Somebody just tell me !!!!

[buck-ejit]

Hi All,

I work for a company that builds buses and we currently use a graphtec 7000-100 to cut our vinyls for legal lettering that needs to go on buses
i.e PULL HANDLE TO OPEN, BREAK GLASS, FIRE EXTINGUISHER etc etc ..

Today we went to look at a Summa S160 T cutter and ended up looking at a Mimaki CJV30 I think it was. I know it looked like it did a supurb job BUT. I have never been a fan of things that try to do 2 things. I fell I would be better getting the Summa S160 T and then looking for a stand alone printer.

Soooooo what I am asking is what would you guys suggest for 1200mm minimum width full color printing. We will be using a laminate applied via Easymount heated roller to weather proof and scuff proof the printed lables and graphics...

 

[2B]

we have had great success with Roland (which is a print/cut)
That is up to you and what the company what and how it will be used, each machine has their pros/cons
below are some of the more common ones.

Roland
HP
Mutoh
Mimaki
Epson

 

[ucmj22]

our Roland XC-540 (print&cut) has been invaluable.

 

[buck-ejit]

Thanks Guys.

I will dig a little bit more..

 

[trimitbyrich]

We've had theRoland print/cut printers for years and have had great success with them. Our last one lasted us 11 years with very little problem until the very end. We literally wore it out and used it all day, every day. We recently replaced that machine with a stand alone Roland printer and a stand alone Roland cutter. I really prefer the work flow in the shop much better with the 2 separate machines. Since we have to laminate everything anyway it's no more a hassle than it was before. Having done it both ways I prefer the 2 separate machines. Oh, and a note on Mimaki. Before we got the Roland we bought the Mimaki printer. Absolutely hated it. Actually sent it back and purchased the a Roland. The salesman didn't mention that Mimaki doesn't support Eco-sol inks. There are no profiles provided by any manufacturer. You have to use full solvent and man talk about stink. After installing the printer with full solvent we would need to vent it which meant another $2500 purchase. No thanks, take this thing away.

 

[ThinkRight]

Hi All,

I work for a company that builds buses and we currently use a graphtec 7000-100 to cut our vinyls for legal lettering that needs to go on buses
i.e PULL HANDLE TO OPEN, BREAK GLASS, FIRE EXTINGUISHER etc etc ..

Today we went to look at a Summa S160 T cutter and ended up looking at a Mimaki CJV30 I think it was. I know it looked like it did a supurb job BUT. I have never been a fan of things that try to do 2 things. I fell I would be better getting the Summa S160 T and then looking for a stand alone printer.

Soooooo what I am asking is what would you guys suggest for 1200mm minimum width full color printing. We will be using a laminate applied via Easymount heated roller to weather proof and scuff proof the printed lables and graphics...

For what your company is making you should look at another Summa.
http://www.summausa.com/products/dc4.php
Print / cut and no laminate.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cynwAQmrYT0

 

[buck-ejit]

For what your company is making you should look at another Summa.
http://www.summausa.com/products/dc4.php
Print / cut and no laminate.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cynwAQmrYT0

There seems to be very little support for these models here in Ireland.

I am guessing we will end up going down the more traditional route. I have a Guy calling round on Monday from HP to chat about what we will use the machine for or what we can use it for. We are wondering if it is possible to actually move our labels from being cut from vinyl to printed form.

This image has the address in standard vinyl, the little square label is printed and laminated the large electrical label is reverse printed on reflex polyester


This image has our Ramp instruction which we buy in, its printed on what seems to be cheap paper and the quality of the print is not very good.


This image has a Brother P-Touch label " AUTOMATIC OIL MONITORING". We use this wee machine for very small scale and Lens labels. Last year we spent £1300 on Cartridges for it. I recon that we could replace this system with the printer. It also includes some of our Vinyl's. Again I would wonder if we could replace these vinyl labels with a Printed version


This image shows how we use the P-Touch for Lenses. The Door low air and Ramp Extended are Bought in from an outside source but if you look ate the lens with the white X through it shows how cheap and nasty the P-touch label looks when being stuck onto the lens. The lens size is approx 10mm x 10mm.
Again I am thinking I can print and cut the label to fit the lens perfectly.


So to recap...... Do you guys think it is feasible to move our label production to Printed form instead of vinyl cut form. Bearing in mind we also want to expand to be able to create Large scale wraps which we usually get from the bus companies themselves, but we would like to Tender for the wraps ourselves. So since we want to do this its the main reason in thinking we can print everything

• Will the costs of print be far more expensive than vinyl
• Can I buy a vinyl that works the same as the reflex poyester that is printable
• will Print last for 7 Years as this is the lifespan of the vinyl we use

 

[Billct2]

For this kind of work a Gerber Edge is perfect

 

[buck-ejit]

For this kind of work a Gerber Edge is perfect

I have seen youtubes of these kind of printers but it looks to be too small to be able to create a Wrap for the side of a Double Decker bus.

 

[Malkin]

For this kind of work a Gerber Edge is perfect

All kinds of specialty materials to do all that work, and the 15" plotter to go with it can cut standard vinyl while the EDGE is printing.

Also this setup can be purchased for very reasonable prices, since so many are going full digital these days....


EDIT: Wrap work is completely different, it's probably a mistake to try and make 1 printer do everything. I would get a separate digital printer for wrap work.

 

[trimitbyrich]

Good points. Definitely the EDGE since the production of what you need is a relatively small quantity. I would go with the 15" Gerber plotter to match and then consider a small laminator to protect those prints although the EDGE produces a pretty durable outdoor decal. Wanting to produce and install wraps is an entirely different animal. There's a whole new learning curve to producing and installing bus wraps. Tread lightly, do a ton if research, then when you think you have it down, do one more ton.

 

[FrankW]

A Summa DC4 is bigger, even a DX. Even if you don't like Print & Cut. Summa thermal transfer printers do not need special prepared media for tractor feed, and they do not need to manually replace every single color during printing. And, instead of using a laminator, you can assign a scratch guard as an additional print pass. So you can send the data and get finished products without any manual interaction inbetween.

Thermal transfer over all is ideal for "pull handle to open" and similar signs (spot color printing), even to print white on transparent media or print on coloured vinyl (e. g. vinyl coloured with you companies colors). But for big prints for bus wrapping, I would suggest an inkjet.

 

[buck-ejit]

Thanks guys for the input I am getting. It is all appreciated

 

[CanuckSigns]

I'm going to also say a Gerber Edge is the machine you need.

We have both an Edge and a 54" eco-sol printer, and If you placed an order for those decals with us, they would be done on the gerber.

Have you looked into wholesale printers for the wraps? Around here you can buy the finished product for not much more than the sum of it's parts, it might be worth looking into partnering with a good wholesaler to do your printing, which should allow you to put in a competitive bid.