New Shop Opening

[Rotsennad]

I went to SGIA, have been to HP's Latex and Flatbed Academy and have read everything I could find for the last 2 months.

I vend foamboard, pvc, vinyl banners from local and Internet sources. I am now prepared to invest $150k to outfit an entire shop and have adequate working capital.

Flatbed printing seems like the largest players are HP and Oce followed by several smaller companies.

HP's FB series seems to be highly automated, but expensive ink cost compared to most. I also understand it takes about 2 hours and $75 to clean out white.

Oce seems to be lower ink cost and great quality, but slower production to comparable cost HP's FB series. Oce's true flatbed requires a smaller footprint, which is important in my current space.

I think of flatbeds main advantage being that it prints directly on rigid substrates. However, not really clear on the outside durability. I don't see guarantees like I do on the durability of outside graphics and car wraps done on latex and Eco solvent printers.

What are the advantages of printing UV roll to roll over a ecosovent or latex printer.

Thanks for your feedback

 

[HulkSmash]

I went to SGIA, have been to HP's Latex and Flatbed Academy and have read everything I could find for the last 2 months.

I vend foamboard, pvc, vinyl banners from local and Internet sources. I am now prepared to invest $150k to outfit an entire shop and have adequate working capital.

Flatbed printing seems like the largest players are HP and Oce followed by several smaller companies.

HP's FB series seems to be highly automated, but expensive ink cost compared to most. I also understand it takes about 2 hours and $75 to clean out white.

Oce seems to be lower ink cost and great quality, but slower production to comparable cost HP's FB series. Oce's true flatbed requires a smaller footprint, which is important in my current space.

I think of flatbeds main advantage being that it prints directly on rigid substrates. However, not really clear on the outside durability. I don't see guarantees like I do on the durability of outside graphics and car wraps done on latex and Eco solvent printers.

What are the advantages of printing UV roll to roll over a ecosovent or latex printer.

Thanks for your feedback

I'd reconsider going straight to a flatbed. It's something you need to work up to. Even if you have the money, start up right, instead of digging yourself into a hole in the beginning

good luck

 

[Prisco]

New Shop which printer to buy???

Hi, My names Greg. I work for Prisco Digital-the largest HP channel parnter in the US. If you would like to discuss HP flatbeds I'm based in Baltimore and have another guy in DE.

Feel free to contact me at 301 399 8240 or greg.prisco@sprint.blackberry.net

 

[VL]

I think you need to consider who your target market is going to be. This will help you decide what printer to purchase. If you are going to be selling to a market that wants cheep fast products vs. customers that prefer quality products. If it was me I would go with the OCE with a roll option. This way you can do roll media and also provide a great quality products. You don't need to sell as much if you can charge for quality. Also before you make the jump factor in an employee to run the equipment (if you can) and hire someone with more experience than yourself. This way you are not struggling to do it all. You can focus on sales instead.