New Roll To Roll Printer - Is there finally a "Good in all areas" printer yet?

[thetsp]

New Roll to Roll Printer, is there finally a "good in all areas" printer yet? We're looking for something that does the following: 1) Good scratch protection when unlaminated. The Canon Colorado UV is really really good in this area for example. But latex printers for example are okay, but not great, and solvent aren't great.
2) Color consistency. Latex printers are terrible at this, Canon Colorado is great, solvent printers most part are great too. We print a lot of vehicle wraps, and with a latex printer there is no way around it. No matter how much you calibrate and keep on top of things, if the panels are printed several months apart chances of a small color shift are very very high.

3) Stretch on vehicle wrap installers. Latex is king here. I tested the Canon Colorado UV ink with 1360z, and after a mild amount of stretch it "cracks". Where as with latex if you overstretch it starts to ghost. Solvents are pretty good in this arena as well.

4) Speed of prints. This to me is the least important. Doesn't really matter, we can always run overnight shifts or adjust things if a printer is a little bit slower. It's not a big deal at all.

5) Flash laminating - Any solvent printers that actually don't need outgassing these days? Latex and UV are great. we can flash lam within an hour after printing and no problems what so ever. We're looking at upgrading a couple of our printers. We have run everything from Flatbed latex machines, UV machines, and eco-solvent printers.
Curious if some of the new Epson's or other printers check all the boxes these days? I don't trust sales reps, they'll tell you almost anything. I always like to test it myself first before committing.

 

[victor bogdanov]

Epson resin has better color consistency than HP and is similar to latex in other areas. but not as scratch resistant as the Colorado. For wraps Epson R5070 for other stuff Colorado.

All print technologies (UV, Solvent, Latex/Resin) have their own advantages and disadvantages

 

[JBurton]

All print technologies (UV, Solvent, Latex/Resin) have their own advantages and disadvantages

But I want a 4x4 1 ton pickup, that rides like a lincoln, as fast as a bugatti, that looks as cool as a ferrari. Also, I want it to self park, and have really good mileage. And fuzzy dice!

 

[Grizzly]

But I want a 4x4 1 ton pickup, that rides like a lincoln, as fast as a bugatti, that looks as cool as a ferrari. Also, I want it to self park, and have really good mileage. And fuzzy dice!

Nailed it!

 

[JBurton]

To be fair to OP, he knows what he's after, and the limitations of technology. Personally, I'm eyeing a 630w for an upgrade from a 560. It will be a downgrade considering the lack of spectrometer, but there are very few customers looking for dead nuts accurate color out here in the sticks, so I can live with that. I'm hoping the added white will give me expanded capabilities, and the lower heat will help save materials on short runs. Speed is not an issue, as I tend to start a print and go run the cnc or something, often not even unloading the printer until the next day, but on occasion I need a print laminated and stuck to a sign while it's being loaded on a trailer. Scratch protection was just a gimmick to me when they showed off my printers capabilities during training. Use the key test... what? If I was worried about a set of keys scratching it, sure, but I'm worried about the sharp edge of a sheet, or something far more abrasive, laminate is just built into my print pricing anyways.
Anybody have feedback on the Epsons other than victor?

 

[thetsp]

Haha appreciate the replys guys. Yes I'm super familiar with nearly every printer style, I don't expect there to be a unicorn out there. But with that said over the years manufactuers improve their inksets to address some of the issues, and hoping maybe some of the newer gen printers people have installed in the past year have perfected 1 or 2 areas.

How are people finding Epons new Resin ink system?

Yes I've looked at the 630, but it'll still have some of the color consitency issues that are present with Latex. I ran an 800w as one of the first to get it, and Hp finally took it back and gave us our money back. THat thing was a total piece of junk, ,so I won't purchase any of their newer gen 700 or 800 machines.

Ultimately, I may do as some others have said here is use our Latex machines for wraps, run a colorado for other items like wall wraps, A-frames, window graphics, etc. We then have our larger flatbed printer for general signage, alupanel, DTS etc.

 

[JBurton]

I don't expect there to be a unicorn out there

That's what my ai prompt was missing!

 

[MNT_Printhead]

Yes the HP Latex has a spectro, it doesn't mean the colors match automatically, just land closer. When I worked For Miesel in Dallas we had all of the fancy color management, the people doing file set up were in a dark room with on the correct lighting for metamersion along with light booths and pantone color reader etc - after employing all of this technology I the guy operating 9 printers usually had to do the final tweaks on greys and lighter colors at the RIP at least 60% of the time for them after it couldn't be achieved from adjustments to the native file.

I have 2 HP Latex 300s and to me the latex machines present more issues than having a built in spectro is worth - higher maintenance required when used like a real production printer, panels not lining up, prints not curing because your MK3 wasn't done properly buy Bell and Howell or you run more volume and have the issues before the service is required and this fun leads to finger pointing between HP techs and the RIP software. It is very rare that my prints hit the correct intended size, I ran 34 37"x49" posters this week sending the job twice, some were close to perfect in size, some were undersized, and some were over. I am now looking at reinstalling my RIP and having to reprofile every media I use in a shop that simply does not have time to deal with it - Ain't nobody got time for that, get a good solvent machine like I will once these damn HPs die (I have spent over the cost of a new one to keep/get my 2 (2014 and 2019) working well again and they are still failing in the middle of jobs - these are the most sensitive printers I have worked with).

Out gassing is a boogey man from the early years that needs to be laid to rest - I worked at a shop back in 2002 that ran miles a day on Vuteks and never wasted time fearing out gassing before they laminated, they probably got at tops 4 hours before lam unless it sat overnight simply because it was an end of shift run.

 

[MarkSnelling]

The Colorado checks the most boxes if you have the volume for the Colorado's price tag. I sell the Colorado and also the Roland line of printers. The speed is outstanding. The color consistency and scratch resistance is awesome. I've got several 'wrap shops' with the Colorado and once they become experienced with how the gel behaves, they are good with the performance.

The biggest 'oversell' when it comes to the Colorado is when people claim you can run cast vinyl at the Quality or High Quality modes (around 400sf/hr). You should go into purchasing a Colorado with the midset that you will be at 200sf/hr on cast and if you are successful at the 400sf/hour mode then congratulations.

Calendared vinyl is comfortable in that 400'sh/sf/hour range. Banner and paper - crazy fast speeds ranging from 600-1200sf/hour.

 

[Gino]

That's what my ai prompt was missing!

Does that fit under bridges ??