R1000 and HP FB500. We love the instant lamination and cut the of the Latex 570 but it's color consistency is abysmal. With heads and ink in warranty, and utilizing all the tricks like gutters and rotating every other panel, we have pretty significant color shift over 10-20ft. We love the Roland reliability, but outgas times are an inconvenience.

What do you guys run and love? What do you hate? Help me find the best and avoid headaches. Thanks.

 

[White Haus]

We've been happy with our Epson S60600. Doing lots of volume? Get a S60600L. Doing TONS of volume? Get a Colorado.

We've had Roland XC-540 and XR-640 and much prefer the Epson.

No printer will 100% match all your requirements, you'll have to figure out what your product mix is between decals/banners/wraps, and which manufacturer can offer the best solution and support.

Most new printers will probably beat the HP Latex printers in terms of color consistency, but you'll lose some points for off-gassing.

 

[BigNate]

... the 700 and 800 HPs have better color consistency that the older latex - something to do with the better/longer curing area. Keep heads fresh and calibrate often. And these still have the benefit of no off-gassing - straight to laminating.

 

[d fleming]

Epson. Bought my first and last roland two years ago just to have a small printer in the shop for minimal orders and specialty work, like my own labeling needs. Good machine, worthless warranty and service.

 

[The Sign Depot LLC]

We've been happy with our Epson S60600. Doing lots of volume? Get a S60600L. Doing TONS of volume? Get a Colorado.

We've had Roland XC-540 and XR-640 and much prefer the Epson.

No printer will 100% match all your requirements, you'll have to figure out what your product mix is between decals/banners/wraps, and which manufacturer can offer the best solution and support.

Most new printers will probably beat the HP Latex printers in terms of color consistency, but you'll lose some points for off-gassing.

Thanks for the info. Other than being grossly outdated, our XC540 has been a great machine, hence the reason we've kept it so long.

Can you elaborate on what you like better about the Epsons?

Our volume is usually lots of small loads, like 10-20ft, then change out to different media and run another 10-20ft.

 

[The Sign Depot LLC]

Epson. Bought my first and last roland two years ago just to have a small printer in the shop for minimal orders and specialty work, like my own labeling needs. Good machine, worthless warranty and service.

Do you have an Epson now or just really unhappy with your Roland? Which Roland did you have?

 

[White Haus]

Thanks for the info. Other than being grossly outdated, our XC540 has been a great machine, hence the reason we've kept it so long.

Can you elaborate on what you like better about the Epsons?

Our volume is usually lots of small loads, like 10-20ft, then change out to different media and run another 10-20ft.

I know how you feel, we did enjoy our time with team Roland but I won't be going back. Roland helped us through our first 10 years of large format printing but as far as I'm concerned they've lost their way and don't have a place in our shop any more.

The Epson is MUCH faster than the Roland Soljets we ran before. Colors are good considering it's only a 4 color and our Rolands were 6-8 colors.

Tracking on the Epson is a million times better than the Rolands - we always had issues with poor tracking that would eventually result in head strikes. No such issues whatsoever with the Epson so far.
We print full rolls in 4ish hours, the Rolands would be a 8+ hour day to even come close to that.

Color consistency has been great, along with consistent quality over long runs of solid colors.

Loading/unloading media is also a huge improvement over Rolands, I really like the way they designed media handling on these things. You can also save all your media presets on the machine, so you load your new roll, tell it what you put on it, and boom you're ready to print within a couple of minutes. Makes roll changeover pretty quick and easy.