unattended printing

[Wraps ink]

I'm looking to add another printer to the fleet. What is the best printer that is dependable and can do long unattended runs?

 

[jtinker]

roland re-640

This macjine is our workhorse. Almost two years since we got it, not a single breakdown and runs all day, every day. We've left prints overnight and come back confident the job will be done.

 

[P Wagner]

I'm looking to add another printer to the fleet. What is the best printer that is dependable and can do long unattended runs?

I would say that the primary considerations for unattended print runs should include:

1. Large ink capacity.
2. Reliable take-up reel system
3. Ability to easily and remotely monitor the printers activity from a smartphone or tablet (IOS or Andriod), and obtain near real-time information about the machine and it's status.

Based on those criteria, I would look at the HP Latex 360. HP announced a mobile phone app at SGIA in October, which will include very robust functionality for remote printer monitoring. Specific functions including:

- real-time ink level monitoring
- what jobs have printed
- Ink usage breakdowns for the jobs that have printed
- What the printer is doing now (shows the job that is currently printing)
- Notifications (ink low warnings, paper jam, media low etc)
- Status of other consumables in the printer (heads, maintenance cart etc.)
- Remaining length on the roll (assuming that the media length tracking is enabled)

This Latex App is scheduled to deliver in mid-January. Here is a page containing a video with more information on the mobile app (scroll down the page to locate the video):

http://h20435.www2.hp.com/t5/ideas/v1/ideaexchangepage/blog-id/Videos/page/2

 

[BIG EASY DOES IT]

I would say that the primary considerations for unattended print runs should include:

1. Large ink capacity.
2. High capacity take-up system
3. Ability to easily and remotely monitor the printers activity from a smartphone or tablet (IOS or Andriod), and obtain near real-time information about the machine and it's status.

Based on those criteria, I would look at the HP Latex 360. HP announced a mobile phone app at SGIA in October, which will include very robust functionality for remote printer monitoring. Specific functions including:

- real-time ink level monitoring
- what jobs have printed
- What job is currently printing
- Notifications (ink low warnings, paper jam, media low etc)
- Status of other consumables in the printer (heads, maintenance cart etc.
- Remaining length on the roll (assuming that the media length tracking is enabled)

This Latex App is scheduled to ship in mid-January. Here is a page containing a video with more information on the mobile app:

http://h20435.www2.hp.com/t5/ideas/v1/ideaexchangepage/blog-id/Videos/page/2

+1+1+1+1+1 But you have to pick what you want to print unattended. white vinyl no problem. But I wouldn't do full roll of HIP without being there. Too thick.

 

[SightLine]

+1+1+1+1+1 But you have to pick what you want to print unattended. white vinyl no problem. But I wouldn't do full roll of HIP without being there. Too thick.

Also some RIP's allow you to monitor and even send jobs remotely like Flexi. Aside from that I have one of our security cameras that can see ours (but I've never had a reason to actually need to look at it so I never do when we leave it printing). Our Mimaki JV33 runs overnight unattended a lot. Literally put a brand new roll of 3M on it, make sure ink levels are good (we have a 2 liter per color bulk system), and send jobs to print overnight. One in particular is wraps for city buses - on one particular style bus I print both sides and the rear and it uses all but about 4 feet of a full roll. Do those a good bit - nice to come in to a full printed roll in the morning.