Newbie with a few business questions

[jpm2112]

Hello Everyone,

I'm new to the large format business. But, have been in the offset printing field for many years. I would like to get some insight and help with purchasing some equipment.

I'm not looking for "the best". I'm look for information on considerations to take into account when purchasing the following pieces; a large format printer, laminator and cutter.

There's a trade show coming to town this month and I would like to be prepared with the right questions …

Here are the considerations that I have so far:
Printer;
Speed
Off gas time
Print head replacement
consumable costs
120v or 220v
Eco-Freidnly inks


I just realized, I've only been researching printers! lol What are some consideration to take with laminators and cutter?


Please ensues the long winded questions …


Cheers,


JP

 

[FireSprint.com]

A few things we learned as we moved into wide format:

Although beach scenes and beautiful people are nice to see printing, they can hide alot of imperfections. Have them run huge sold swatches of light gray, blues and red.

Have them print large swatches of solid primary colors with some fine text in the mode you expect to run in. Sometimes reds look pink and greens look teal.

Whatever you think your ink costs will be double or triple that.

Assume at least 20% material waste your first year. This is not drop (the extra 6 inches left over because the print is only 48 inches wide) this is waste. You will crumple up and throw away alot of stuff.

Printers don't run overnight unsupervised using Twitter commands. While they technically could, you'll learn it's not worth burning a whole role of media because you had a nozzle drop out 3 ft after you left the room.

As far as your laminator and cutter are concerned I don't think you can go wrong with any of the major brands. Your printer will give you far more heartache than the laminator and cutter.

And for my experience, if your just putting a gloss uv overlam on vinyl, don't bother with heat assist.

It's cool what one can do with this equipment, but there's a cost to it no printer or cutter salesman will tell you about. Not because theyre lying, but because until you own them, and order the material, one just can't know.

 

[bug]

i would add rip software, since i changed to caldera i almost dont have problems with files,
cause caldera has appe engine some adobe stuff, mostly files are done in adobe software and when client make transparancies,... it will print correct + what is included in rip, profiling, print cut, tiling, grommets for banners
but lately i see also other software are including appe engine in basic rip configuration, onyx, flexi, colorgate,... just check before

 

[jpm2112]

Thanks for the response guys.

I'll create some files to bring to the trade show and see if they will print them and Caldera's one of the RIPs that I am considering.


Thanks again,


JP