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Need Help Ricoh Pro L4160. Reasons to purchase.

S

SheBeau

New Member
We’ve been offered a 2 year old fully operational Ricoh Pro L4160 for $6500. (The current owners are going to a 10ft commercial monstrosity and one of their people is married to one of ours).
Presently I have a 9 year old HP Designjet z6100ps that’s having motherboard issues causing it to occasionally “fatal error” and stop. I get it back up usually with one ToTo but it should be replaced before restarts stop working.
Our CEO thinks 65K is “the top of the iceberg” and wants to be convinced that it won’t be a money pit. I need some opinions and if positive, some answers for his questions. He asked "How does this give us a competitive advantage?” and says he needs many more answers (listed below).

RIP?
Software?
Upgrades?
Warranty?
Training?
Maintenance?
Supplies?
 
Christian @ 2CT Media

Christian @ 2CT Media

Active Member
Its not worth it, seriously a $9000 HP L315 is better than the used Mimaki Latex. Ricoh has recently released their new in house L5160 which is way better.
 
B

bannertime

Active Member
It's a rebranded Mimaki latex machine. That may help your search. We looked at them when we went with our HP and even talked to a Ricoh rep, but didn't know much about them at the time. Decided that the consumable heads were better for us. I'd say if it has the white ink, it's probably a pretty great deal. Even having the orange and green ink would be pretty nice. Our old solvent had the 6 color and it had pretty great color gamut. I don't know anything about the quality or durability though.

Not having white is one of the only things that's holding us back in some areas.
 
Christian @ 2CT Media

Christian @ 2CT Media

Active Member
bannertime said:
It's a rebranded Mimaki latex machine. That may help your search. We looked at them when we went with our HP and even talked to a Ricoh rep, but didn't know much about them at the time. Decided that the consumable heads were better for us. I'd say if it has the white ink, it's probably a pretty great deal. Even having the orange and green ink would be pretty nice. Our old solvent had the 6 color and it had pretty great color gamut. I don't know anything about the quality or durability though.

Not having white is one of the only things that's holding us back in some areas.
Click to expand...
Other way around... Its a Ricoh machine on Mimaki parts bin parts.
 
S

SheBeau

New Member
2CT Media said:
Its not worth it, seriously a $9000 HP L315 is better than the used Mimaki Latex. Ricoh has recently released their new in house L5160 which is way better.
Click to expand...
The CEO is barely considering $6500 so NO WAY will he go $9000. Lexjet just had a 50% deal on a latex for about that and I didn’t even bring it up.
 
S

SheBeau

New Member
bannertime said:
It's a rebranded Mimaki latex machine. That may help your search. We looked at them when we went with our HP and even talked to a Ricoh rep, but didn't know much about them at the time. Decided that the consumable heads were better for us. I'd say if it has the white ink, it's probably a pretty great deal. Even having the orange and green ink would be pretty nice. Our old solvent had the 6 color and it had pretty great color gamut. I don't know anything about the quality or durability though.

Not having white is one of the only things that's holding us back in some areas.
Click to expand...
I’ve sent out the question about white ink. I agree... that would be a nice perk. We do ask our print venders for white undercoats occasionally.
 
S

SheBeau

New Member
Having an aqueous inkjet like HP’s Designjet makes it difficult to do in-house printing because, as a trade show company all the prints are crated, shipped to Vegas or wherever, handled by who-the-hell-knows, and then pulled down, repacked and sent to one of our warehouses. It may or may not be reused. My prints have to be laminated and adhesive applied to 3ml pvc (typical) to be tough enough to take that handling. Then there’s the corner/edge pulling up problem if they’re scuffed. More and more we’re outsourcing to places like Color Reflections or Color Gamut and paying high shipping costs because they’re up to 60”W x 120"H. It would be so much cheaper to do the printing in-house so I need reasons to buy this latex machine.
 
I

iPrintStuff

Prints stuff
Always gotta look at the price that you’d be paying if you were busy and your current printer died.

huge bill or cost of a new printer and angry customers to match!

never keen on a penny punching boss, gotta spend money to make money!
 
B

bannertime

Active Member
SheBeau said:
It would be so much cheaper to do the printing in-house so I need reasons to buy this latex machine.
Click to expand...

That's your reason. Go look up how much you pay your print vendors every month or year. Look specifically at shipping too. I imagine if you're somewhat busy you're probably paying a few hundred a month in shipping alone. Now tell him, that same amount you pay for shipping could be a machine payment. That you'll then be able to produce faster turn around, control the quality, and make more money on the end product. If they don't understand that, then I'd look for another job.
 
Christian @ 2CT Media

Christian @ 2CT Media

Active Member
Your CEO needs to understand that you will save more, in the long run, buying a machine like a Colorado 1650, a couple of Latex 570s, or a few Mimaki UCJV300s vs that machine.

Spend now to save forever, cheap out now to lose money forever.
 
I

iPrintStuff

Prints stuff
2CT Media said:
Your CEO needs to understand that you will save more, in the long run, buying a machine like a Colorado 1650, a couple of Latex 570s, or a few Mimaki UCJV300s vs that machine.

Spend now to save forever, cheap out now to lose money forever.
Click to expand...

What he said. We got our ROI on the 1640 in about three months
 
S

SheBeau

New Member
Now I’m being asked how a new Latex would be better than fixing the HP because we outsource prints for Direct To Substrate. He thinks DTS prints are less labor, easier to replace and easier to handle. I replied that I apply to substrate so what’s the difference?
 
Christian @ 2CT Media

Christian @ 2CT Media

Active Member
If your panels are all 3mm PVC then look at the New Vanguard VK300D-HS, the Mimaki JFX500, or the New Roland ui-1000... there are many more but these are some of the best entry-level machines with high quality and speed.
 
Last edited:
Christian @ 2CT Media

Christian @ 2CT Media

Active Member
SheBeau said:
Now I’m being asked how a new Latex would be better than fixing the HP because we outsource prints for Direct To Substrate. He thinks DTS prints are less labor, easier to replace and easier to handle. I replied that I apply to substrate so what’s the difference?
Click to expand...
To answer your question the difference is labor time. You will save significantly on labor if you direct print vs apply.
 
S

SheBeau

New Member
2CT Media said:
Your CEO needs to understand that you will save more, in the long run, buying a machine like a Colorado 1650, a couple of Latex 570s, or a few Mimaki UCJV300s vs that machine.

Spend now to save forever, cheap out now to lose money forever.
Click to expand...
2CT Media said:
To answer your question the difference is labor time. You will save significantly on labor if you direct print vs apply.
Click to expand...
Not the way I see it. We wait days for printers to get the DTS prints to us. All I do is hit “send” and then work on other stuff while it prints. I’ve been mounting for nearly 20 years and can have a 4X8 mounted and trimmed in under 20 minutes.
 
S

SheBeau

New Member
bannertime said:
It's a rebranded Mimaki latex machine. That may help your search. We looked at them when we went with our HP and even talked to a Ricoh rep, but didn't know much about them at the time. Decided that the consumable heads were better for us. I'd say if it has the white ink, it's probably a pretty great deal. Even having the orange and green ink would be pretty nice. Our old solvent had the 6 color and it had pretty great color gamut. I don't know anything about the quality or durability though.

Not having white is one of the only things that's holding us back in some areas.
Click to expand...
No white. Just Orange and Green and CMYK
 
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