Thinking about getting a new Solvent Printer

[Sticky Signs]

OK, so I didn't read the entire thread but I have to say that I absolutely love my Roland SolJet PRO III. Great prints, good speed, low maintenance and it also cuts. I'd buy another one in a heart beat. BUT, I heard from a little birdie that the Pro IV is due to come out in the fall. Might be worth the wait.

 

[Fuzzbuster]

Wrapper, we have a JV33 as well (and a JV3 prior) and can't praise it enough. If you're familiar with Mimaki printers, you know what's up with them, they're just bulletproof and are hard to beat for the money. The epson GS6000 prints very nice, but honestly not significantly better than anything else and with good profiles you'll hit 98% of the gamut of the GS6000 with a Mimaki. The Epson's weak points are it's material handling abilities, or lack thereof. The media feed system is weak at best, even the new updated one. And the Takeup reel is unimaginably bad. Full rolls through this machine are difficult at best, impossible at worst, it's just not built for production.

100% agreed
same jv3sp2 then jv-33
right profiles = best results

 

[Dice]

+1 JV33 here.

We have 2 Jv33's and 2 Epsons Gs6600

Everything that Insignia says I agree with.

I plan on getting Mimaki's in the future and not more Epsons until they fix their craptastic media handling.

 

[Rooster]

Every printer suggested here that wasn't latex is just another Epson DX5 head on a different chassis.

I've gone through a bunch of epson printers in the past and am much happier with the JV33 I have now. Although the Mutoh's tend to be very close in quality.

Epson does have Mutoh build their chassis, but it's obviously not very sturdy. I was warned by my local dealer that they couldn't install one at my location due to some stairs and the chassis possibly twisting out of square. Take that for what it's worth. Epson sells heads and ink, their printers have never been considered robustly built high production units.

If you need more speed than a standard single head set-up look at the Mutoh 1618 which is essentially the same as the GS6000. Albeit probably built a little tougher.

Beyond that if you want to stick with the DX 5 heads you could always pick up a JV5 with four heads, but I hear they can be a nightmare to keep aligned and have drying issues. Mimaki has released some dual head DX5 based machines in the 10ft range (JV34 series) so I would have to assume that a 54-64" dual head machine is in the pipeline.