Roland 640 Printer questions

[SignShopDave]

I read a lot of the reviews and some were started a few years back. I am looking to get my first cutter/printer and I am down to 3/4 options and was looking for a suggestions on today's experiences. The choices are...


All Roland Referbds
TrueVis VG-640 Duel CMYK
TrueVis VG-640 CMYK lc lm Lk Cleaning
XR-640 CMYK lc lm Lk Cleaning
XR-640 CMYK lc lm Metalic White.
Also a VS-640 not sure how the color is set up.

I am looking to do stickers, banners and wraps.

I read that the TrueVis had lots of problems in the beginning are all the problems fixed?
I can not seem to find any bad reviews of the XR-640's.
Is the ink difference a problem or one cost more than another to make a difference?

any real life suggestions and experience would be greatly appreciated.

 

[petepaz]

right now we have all rolands.
vp-540, xc 540, xr-640, vg-540 and lej-640 all work great and all have had little bugs in the begining. nothing major and our vendor was able to fix everything as needed.
i would say the xc has really been our work horse and is our oldest printer other than the vp but the vp we just use to print die layouts and that's just black. the xr is pretty hearty machine also and pretty quick. the vg we have only had for like 4-5 months but all bugs have been worked out and runs pretty smooth. for a first machine i might go with the xr or an xc based on what we run and how they have worked out for us so far.

 

[premiercolour]

I read a lot of the reviews and some were started a few years back. I am looking to get my first cutter/printer and I am down to 3/4 options and was looking for a suggestions on today's experiences. The choices are...


All Roland Referbds
TrueVis VG-640 Duel CMYK
TrueVis VG-640 CMYK lc lm Lk Cleaning
XR-640 CMYK lc lm Lk Cleaning
XR-640 CMYK lc lm Metalic White.
Also a VS-640 not sure how the color is set up.

I am looking to do stickers, banners and wraps.

I read that the TrueVis had lots of problems in the beginning are all the problems fixed?
I can not seem to find any bad reviews of the XR-640's.
Is the ink difference a problem or one cost more than another to make a difference?

any real life suggestions and experience would be greatly appreciated.

I wouldn’t consider Truvis.

XR vs VS. XR has similar technology to VS except it has two heads, print faster. Quality wise, similar. We have both printers in our shop so this is the experience we have.

Get vs-I or xr640. Double cmyk > 7 color with lk > 7 color with white. White tends to clog up head if you don’t use much, slow down speed by 30% or more. But if you have good customers wanting white, you could mark up margin much more because most of the shop chose non white setup. Yes you can change from non white to white setup after.

We sell Jetbest Eco solvent ink for Roland printers. As good as Roland ink. We tested ink compatibility in our s California warehouse for more than 6 months before introducing the ink. Factory in Taiwan tests more than one year before publishing the product.

Premier Colour
714-668-9200
www.premiercolour.com


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[SignShopDave]

Thank you for the replies. I hope a few more people will chime in.
Is there a different learning curve between the two machines?
Does the different ink Eco-solv and Eco-solve2 make a difference in decision?

 

[CanuckSigns]

How much do you think you will be printing? Our tru vis machine used an insane amount of ink to clean itself, while it was printing it was very efficient but when not in use it drinks it.

Case in point, we closed for Christmas for 1.5 weeks, I emptied the bottle before we left, when I came back it was half full, that's $75 worth of ink wastes on cleaning in less than 2 weeks!

 

[Emd2kick]

IMO print cut on and solvent / eco solvent is disaster waiting to happen. If you intend to print/cut with bleed have fun with edge curl and possible adhesive issues. If you intend to lam, do you really want to have to run it back through your printer to cut while it could be printing other jobs (especially since the cut function is slower the an offline cutter)?

We have a vg640 and wish everyday we never bought it. We bought it back in October, we have no bugs or mechanical issues...just real world problems like edge curls / ink penetration that almost feels like it weakens material / and so SLOW. Also eco solve stinks when running a lot , unless you are EXTREMELY well ventilated you will smell it. Ours is in a 2500 square foot room, and we smell it even on the opposite side of the room with the door open.

We bought a latex 365 in January, wish I had two of these instead. No smell, fast as f****, and with an offline cutter it’s still a cheaper rig.

Just my 2 cents, if your ever in NJ you are welcome to come see both...it’s really no contest.

 

[C5 Service&Repair]

First machine? How much business do you have to push to the printer? That's the question to ask. Will you be printing a roll of material a day, or a roll per month?
The VS, VS-i and the XR are all basically the same machine, with the XR being the production workhorse version, and the VS and VS-i being the more mom and pop shop version.
The prints on the True-Vis are noticeably nicer and color quality is awesome, but for a first machine, I don't think I'd go that route unless your customer base is EXTREMELY picky and youre doing museum quality prints most of the time. The general public cant tell the difference and frankly dont care.
The Eco-SOL MAX, Eco-SOL MAX 2 and True-Vis inks are all determined by which machine, not interchangeable. Not much difference at all between Max and Max2.
IF you're going to be BUSY, like printing 6-8 hours a day, then the XR is the correct machine. If you think it will be more like 1 wrap a week, then the VS-i machine will be perfect. Personally I avoid the VS, the older blue version and the VS-i White colored machine is substantially better.

 

[Jeremy Halper]

I just bought my first machine last year which is a VS 540 and I love it. I use it only a couple hours a day, some days not at all. As this is only a side business I can tell you it is a great starter machine, easy to repair (with service manual) and very versatile. I purchased a barely used machine and had to put a new head in but I got it for a steal. I easy made my money back with it in only a few months. It's definitely got some shortcomings and quirks but it's a piece of equipment, not a miracle worker. I wish I had gotten a VSi but my VS with dual cmyk is a true money maker!

 

[Minuteman Press]

right now we have all rolands.
vp-540, xc 540, xr-640, vg-540 and lej-640 all work great and all have had little bugs in the begining. nothing major and our vendor was able to fix everything as needed.
i would say the xc has really been our work horse and is our oldest printer other than the vp but the vp we just use to print die layouts and that's just black. the xr is pretty hearty machine also and pretty quick. the vg we have only had for like 4-5 months but all bugs have been worked out and runs pretty smooth. for a first machine i might go with the xr or an xc based on what we run and how they have worked out for us so far.

What is the life cycle on an XR-640 on average?

 

[petepaz]

What is the life cycle on an XR-640 on average?

life cycle?
these things just keep going like the energizer bunny if you take care of them. we have a 540-vp that is like 15 yrs old and still works

 

[thesignpost]

anyone know the print speed of TrueVIS VF2-64? Every time when Roland comes out with one of there useless machines, they always hide that one piece of info, "print speed"

 

[signage]

Wrong post

 

[ChaseO]

I have an XR..,. Skip the white and Metallic option. I know my machine prints slower than dual CMYK, but I do like having lM lC and lK for the quality of certain colors. I have used the white option very little in the past couple of years with poor results.