Small UV Roll to Roll

LED 1600 ?

this one may be overkill. i assume it cost as much as a small house in the midwest.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCNVC4JLb0Q

http://www.fujifilm.com/news/n110906.html

http://www.large-format-printers.or...cuity-LED-1600-wide-format-inkjet-printer.php

does board feed as well.

 

I think petepaz has a Roland LEJ-640, he might be able to give you some info on it.

 

it is a nice looking machine. looks like VW designed it. i'm guessing $45k.

 

The Fuji looks interesting, I've not heard a price on it yet. What price range are you trying to stay within?

 

the uv roll to roll, its that because of the finish of the ink or heat sensitive? it looks like this printer may just beyond the ink have some very impressive output. i really don't think this printer could be considered an "engineering experiment" if they can build a quality flatbed, this is actually a step less complex.

 

The school I attend installed a Roland roll fed UV with LED cure. I was talking to one of the instructors and he asked me if I know how much it cost to replace a LED cure head. I didn't, so he told me.
FIVE THOUSAND FRICKEN DOLLARS...PER SIDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Funny how he was told this AFTER the purchase and installation.

 

yeah - I think pete had a bad LED on their machine and found that if not in warranty it was 5k.

NO THANKS.

 

this industry is suffering from EXTREME over engineering. pharmaceutical companies do not develop drugs that cost $0.33 a pill. the formulas are out there. but there's no money in it. $10k for heads is off the charts.

here's an LED uv cure mutoh going at it. this whole rig probably cost about $22,000.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qM3JZBrm2Qk

http://youtu.be/fnfJ_hDKihs

(and this company XTR. i like this guy. he's got to be the most inkjet obsessed man on the planet).

 

when our machine first got set up the LED was was bad. i think it was a wiring issue not sure but the fan wasn't working which is attached to the LED so it kept shutting off (safety feature) but they replaced it free. the light is under your warranty but after that it is up it's about $5000 to replace.
other than that no real issues with the machine. recently had some static issues printing on sintra board but we are working on fixing that. as far as rolls it's great we print on rolls of polycarbonate, .003 alum/foil, vinyl, polyester. i haven't tried yet but i think they told us that it won't print on the magnetic because too many metal parts in the bed and it won't go through.

 

Slightly off topic, but has to do with Roland.

The fuji heat controller in my 745 died. I called Roland for some tech help. They told me that the Fuji controller was $2,000 dollars and that they don't have them in stock. They couldn't get them and that I'd need to find a used roland printer to pull the part off of it.

I called fuji and bought one pre-programmed for $210.00. I then took the old controller and rebuilt it for $7.00 in parts (backup).

My machine was $30,000+ and Roland didn't have the part for it, which made it a paper weight. I was worried for a few minutes.

My point is that when the LEDs start to burn out in the Roland UV, you'll probably be able to replace them for a couple dollars per LED and solder in new UV LED's. $5,000 part rebuilt for pennies on the dollar.

 

so here the scale of economics. build a printer with about $4000 worth of parts (bought in bulk of course). sell the printer for $30,000, then convince the owner that all other ink brands will cause the printer to explode.... $50,000 in ink sales. sell extended warranties, the list goes on. this is about to end in a few years. you don't have to be a prophet to see it. the chinese OEMs do not operate on this scale.

if one of those lamps goes out i'll bet roland's price is $3,000 for a lamp they order from china for $150. do any of these look familiar? just curious. i'd like to slap one on a printer for a goof. there's about 10 pages of them.

http://ledsmater.en.alibaba.com/productgrouplist-210832012/LED_UV_Curing.html#products