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S40600 is amazing!

K

Kelcy Deeds

New Member
Hey guy, so I posted a thread a few months back about an s40600 vs a hp 315. And according to most of the replies, it seemed that you guys thought these machines were fairly even and either one would be great. Well, I already had an hp 25500 so I went with the Epson to see how their system worked. ITS AMAZING! Seriously, I can't imagine being this happy with the HP. As far as I could see, the HP 315 has a very similar print system to the old 25500 and that thing sucked for us. Now, keep in mind that our production is quite low, and we do a TON of short runs. I'm sure if we did printing for hours and hours straight then the hp wouldn't be so bad. My biggest complaint with the HP is the jams alllll the time. I don't know if they fixed that with the newer hps but the me, the entire print system looks almost the same as the 25500.

So, as far as print quality with the Epson, it's nearly perfect, I can literally get cut vinyl quality colors out of it.

For some reason, the passes seem slower compared to the hp. Has anyone else noticed that? Like say I put both printers on 8 pass, it seems like the HP would finish a bit faster. Like the HP is maybe 2 passes faster or something. Though, with the Epson, I'm printing perfect quality at 8 pass vs the HP on 18 pass. I can now do pretty much all my signs at 4 pass or lower. If I really wanna be picky then I bump it up to 8 pass, but 4 pass is pretty much good enough for everything, even on SAV.

Oh, and I heard all the HP lovers saying how the HP prints come out completely dry and scratch resistant where as the solvent, you have to be very careful with it when it just comes out. THIS IS NOT TRUE. These prints come out very dry! I'll take a paper towel with alcohol on it five minutes after printing and I can't even get the solid colors to stain the white paper towel. I could nearly wipe the ink off of the prints that came out of my HP.

Oh and as for smell, some people said it's gunna smell strong. This is false as well. Keep in mind we do a lot of small runs though. When we do a long run with tons of ink then you start smelling it a bit but not bad at all.

Anyway, what do you guys think? Am I biased now that I have the Epson? I just don't see any areas where the HP excels over the Epson. Let me know what you think!
 
C

CanuckSigns

Active Member
We've been running a s80600 for about a year now, best decision we made! The prints are photo quality, we can laminate same day if needed and the machine has been a complete workhorse so far, it pretty much does the maintenance itself, we do a manual head clean about once a month, that's it.

The only downside is the smell, the inks are extremely smelly, however we bought an activated charcoal filter used for hydroponics and it seems to take the smell out of the room very quickly, 5 minutes after the print is done, you can't smell anything. This is what I got.

https://www.growlights.ca/fans-filters-ventilation/6-inch-fan-filter-kit.html
 
myront

myront

Dammit, make it faster!!
I have no experience with the Epson series but I will offer some insight on the HP's and other. We purchased an HP 360 (bigger cousin of the HP315) to replace a broken Mimaki. I'm not going to get into the print quality as I've covered this in other posts. Instead I 'll attest to the mechanical differences. More specifically loading and unloading. Our printing, like yours, consists of many short runs and on various media types. The HP is a pia to switch media compared to the Mimaki. I'm talking night and day difference. If you have a chance to see videos of the new HP's they've since changed the whole set up for this reason. Good on ya HP. Anyway, another thing that we do differently from most is that we don't like to use the take-up from the get go. That will use about 6-8 ft of valuable medie for us. By not using the take-up we get a lot of jams. Vinyl will tend to roll off the leading edge when it gets drawn back in as it finds the leading edge whereby causing it to stick to the fan shroud. Banner stock catches much the same way. As long as you're there to "baby" it you can get by. Loading/unloading requires a rod like device running thru the roll. You pretty much have to have a table handy to set the roll on in order to insert/remove the rod. Yes, I know you can do it from the printer itself but only if you have ample room (6-8ft!) to the side of the printer. We like to tape the leading edge to the take-up "on-the-fly" and in doing so requires one to actually lay on the floor on your back because the take-up is so close to the floor. Better have several pieces of tape ready as it feeds too. The Mimaki was similar but you could do it easily from the top side as it was at or near waist level. Oh did I mention the rod you have to insert when using the take-up? We've since rigged up a workaround for that. Requires a couple of velcro straps.
I've only watched a video of the Epson and see it's only slightly easier. Still nothing compared to the Mimaki though. Drop the roll in place, slide the end rollers into the ends, roll paper in, clamp and tell it to go. Boom ready! We didn't set up any special profiles with the Mimaki. Every type of media had the same exact color output. HP requires many different profiles and none of which could be run at the advertised speed setting i.e. pass.

Uh oh...started getting into print quality.

Done.
 
Solventinkjet

Solventinkjet

DIY Printer Fixing Guide
Yeah HP's marketing department is world class so they have done a great job at discrediting Solvent based machines. I would call them flat out lies. Check your RIP for a motor speed option. Usually there is at least 2 speed settings. That may speed you up to what you were expecting.
 
jfiscus

jfiscus

Rap Master
We had Mimaki JV3 printers that were old and slow but dependable. Our workload increased so much that we needed a faster machine.

We looked at the machines available then and were undecided between the HP 360 and Epson 70670. HP sold the owner here on the "future of wide format printing - latex" at SGIA special.
We hated it from day 1, and never grew to like it as much as we tried to. We had to lay on the ground to get it to load... I agree 100% with EVERYTHING and MORE that myront said above.

A few months later Epson announced their new s40/60/80 printer line and our local dealer gave us a steal of a deal on their demo s70670.
We basically stopped using the 360 except for short runs at this point since it couldn't print a wrap the same color from panel to panel.

We sold the HP and picked up another Epson s70675.
After that we purchased an s60600. WOW!
Our S70670 recently died (we got more than our money's worth out of it, it was time for it to retire, lol) and we will be purchasing another s60600 within the year.

I would really recommend the 60600 dual head (extra fast) over the 80600 unless you have a lot of jobs that require you to print white. The specialty (non-CMYK) color inks are not warranted by Epson.
 
K

Kelcy Deeds

New Member
Yeah, I can't imagine even needing better color gamut than what I can achieve with this s40600. The colors are amazing with it. Like the other guy said, unless you need white, then go with the 60600
 
A

a77

New Member
The S40 is a great machine. But I disagree with you on two points:
- prints come out dry(ish) but scratch resistance is zero
- it smells, smells bad - print a full roll heavy coverage, you won't be happy with the smell
 
jfiscus

jfiscus

Rap Master
I cant say it smells that bad compared to other solvent/eco-solvent printers I've ran or even latex printers.
Our latex seemed to smell the worst of all our printers, I think it was the heat baking the vinyl/backer, but it sure smelled bad to me.
S60600 does have nice integrated filters on top of it, and we have two fans in the ceiling of our printing room moving air out of the room so it isn't bad to me.
 
A

a77

New Member
jfiscus said:
I cant say it smells that bad compared to other solvent/eco-solvent printers I've ran or even latex printers.
Our latex seemed to smell the worst of all our printers, I think it was the heat baking the vinyl/backer, but it sure smelled bad to me.
S60600 does have nice integrated filters on top of it, and we have two fans in the ceiling of our printing room moving air out of the room so it isn't bad to me.
Click to expand...

My employees seem to really not like it. Noticeably worse than the S30 in my opinion. We have 2000 sq.ft, all open, 3 ceiling fans.

I agree, sometimes smells can come from just heating up vinyl.. but for the S40, it's the inks that bother us.
 
C

CanuckSigns

Active Member
a77 said:
My employees seem to really not like it. Noticeably worse than the S30 in my opinion. We have 2000 sq.ft, all open, 3 ceiling fans.

I agree, sometimes smells can come from just heating up vinyl.. but for the S40, it's the inks that bother us.
Click to expand...

Take a look at the activated charcoal filter I posted above, it really works very well, and for a few hundred bucks, what do you have to loose? Comes in multiple sizes and CFM.
 
Bly

Bly

New Member
All our printers smell.
The latex heats the plastics which give off a nasty chemical smell, the UV inks are bad and yes the 60600 smells like eco solvent ink.
We have a high ceiling so the fumes don't hang round too long though.
We love the Epson and use it where it's most appropriate.
 
P

player

New Member
Bly said:
All our printers smell.
The latex heats the plastics which give off a nasty chemical smell, the UV inks are bad and yes the 60600 smells like eco solvent ink.
We have a high ceiling so the fumes don't hang round too long though.
We love the Epson and use it where it's most appropriate.
Click to expand...
Solvent fumes don't rise to the ceiling. They are heavier than air so they fill the room from the floor up.
 
Bly

Bly

New Member
Thank you professor. In that case they run out the big door we almost always have open.
 
GAC05

GAC05

Quit buggin' me
player said:
Solvent fumes don't rise to the ceiling. They are heavier than air so they fill the room from the floor up.
Click to expand...
You don't take into account Bly is in Australia below the equator. Everything there is flipped 180 from your location.
 
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