Mainframe
New Member
Well, you have make your own decisions when it comes to equipmet purchases, I based mine on having a bunch of versa works files I needed to re-use from my old VP 540 that ran for 10 years so I wanted a print cut Roland.
So I did my research and on this very forum I found a lot of complaints about the SG series, I called my sales rep who had my VG on order and discussed the complaints and he sounded quite surprised, He said he has sold a lot of machines and people are not really complaining about them. I then asked him to give me a phone number of someone who is running one so I could talk to them myself and he gave me the number of a guy running one 3 shifts per day, 24 hours, 6 days a week.
The guy was very happy with his VG 540 and said he has come to rely heavily on it's speed and dependability. (This was a helpful conversation)
So mine came in and much to my surprise it outperforms my old VP in every way.
I don't care about specs, I am not sure how these things are rated, they say it is 900 dpi but the prints are sharper than anything I have ever seen, It makes some of my old VP output look like plain garbage, I am SUPER happy with the solid color output, it prints solid colors that rival cut vinyl, comes in handy many times.
The durability of the prints was my biggest surprise, these prints are bulletproof, I was a sharpie expert with the VP always trying to fix nicked or scratched prints and banners, not any more, the VG prints are rarely flawed or scratched.
As far as speed, this thing prints in less than half the time that my VP did, and the VG does very well unattended.
I often load 4 or 5 4x8 banners on right before lunch and leave only to return and find them all printed and ready to hem.
I as a one man shop don't have a need for a printer that goes any faster than this.
As far as cleaning cycles I don't pay any attention to them. I seem to remember my VP cleaning a lot and this one does clean more, but as far as I can tell it uses a lot less ink when printing I have to buy carts less often now and I charge for my work so the printer cost and the ink is factored in. I feel the output quality, speed and durability of prints is worth a little more ink but I am not seeing a huge overall difference, I do empty the waste bottle more than the VP BUT, I noticed I get a lot more prints from the carts, it seems to just keep on printing and printing without needing changed. Much different than I am used to. I would rather have the heads do what they need to do than dry up and cause me trouble.
Bottom line I think the Ricoh heads in this thing are high end, I judge by performance, (show me the money) and mine so far does what I ask, the machine over all seems much more precision than my old VP and the VP had the Mainboard problem so this VG has a fan in the print head and one in the Main board running constantly so my guess is the old electronics in my VP got hot and stopped working correctly. But it's just a guess.
I really like being able to open my old Versaworks files and reprint files to do a fleet van the same way I did on the VP with the colors matching and all the cut lines working etc.
I am just reporting what I have experienced, I am really glad I bought this so far, for me Versaworks is a huge factor, and the TrueVis ink isn't a step backward for me it is a HUGE step forward, the VG is the machine I thought I was getting when I bought the VP, I was never content with the output of the VP, I thought it was just so so.
Time will tell if this machine will continue it's performance, that is always the big unknown with equipment and business in general.
So I did my research and on this very forum I found a lot of complaints about the SG series, I called my sales rep who had my VG on order and discussed the complaints and he sounded quite surprised, He said he has sold a lot of machines and people are not really complaining about them. I then asked him to give me a phone number of someone who is running one so I could talk to them myself and he gave me the number of a guy running one 3 shifts per day, 24 hours, 6 days a week.
The guy was very happy with his VG 540 and said he has come to rely heavily on it's speed and dependability. (This was a helpful conversation)
So mine came in and much to my surprise it outperforms my old VP in every way.
I don't care about specs, I am not sure how these things are rated, they say it is 900 dpi but the prints are sharper than anything I have ever seen, It makes some of my old VP output look like plain garbage, I am SUPER happy with the solid color output, it prints solid colors that rival cut vinyl, comes in handy many times.
The durability of the prints was my biggest surprise, these prints are bulletproof, I was a sharpie expert with the VP always trying to fix nicked or scratched prints and banners, not any more, the VG prints are rarely flawed or scratched.
As far as speed, this thing prints in less than half the time that my VP did, and the VG does very well unattended.
I often load 4 or 5 4x8 banners on right before lunch and leave only to return and find them all printed and ready to hem.
I as a one man shop don't have a need for a printer that goes any faster than this.
As far as cleaning cycles I don't pay any attention to them. I seem to remember my VP cleaning a lot and this one does clean more, but as far as I can tell it uses a lot less ink when printing I have to buy carts less often now and I charge for my work so the printer cost and the ink is factored in. I feel the output quality, speed and durability of prints is worth a little more ink but I am not seeing a huge overall difference, I do empty the waste bottle more than the VP BUT, I noticed I get a lot more prints from the carts, it seems to just keep on printing and printing without needing changed. Much different than I am used to. I would rather have the heads do what they need to do than dry up and cause me trouble.
Bottom line I think the Ricoh heads in this thing are high end, I judge by performance, (show me the money) and mine so far does what I ask, the machine over all seems much more precision than my old VP and the VP had the Mainboard problem so this VG has a fan in the print head and one in the Main board running constantly so my guess is the old electronics in my VP got hot and stopped working correctly. But it's just a guess.
I really like being able to open my old Versaworks files and reprint files to do a fleet van the same way I did on the VP with the colors matching and all the cut lines working etc.
I am just reporting what I have experienced, I am really glad I bought this so far, for me Versaworks is a huge factor, and the TrueVis ink isn't a step backward for me it is a HUGE step forward, the VG is the machine I thought I was getting when I bought the VP, I was never content with the output of the VP, I thought it was just so so.
Time will tell if this machine will continue it's performance, that is always the big unknown with equipment and business in general.
