ROLAND INK or THIRD PARTY

[Double Diamond]

We ran solaris for one year with no problem... then little things that took time and money to fix started and when we fixed it the problems kept coming back. See the recent "Black is printing green" thread. Pay a little more now and save a lot of money, time and frustration later. That's my 2 cents.

 

[JoshLoring]

I use factory inks in the Rolands. If your going to by a decent printer, don't be a cheap @ss. Stick to what works. Stick to what was engineered for the printer.
Look around. If EVERY story you saw from aftermarket was good, it might be different. But this is not the case- The are always nightmare stories when you replace the sword in the stone for the margarita plastic sword.

 

[Sticky Signs]

Do not switch inks! Unless you have lots of time and money to mess around with all the problems you will have. I wouldn't use a bulk ink system either.
Here's what my tech had to say about 3rd party inks. Only use them if they are the only inks to have ever been run through the printer. IE -flushing doesn't always work. He also says that the printer has to be printing all the time in order to avoid problems caused by the inks settling in the heads.
I've seen way to many people try to save a few bucks only to spend more money on repairs and down time. Not to mention the risk of loosing a client just doesn't seem worth it to me.

 

[splizaat]

Roland OEM...not going to cheap out on ink after spending $XX,XXX on a printer...that's like running unleaded fuel vs super in a ferrari.

 

[cdiesel]

Triangle ink here. Lots of it. Our XC's been on Triangle since about two months after we bought it (five years ago), and our XJ's never seen Roland ink in its four year life. Between the two machines we've gone through about seven heads (all but one of them were WAY over the 6 billion shot expected life. The one that was short had a few bad head strikes, and was at about 4.75 billion). Before we bought our two HP's, we were going through 6-12 liters per color every four weeks. That's 36-72 liters a month. That's $4104 for Triangle ink that would've cost us $9736 in Roland ink, figuring on 36 liters per month.

I can't wait until Triangle figures out how to get around the issues they're having getting latex ink to work...

Also, let me state as I always have, that if you are not doing some serious volume, do not switch to third party inks. I wouldn't recommend it for anyone who is not using AT LEAST a liter or two per color per month. But if you're moving some volume, the savings are significant and the problems mentioned above won't exist, as long as you're using a quality ink.

 

[brdss]

WoW!!!!!!!!!!! A liter or two per color per month!!!! I can only hope to do that kind of volume!

 

[Atomic DNA]

I used triangle and a bulk ink system for my 300v as that is what came on the machine when I bought it. A few months later I was having issues with clogging and finally had to replace a print head. I definitely learned my lesson the hard way. I went back to the OEM EcoSol and have never had one issue after that.

On the other hand, I have several workforce 1100's that I use on a daily basis and they have third party inks. i never had an issue with these inks working on the cheaper printers.

 

[rjssigns]

Hey Jack,
We used a re-brand of Lyson's eco-sol. I think the fact that the Roland rep who sold me my equipment and the crap 3rd party inks will no longer return my calls or e-mails says a lot. I did not post the ink brand as I think there may be legal ramifications in doing so.
MSDS's were mentioned, but the companies are not required to divulge percentages of chemicals or proprietary blends along with a bunch of other things not required by law. If ink manufacturers were required to list everything it would be a blueprint for someone to "skate" their hard work and make their own product.
I apologize for the long emails but I feel very strongly about this subject.
For those of you using third party inks don't go whining here when your printer craps out because of the s**t inks!

 

[free_refil]

I have the same printer and use the Solaris bulk ink system with STS inks and have 0 problems with them... My cyan cart valve froze up one time and nearly ran the cart dry, just took the cart out and wiggled it about and the valve unfroze, this was months ago and it hasn't happened since!! STS inks are relatively new on the market but I heard they're basically the same thing as the Solaris ink we used before and at a decent price cut!

 

[Gabriel]

Triangle ink here. Lots of it. Our XC's been on Triangle since about two months after we bought it (five years ago), and our XJ's never seen Roland ink in its four year life. Between the two machines we've gone through about seven heads (all but one of them were WAY over the 6 billion shot expected life. The one that was short had a few bad head strikes, and was at about 4.75 billion). Before we bought our two HP's, we were going through 6-12 liters per color every four weeks. That's 36-72 liters a month. That's $4104 for Triangle ink that would've cost us $9736 in Roland ink, figuring on 36 liters per month.

I can't wait until Triangle figures out how to get around the issues they're having getting latex ink to work...

Also, let me state as I always have, that if you are not doing some serious volume, do not switch to third party inks. I wouldn't recommend it for anyone who is not using AT LEAST a liter or two per color per month. But if you're moving some volume, the savings are significant and the problems mentioned above won't exist, as long as you're using a quality ink.

+1 good post!