Which 64" Solvent do I buy?

[Bradw99]

We are replacing our wide format printer, an Epson GS6000. I know its an old machine but it has done the trick in supporting our existing offset business. We want to stick to the 64” and get a machine that has white as one of the colors. It is down to 3 machines;

Mutoh VJ 1628X
Epson SureColor S80600
Mimaki JV300

A few questions that come up for us.
We are in a fairly remote location. With experience which is the easier machine to service?
Using the RIP to make “contact proofs” for our offset presses?
Reliable repeatable color?
We need the white but there will be several days that it won’t be used. How do the the 3 machine handle that?
Which will have the least clogging problems?

I’m hoping to make the decision by the end of the week. Any advise or help will be appreciated.

 

[klingsdesigns]

I have the epson. Cleaning is once a month and super easy. I don’t mess with white at all so can’t help you on that. For as color it is always dead on to what your chart is. Fast reliable and bright and nice colors.

 

[ProPDF]

We are replacing our wide format printer, an Epson GS6000. I know its an old machine but it has done the trick in supporting our existing offset business. We want to stick to the 64” and get a machine that has white as one of the colors. It is down to 3 machines;

Mutoh VJ 1628X
Epson SureColor S80600
Mimaki JV300

A few questions that come up for us.
We are in a fairly remote location. With experience which is the easier machine to service?
Using the RIP to make “contact proofs” for our offset presses?
Reliable repeatable color?
We need the white but there will be several days that it won’t be used. How do the the 3 machine handle that?
Which will have the least clogging problems?

I’m hoping to make the decision by the end of the week. Any advise or help will be appreciated.

The Epson S80600 is the exact machine you want without a doubt. The Mutoh and JV300 is using really old heads over 10yrs now I think, the Epson head is new and they didn't share it with anyone this time. The ink and ink system is the best available right now.
It will come with Onyx but you can use anything you want really.
Service on a Mimaki in a remote location....hope you have a back-up printer and same goes for Mutoh. They will get it it when they can.
Call Epson they will be at your door in 24-72hrs even if a flight is needed.

 

[unclebun]

We use the S70670 with white and silver ink. No clogging problems as long as you don't run out of white ink and have no replacement for a week and a half (we bought ours so early that there were no white cartridges in the pipeline and when it gave us the low ink warning for the white it took so long to get the replacement that it ran out. The machine shuts down if it's out of ink.) Once that got cleaned up, we've never had a problem with clogging of any ink. It circulates the inks and cleans the heads on a routine automatically.

 

[twmiller24]

We replaced our Epson GS6000s with 2 Mimaki JV300s. They are much more reliable as far as color and media feed. Maintenance is very light, and I can run them overnight without worries, for the most part.

 

[Evan Gillette]

I have a Epson S40600 and a Mutoh 1628x currently and would probably recommend the Epson. I got the Mutoh as a used deal that had the white and silver clog up from inactivity, we refurbed the machine (new lines, circ pumps, head, etc) and converted to dual CMYK and have been running it for a while without issue. I have no experience with white in either machine (beside taking it out of the Mutoh) but have heard good things on the Epson. Like mentioned above, depending who your dealer is, service might be the deciding factor. If you want to do it yourself the Mutoh is older technology and relatively easy to service. If you want reliable service you can put a call in to Epson and they will have someone there the next day.

 

[Superior_Adam]

White ink on a solvent printer is not very good. They are too translucent. If your wanting a good white you would need to go with a UV printer. We have the EFI Pro 16H that we run all of out clear decals and static cling on. White is very opaque. I would request a sample from each manufacturer using white. Keep in mind that they will run the machine on the highest quality setting to make the white as opaque as they can. This will make the machine run like a turtle. We had the Mimaki JV300 with white and silver and to get a somewhat decent white it took forever to print. We ended up flushign the white and silver out and runnign dual CMYK.

 

[2B]

Epson if you want to stay with a Solvent

 

[MelloImagingTechnologies]

I recommend an Epson S80.
One of the nicest features is the huge color gamut with Red and Orange inks.
The white is perfect too because when you’re not running white for a few weeks you change it over to 9 color and a cleaning fluid in the white spot. Simple- takes a few minutes and then you don’t have to do your daily maintenance you have to do with all printers running white ink.