Oce Colorado - Yay or nay

Don't do it! What applications are you buying it for? Its a $60k banner printer.

 

I wasn't impressed with the quality when a rep showed me their print sample book.

 

Just had a deal happen last week with a client looking at the Colorado, I ended up showing them that 2 560's could out produce this machine for much less money. For the price, you could buy 3 560's!

 

I supposedly have a demo unit being placed in my shop soon. This machine will be used primarily for wall and floor wraps so the stretchability isn't an issue. I did hear that a flexible ink should be out soon and you can convert current ink setups. I will be signing a contract for the machine but can cancel any time up to 90 days. We'll see what happens.

 

You should look into the operating costs of the Colorado before just considering the $68K price tag to bring one in. The ink costs on this machine are only $.09/ft2. Do the math on the ink costs of 2 HP 560's. You'll be saving around $80/roll in ink/heads/maintenance trays which are all required in the latex unit.

Furthermore, the "high resolution" mode on the Colorado is 430sf/hr. At this speed, the machine automatically checks every single print nozzle to make sure it is firing, and if they aren't, they automatically remap so the output is flawless. You load up a roll in and 1.5 hours, come back and it will be done without any head dropping out. You can't do that with latex (or solvent). If you want to go faster on a job which isn't as image-important, then you can go up to 610 or 1210 sf/hr which will officially leave the latex in the dust. At these faster modes, you lose the ability to automatically check the nozzles with each pass...but now it is just like every other printer in the market where you have to keep an eye on the output from time to time to make sure things are going well.

The ink does not scratch. I just doesn't. If your jobs will allow for it, you don't have to laminate it like latex or solvent. There's another $150/roll back in your pocket.

The first versions had ink and firmware issues...those have been resolved. The machine is a beast. Do the homework and get in front of one or come to my facility and watch it go. We are distributors for the Colorado and this machine blows away the 60" latex machines in every application other than true 'wraps'...but it is fine for truck and car sides and pretty much every other application other than light and flimsy fabrics.

If you buy two 560's just keep a calculator around to add up the $80/roll more in ink and operating costs plus the pain-in-the-butt ink cartridges which will have you guessing if there is enough ink in the cartridge to print your last roll after you've left your shop. At the very least go with a 570 with the less expensive bulk ink.

 

My company just invested heavily in 6 of these.

There is a hefty price tag but the quality and speed are extremely impressive. Our shop has everything from 3.2m Vuteks, 5m Vuteks, various Epsons and HPs and the 1640 has quickly become our favorite printer.

When rush jobs come in and I need impressive quality with ridiculous speed and I don't have to babysit the thing, then the 1640 is the tool for the job.

It's VERY user friendly. I'm not kidding when I say 20 minutes of training is plenty. It easily prints an entire roll AND takes it up on the take up reel perfectly straight without any complaining. Our laminators appreciate that accuracy as well.

 

This isn't true for latex.

 

The durability of the gel ink cannot be understated on this machine, basically scratch proof. The quality at the higher speed settings is more than adequate for most jobs and the ink costs are second to none. The more we pondered it the last few months the more of a "no-brainer" it became. I even soaked a small sample piece in gasoline for 30 minutes, along with a solvent print, and a latex print. Understandably the solvent smeared, the latex wiped cleanly off, but the Colorado print was unchanged and still not scratchable.

 

I stand by the statement, 2 HP's can compete all day against the Colorado BUT with HP's I can print more applications. For the price tag, I can actually buy 3 HP's and smoke anyone with a Colorado.
Service contract is going to be about 10% of the unit price so figure about $5600/year...fast but limited media still...cannot do vehicle graphics and soft signage is very limited.

I am sure it has its place though.

 

We have had a Colorado for about 6 months and honestly have had a lot of problems. For one, don't try to print to adhesive vinyl/weed/transfer paper. Most colors the transfer paper will pull the ink right off of the vinyl.

 

Try again....
Jim are you using the current ink and firmware ?
I'm curious because the first versions from last year certainly did what you've shown, but the tests we did ourselves (Oce let us loose on their Colorado for a few hours) were significantly better.
With the 3M and Avery cast we used the ink can't be de-laminated, even with urethane laminate after 4 weeks.
Did we just get lucky, or is it Cast / Calendared specific do you think ?

 

Jun,

You really should read and follow the rules here. You can't run around pitching equipment unless you sign up as a merchant member.

 

No, we're up with all the dealer "smoke and mirrors".
We drove it through Onyx with various profiles, took our own media, and used it ourselves.
The ink certainly bites better to cast than calendared, but that's true of every printer process, solvent, latex, or uv.
On calendared we did a lot of cross hatch slicing the ink and trying to lift it on the cut edges with the same vinyl; much stickier than app tape.
We did see a little edge flaking on the calendared vinyl, but nothing like Jim's picture.