Printer Cons and Pros: 54" vs. 64",74"

[CSOCSO]

Anyone with 64" or 74" could chime in pls??

64" would be just enough to print a whole side for a van and have no seams but as I see the widest material we can buy is 60"?

Am I missing something? It would be so awesome to wrap a side of a van 1 piece.

 

[jfiscus]

No, it would suck to wrap the side of a van one piece. Print wrap panels on 54" material, vertical panels.

I have a GS6000 & I can print 60" wide when I need to (mostly for banners), but the majority of its use is on 54" material. A 4' banner with pole pockets at both ends requires 60" printing area.

 

[SightLine]

This. You do not want to wrap a full size van in one peice. I think most use the same, mostly 54" adhesive vinyls. Having a 63-64" machine gives the advantage of running wider banner stocks. We run some 63" banner stock which lets you get a full 5 foot seamless banner. We do also run some 60" adhesive vinyl as well for certain jobs as well if some specific job can reasonably benefit from it such as contour cut stuff.

No, it would suck to wrap the side of a van one piece. Print wrap panels on 54" material, vertical panels.

I have a GS6000 & I can print 60" wide when I need to (mostly for banners), but the majority of its use is on 54" material. A 4' banner with pole pockets at both ends requires 60" printing area.

 

[CSOCSO]

Interesting. Thanks

 

[cha88]

ive had a vs-640 for two years and never put anything bigger then 54 in it...banner is the only thing i ever see available over 54 thats very common...save your money and buy 54

 

[CSOCSO]

Thank you! More opinions are welcome though...

 

[ironchef]

I have a 54in. Mimaki. And i out source any larger jobs. I gotta say i feel way more comfortabke printing small panels and not long panels. I just printed 2 20ft panels for windows. Laminating wasnt that hard. But it does move a little. I onlynhad about a quarter inch slack of lam when i was done. So dont forget about laminating

 

[Bly]

We have one 74" printer just so when anyone rings and says "what's the widest you can print?" we can say 1800mm.
We do use it a bit.
The other two machines are fine at 60".

 

[2B]

This. You do not want to wrap a full size van in one peice. I think most use the same, mostly 54" adhesive vinyls. Having a 63-64" machine gives the advantage of running wider banner stocks. We run some 63" banner stock which lets you get a full 5 foot seamless banner. We do also run some 60" adhesive vinyl as well for certain jobs as well if some specific job can reasonably benefit from it such as contour cut stuff.

we have some VS-640 this is the case most often than not

 

[FatCat]

We have a 64 and a 48 here. The 64 is great, but we most often run 54" on it - which our 48" can't do. But like others have said, banner is the only thing you commonly find in 63-64". If you were able to get a 72" machine, you'd probably have a very small list of vendors that could get you 72" material and unless you're buying a ton of it, might actually gouge you a bit because of this. I know the big shops have billboards, etc. but they are usually not buying their material from places like Fellers & Grimco.

 

[Conor Knoxx]

taking it from the other end of the spectrum..... I've had a Mutoh 1204 for several years now, which can print a max. of 48 inches (47.25 bi-directional )
It's a pain getting "standard" 54 inch material cut down to 48 inch rolls, and edge-to-edge printing for 4 x 8 sheets is nearly impossible.
So, in hind-sight, I really wish I would have sprung for the 54 inch 1304 - but other than that, I couldn't see any reason whatsoever for having anything larger than that in my particular shop.

And the comment about keeping your laminating size limitation in mind is mighty good advice too!! (and easy to overlook)

 

[CSOCSO]

You guys are awesome! Cookies for everyone! I know lamination is a pita sometimes. Thats why I make sure I load the material in with the back first. So if the lam starts to shift and losing it from the top if the front door or fender its not a big problem. Fixable. (We are talking about a wan.)

 

[Jack Knight1979]

We have a Roland 74 and a 64. I love them both. Most common size I run on both is 54" materials of varied types. My next printer will be wider however. I'd like a 108" roll printer or a 4x8 ft flatbed/hybrid.

 

[signworldusinc]

We have multiple 64" printers and a few 48" printers. We need the 64" printers to print our 57" retractable banners and reserve our 48s mainly to do smaller prints for our H and X banners. One of the pros of having a 64" would be the added ability to produce larger custom size prints for a lot of our customers whose banners are as big as 5 feet; without our 64s we would have to outsource these particular work orders.

 

[CSOCSO]

Basically i wanted to know if its good to get a bigger printer for car wrap. But as everyone said. Bigger printer is only good for banners.