Ultrachrome Ink Durability/Longevity

[Reaction GFX]

I just sold my GS6000 which has been my primary production machine for the last 8 years. I've also recently had an issue with bright orange vehicle graphics turning pink in just two years. These prints were all made on either IJ-180 or Arlon 6100, with their respective matching cast laminates. I know the original Ultrachrome inks (in the GS6000) had a shorter outdoor lifespan than other solvent-based inks due the fact that they are "eco-solvent." But turning totally pink within two years, even with laminate, seems ridiculous. What kind of outdoor lifespan are others getting from a GS6000? Now, having sold the GS6000, I recently just purchased a brand new S40600 and it is supposed to have improved Ultrachrome inks. What kind of lifespan can I expect off this new machine? I'm trying to figure out what I should tell my customers as far as guarantee on my prints. As it stands, at right around 2 years or even just under, it looks like I'm going to be replacing some graphics for this particular customer. Is my S40600 going to do any better?

Any input on longevity/durability of Epson Ultrachrome inks is much appreciated!

 

[SignMeUpGraphics]

You should be fine with the S40600. It doesn't have a dedicated Orange ink tank like the GS6000 so your oranges will be made of magenta and yellow which are not prone to the high fade rate of Orange.
Epson documentation states that orange prints are not warranted over 12 months due to the lower fade resistance. UltraChrome GS3 CMYK colours are in the 5+ year range estimated outdoor lifespan from memory.

 

[Solventinkjet]

The average eco sol ink is rated at 3 years without lam. It completely depends on your area and which way they face etc. I have a customer who has two identical signs installed on the same day. One is on the outside wall and is exposed 100% facing south and the other is on his garage door which is up most of the day during the summer. The one on the outside wall faded noticeably in about 3 years whereas the one on the garage door looked like the day it was printed. Here in Denver if you park your wrapped car in the same spot every day, one side will fade much quicker. Down at lower elevations and places where the sun doesn't shine as much will get much longer results. But 3 years is about what every manufacturer rates their inks at these days although a lot of the time you get much more out of it.

 

[Reaction GFX]

Awesome. Thanks for the info. I'm fully aware that longevity absolutely depends on exposure, but good to know that my S40 should be better as far as fade resistance is concerned. I totally didn't even think about the fact that the GS had a dedicated orange ink. Makes sense it may fade faster. Would have been good to know this years ago, but I don't recall ever seeing that mentioned anywhere. Now I'm pretty comfortable re-doing the orange graphics with my S40.

 

[unclebun]

We use the S70670 set up for 10 colors, including orange. If we use a profile that uses all the colors, we get the same thing--reds turn pink after about 2 years. If we use what we call our "outdoor" profile, which uses all the colors except orange, then the longevity is the same as with our CMYK Mimaki printer, anywhere from 4-6 years.

 

[mdjamesd]

Take a look at the S60600. We have had 2 S30670's for ~6 or 7 years, and theyve been great. We added an S60 a little over a year ago, and its has been superb. The print speeds are ridiculous

 

[jpescobar]

I'm confident that the SC-S40600 produces amazing and accurate prints, the colors are bright thanks to the GS3 UltraChrome inks but I'm concerned about the ink resistance and media rippling. Epson noticed the outgass time was reduced to 6h instead of the 24h of other eco-solvent printers.

What distinguish Epson from the other brands is the quality of the printers, build like a muscle cars and they took into account every detail.
I'm not saying they are perfect but they are the best in their class even better than Latex printers in terms of reliability and color consistency.

 

[jfiscus]

The new Epson series printers have a whole new ink formulation, and are 3M MCS compatible for warranty. The previous generation(s) did have issues with the yellow/orange inks fading outdoors that are now taken care of. We had issues with S70670/S70675 fading when we used orange inks but we changed our profiles to no longer use orange ink and haven't had issues anymore, but the last one we have is going to be replace by another S60 here soon enough. You'll be blown away by the print speeds of the new models, and yes you can laminate same day without worry.