On location printing

[Signd by Charlie]

I have been doing cut vinyl for 15 years and have recently purchased a 16' enclosed trailer to go "on-location" and work at the customer's shop. Of course doing 4 or 5 layers of cut vinyl is old school so I would like to be able print their ads on location. The majority of my business is trucking companies who are focused primarily on having their trucks lettered and not so much the trailers. I can get by with a 24" printer similar to the BN50 if it could handle being ran up and down the road. Anyone have any experience in this area? Thanks.

 

[Gino]

Some years ago, there was a complete discussion and picture comparison of this very type of project. Various members posted up pictures of how they outfitted their trailers and went on the road so to speak. Generators, work space and comfort seemed to be the most concerns.

I'd suggest doing a search for that, as most of the members are no longer here..... for whatever reason.

 

[J Hill Designs]

http://www.signs101.com/forums/showthread.php?89111-Mobile-Sign-Company-Anyone

http://www.signs101.com/forums/showthread.php?53702-Check-out-my-mobile-sign-van

 

[Signd by Charlie]

Thanks for the links. I know several people say stay in the shop and I can appreciate that as I have done that for 15 years however, I have to come up with something no one else is offering. Around my rural area, a trucking company can lose thousands of dollars having a truck down for a day while I do my part for them. I have found I can add a $100 per truck by just going to their place. I did $2k just last Monday in an 8hr session. I think if I could print the stuff I could speed up operation. My goal is to get 10 or so businesses I can frequent weekly. The trailer has heat and ac as well as an RV generator with a power inverter set up. I keep the power on all day and even rolling down the road to maintain temps. I see people recommending letting the prints sit for 25 hrs before laminating for longevity. Honestly though these trucks see a million miles in no time and get traded off rather quickly. Longevity may be a year so it's not a super big issue. Is there a small printer that I could use for the trailer?

 

[J Hill Designs]

I would go 30" - the BN20 is really slow I hear

 

[qmr55]

Thanks for the links. I know several people say stay in the shop and I can appreciate that as I have done that for 15 years however, I have to come up with something no one else is offering. Around my rural area, a trucking company can lose thousands of dollars having a truck down for a day while I do my part for them. I have found I can add a $100 per truck by just going to their place. I did $2k just last Monday in an 8hr session. I think if I could print the stuff I could speed up operation. My goal is to get 10 or so businesses I can frequent weekly. The trailer has heat and ac as well as an RV generator with a power inverter set up. I keep the power on all day and even rolling down the road to maintain temps. I see people recommending letting the prints sit for 25 hrs before laminating for longevity. Honestly though these trucks see a million miles in no time and get traded off rather quickly. Longevity may be a year so it's not a super big issue. Is there a small printer that I could use for the trailer?

Letting the prints sit before lamination is called outgassing. Typically this is done with solvent printers.

I would suggest latex printers then you can laminate immediately after printing with no worries.

 

[CanuckSigns]

My concern would be drying time for the inks. If you are wanting a portable printer, than I assume you are planning on printing on site? are you going to laminate as well? the prints from a eco-solvent printer should dry for at least a few hours before they are laminated or applied. The exception to this would be a latex or thermal printer.

However I don't think they make a printer that would stand up to being bounced around in a trailer, they are pretty complex machines with extremely tight tolerances.

With that being said, I still don't think printing on site is the way to go, I would think that printing & laminating before you get to site is still the best option.

 

[the graphics co]

I would be worried about the print heads or data cables or encoder strip getting damaged while you are driving around. then you have a 20k printer dead in the water when you get to the job.

 

[Signd by Charlie]

All great comments, Thank you. I think for now maybe I'll just keep whacking vinyl.