White & Metallic Ink

[Miftah]

I'm very interested with the Roland VersaCAMM VSi Series 54" printer/cutters. But I have two questions pertaining to this machine.

1. With the metallic silver ink, can I really create other metallic colors when combined with the cmyk ink? Will the effect be compromised i.e. less shiny?

2. Very important question to me, do we need to do a special maintenance for the white and metallic silver ink? How do we maintain it then?

Hope to hear from the seniors very soon

 

[oksigns]

For # 2, you can read through this White/Metalic Ink Guide - informative on the handling of this ink

I'm very interested with the Roland VersaCAMM VSi Series 54" printer/cutters. But I have two questions pertaining to this machine.

1. With the metallic silver ink, can I really create other metallic colors when combined with the cmyk ink? Will the effect be compromised i.e. less shiny?

2. Very important question to me, do we need to do a special maintenance for the white and metallic silver ink? How do we maintain it then?

Hope to hear from the seniors very soon

 

[artofacks1]

It self cleans and circulates the ink A LOT. Expect to see a lot of that specialty ink in the waste ink bottle.

White isn't 100% opaque. Silver isn't 100% metallic. Request samples from your local dealer so your expectations aren't set too high.

That being said, we're very happy with the white...went through 2 cartridges of it this week without any issues. I've had a couple jobs printed with silver ink and it was okay. Absolutely needs lamination because it (metallic ink) is not resistant to abrasion.

Good luck.

Have you tried printing white on clear ?

Any pics you can share?

 

[artofacks1]

Looks nice! I do a lot of football helmet decals on convex clear and have to use white a lot. The Roland white looks nice. I'm gonna have to get a vendor close by and do some test with some of my artwork and compare. I understand it won't be as opaque as edge fx printer but it looks nice.

You have any metallics examples?

We print lots of white on clear. Mostly to back images. You can create neat effects controlling the opacity with gradients. It's really great for this use. Compared to the spot white on the Edge it's not the same, but still good.

Here are a couple of examples on clear. Don't have any pictures of images backed with white that I can post but I'll try to find some examples one of these days.

 

[Miftah]

Thank you oksigns & Pat White for the sharing of knowledge.

I will read the 80 pages ink color guide before committing the configuration.

Btw the same question was asked to one of the Roland dealer... and I thought it will be good if I share the response over here :

1) Yes, if you mix the metallic ink with other ink (CMYK) the shine of the metallic will be compromised because you will use lesser than 100% metallic ink. Roland has a premix metallic color chart ready for you to use.
2) Yes, you need to plug out the metallic and white ink 2 to 3 times a week to manually shake the cartridges. This is because the ink pigment is heavier than the CMYK ink. Therefore you will need to do this very often even though the the printer has ink circulation function builtin.

Hence my next question...

- Will I spoilt the printer head if I forget to shake it 2-3 times a week?
- Is there any other alternative to maintain the printer with white & metallic ink?
- If I go on long holiday say a week or two, where there's no one can do the shaking, what will happen to the printer?

I really love the printer and eager to confirm one, but the configuration part need to be settled first.

Maybe those who have more experience can help me on this?

Your help very much appreciated!

 

[SignMeUpGraphics]

1. Heads will be fine... the printer will tell you when a cart needs agitation. Our heads haven't suffered from lack of manual shaking.
2. We run MT + WH. We don't go out of our way to do anything different to our other CMYK printers.
3. Nothing... as above, we only agitate when the printer requests it. Can be several weeks between events.

I would really want to justify the use of metallic and white before selecting that configuration.
If we had to update to a new VS-x40i, we'd probably opt for light black over metallic. The ink barely looks metallic, and absolutely needs lamination or it will nearly wipe off the substrate in a matter of days without protection.

Originally we wanted to be able to offer our clients every possible option, but I think one client in 4 years of owning the VS-540 has actually requested for it.

 

[Deymos1981]

I'm very interested with the Roland VersaCAMM VSi Series 54" printer/cutters. But I have two questions pertaining to this machine.

1. With the metallic silver ink, can I really create other metallic colors when combined with the cmyk ink? Will the effect be compromised i.e. less shiny?

2. Very important question to me, do we need to do a special maintenance for the white and metallic silver ink? How do we maintain it then?

Hope to hear from the seniors very soon

not worth it to you to take the printer / cutter, you then this will be a lot of problems. Better to take only the printer.

 

[synergy_jim]

we love our white ink. Skip the metallic. Very expensive and in our experience, no one wants to pay for it. Our metallic slot has a cleaner cartridge in it now... we were pumping it in the trash.

 

[Miftah]

Thank you everyone for the contributions & inputs.
After reading the posts and the attachment, I have now decide to pass the metallic.

Now i left with this choices:
- CMYKLcLm + Lk + W
- CMYKLcLm + Lk- CMYKKYMC


[h=2]I love to have white color but the maintenance is equally the same as metallic just it is a bit cheaper then metallic.[/h]For those who choose the white set up, can you share with me what are pros & cons of this set up?

Thank you very much really appreciate it.

 

[Miftah]

And also if i chose the white ink set up, and I print an image using white media...
And the image itself has a white color...

Will the printer reprint the white spot using white ink or we have the option not to print using white ink?

Thanks in advance

 

[SignMeUpGraphics]

And also if i chose the white ink set up, and I print an image using white media...
And the image itself has a white color...

Will the printer reprint the white spot using white ink or we have the option not to print using white ink?

Thanks in advance

No, it will only print from the white channel when you specify the spot color RDG_WHITE, so you won't be burning through white ink for no reason.

 

[Behrmon]

Thank you everyone for the contributions & inputs.
After reading the posts and the attachment, I have now decide to pass the metallic.

Now i left with this choices:
- CMYKLcLm + Lk + W
- CMYKLcLm + Lk- CMYKKYMC


I love to have white color but the maintenance is equally the same as metallic just it is a bit cheaper then metallic.

For those who choose the white set up, can you share with me what are pros & cons of this set up?

Thank you very much really appreciate it.

- CMYKLcLm + Lk + W -We went with this configuration on our latest Roland XR640. As plenty have said here on this forum the White is adequate, not stellar and not poor. The XR anyways does plenty (if not to much) auto circulation of the inks, we have had no issues so far and do not remove and shake cart. The LK is nice to have.

 

[Miftah]

No, it will only print from the white channel when you specify the spot color RDG_WHITE, so you won't be burning through white ink for no reason.

Oh ok
Thats sound great!!!
Thank you for making your time to share this info...
I'm really new in this industry, thus need a lot of reading and collating feedback.

Your sharing really help me a lots.

Good day ahead!

 

[Miftah]

- CMYKLcLm + Lk + W -We went with this configuration on our latest Roland XR640. As plenty have said here on this forum the White is adequate, not stellar and not poor. The XR anyways does plenty (if not to much) auto circulation of the inks, we have had no issues so far and do not remove and shake cart. The LK is nice to have.

Hi there!

I'm suppose to confirm with the dealer the color setting by today or latest tomorrow.
Your inputs and others somehow make me want to explore the white ink.
Really appreciate it

The next question is...
Is there someone who regretted choosing white color or have any issues with it?

 

[Miftah]

Just to update that I have changed the ink configuration from CMYKLcLm + Lk + W to Dual CMYK.
Reason being:
- High maintenance on white ink and difficult to maintain it
- Not much jobs require white ink on my area
- The maintenance cost and the jobs that we received doesnt do justice

Hence we changed to Dual CMYK on Jan 2018.

Hope this information is useful for someone who in the mid of making decision.

Great day ahead!