Suggestions HP Scitex FB700 printer

[4signsandbanners]

I am looking at buying a HP Scitex FB700 flatbed printer so are these a high quality printer or is there another flatbed that is better? The one I want has CMYK LM LC and WHITE but does not have the roll to roll feature. I've only used a HP Latex 310 printer for flexible printing and I LOVE that printer but I would like to expand my market capabilities but would like to know your opinion on the HP Scitex FB700 printer or if you think a different flatbed would be an option. Thanks for your help!

 

[FrankW]

The FB700 is an a little bit outdated printer, is on the market for nearly 8 years. And if using a Latex 310 until know, you will perhaps be surprised about the costs of spare parts and consumables (like the UV-bulbs or printheads), as with the manual maintenance work you have to do yourself to keep that machine running.

There is no machine available with LM, LC AND White, you need to convert everytime you want to use light colours or white. Every conversion takes 2 hours (mostly automatically), and more than half a litre of ink. The printing quality is not comparable with the quality of your Latex prints.

If you be aware of that an FB700 is an industrial printer which requests some technical understanding and manual work (HP plans 2 days of instruction after 2 days of installation), than this machine has some very good features: like a camera system wo checks the position of the sheets itself, continuous printing by loading a new row of sheets while printing a previous one and much more.

 

[flyplainsdrifta]

if you are purchasing it, i would not even think about using rolls on there. massive quality drop from latex to uv. for board printing(corro, pvc, foam, acm, any other thing really) its a workhorse as long as you take care of the heads and keep up to date on maintenance. the tech is getting pretty up there in terms of age, so keep in mind hp may begin to phase it out in a few years, especially now they have latex flatbeds. not to say i don't love the 700 and 750. it just has its limits.

 

[4signsandbanners]

The FB700 is an a little bit outdated printer, is on the market for nearly 8 years. And if using a Latex 310 until know, you will perhaps be surprised about the costs of spare parts and consumables (like the UV-bulbs or printheads), as with the manual maintenance work you have to do yourself to keep that machine running.

There is no machine available with LM, LC AND White, you need to convert everytime you want to use light colours or white. Every conversion takes 2 hours (mostly automatically), and more than half a litre of ink. The printing quality is not comparable with the quality of your Latex prints.

If you be aware of that an FB700 is an industrial printer which requests some technical understanding and manual work (HP plans 2 days of instruction after 2 days of installation), than this machine has some very good features: like a camera system wo checks the position of the sheets itself, continuous printing by loading a new row of sheets while printing a previous one and much more.

 

[4signsandbanners]

The FB700 is an a little bit outdated printer, is on the market for nearly 8 years. And if using a Latex 310 until know, you will perhaps be surprised about the costs of spare parts and consumables (like the UV-bulbs or printheads), as with the manual maintenance work you have to do yourself to keep that machine running.

There is no machine available with LM, LC AND White, you need to convert everytime you want to use light colours or white. Every conversion takes 2 hours (mostly automatically), and more than half a litre of ink. The printing quality is not comparable with the quality of your Latex prints.

If you be aware of that an FB700 is an industrial printer which requests some technical understanding and manual work (HP plans 2 days of instruction after 2 days of installation), than this machine has some very good features: like a camera system wo checks the position of the sheets itself, continuous printing by loading a new row of sheets while printing a previous one and much more.

Would you suggest a less maintenance flatbed with really good quality...and affordable? I would like to print coroplast signs, PVC, foam board and on some thin acrylic so is there other printer that would be "affordable" and not labor intensive on the maintenance...I guess the HP Latex 301 has spoiled me.

 

[ProColorGraphics]

I got a Fuji LED1600 hybrid to get into UV and flatbed work. It has been an awesome stepping stone. It has lc, lm, white and varnish. Does it have its limits? Of course, but the price point was a lot easier to swallow. I use it a lot for roll-to-roll and rigid such as coroplast, foam, pvc, etc.

 

[FrankW]

Would you suggest a less maintenance flatbed with really good quality...and affordable? I would like to print coroplast signs, PVC, foam board and on some thin acrylic so is there other printer that would be "affordable" and not labor intensive on the maintenance...I guess the HP Latex 301 has spoiled me.

It is not easy to make a suggestion: "affordable" rigid media printers often have huge limitations: most of them are based on roll printers, they will feed the rigid media the same way as roll media (with grit rollers), what lead to that this printers can't print borderless, and are very limited in size and weight of the media.

More "professional" flatbeds are often designed for higher productivity: the FB700 for example uses 3 liter Ink Cartridges, you need to have the jobs to consume this ink before it run out. The white ink cartridge has 2 liters only, but regularly when they arrive at your site they have a shelf life of around 6 months only. And, if wanting to print white and convert the printer, you need to have an amount of jobs to compensate the price of nearly 1 liter of ink which will be spilled for conversion (to white and back to lclm).

I'm sorry I can't do any suggestion currently.

 

[dale911]

I have the FB500 and I bought it back in April for wholesale printing coro signs, foam board, pvc and other stuff. I also use it a lot for banners because even though I prefer the print quality of my solvent and latex printers, a banner doesn’t have to be photo quality so it’s unbelievably faster to print on the FB500. I can print 8’ banners in under 10 minutes and I can print 100 double sided yard signs in under 2 hours. Even at $3.50 each running full color double sided (wholesale price) there is plenty left for gross profit after paying someone to feed it and the cost of ink. I am hoping to find an FB750 in the next 6 months once I find room for it.

Also, I have the roll to roll kit on my printer and I use it for heavy rolls but would not have paid the crazy fees they have for it if I had bought this machine new. I run plenty of roll to roll stuff on here without using the kit but note that without the takeup system, you are running everything into the floor.

One other thing, I intended to print white with this printer and have had it installed since April. It has been nothing but a money pit on that area. When running white ink, it runs printhead service every 30 minutes or more. I run 3rd party ink on mine and even with that, it costs me $7.00 per day in ink just for head cleanings. Now that this box of white is about finished, I’m switching it back out to Lm and Lc to save money and time. While in white mode, it often has to do cleanings right before or after a print, costing me time of standing still waiting on it. Definitely not worth it.

 

[Emd2kick]

I have the FB500 and I bought it back in April for wholesale printing coro signs, foam board, pvc and other stuff. I also use it a lot for banners because even though I prefer the print quality of my solvent and latex printers, a banner doesn’t have to be photo quality so it’s unbelievably faster to print on the FB500. I can print 8’ banners in under 10 minutes and I can print 100 double sided yard signs in under 2 hours. Even at $3.50 each running full color double sided (wholesale price) there is plenty left for gross profit after paying someone to feed it and the cost of ink. I am hoping to find an FB750 in the next 6 months once I find room for it.

Also, I have the roll to roll kit on my printer and I use it for heavy rolls but would not have paid the crazy fees they have for it if I had bought this machine new. I run plenty of roll to roll stuff on here without using the kit but note that without the takeup system, you are running everything into the floor.

One other thing, I intended to print white with this printer and have had it installed since April. It has been nothing but a money pit on that area. When running white ink, it runs printhead service every 30 minutes or more. I run 3rd party ink on mine and even with that, it costs me $7.00 per day in ink just for head cleanings. Now that this box of white is about finished, I’m switching it back out to Lm and Lc to save money and time. While in white mode, it often has to do cleanings right before or after a print, costing me time of standing still waiting on it. Definitely not worth it.

What size yard signs are you getting 100 double sided an hour on that POS and in what production mode? I’m looking forward to seeing this math...

If you can swing it get an Agfa Anapurna, I looked at the HPs (I also own a 365 latex) and there flatbeds are dates / slow. ***Also if you can’t afford a router too, then don’t waste your money on a flatbed. You will quickly realize you need both.

 

[dale911]

I said almost 2 hours. It’s 18x24 signs running 3 wide on outdoor mode which is very good on coro. If you don’t have it kick the sign back to you for flipping and just run them straight through, I can get 3 signs double sided in under 2 hours. It takes 1 minute and 43 seconds for me to print the first side. If you run them straight through without kicking them back to flip, you can load the next set once the first set is at 51% printed. If you do it this way, you don’t have to wait for loading. Between units that eats up time. I only paid $15k for this machine with under 200k square ft through it and I made that back in under a month.

 

[Emd2kick]

I said almost 2 hours. It’s 18x24 signs running 3 wide on outdoor mode which is very good on coro. If you don’t have it kick the sign back to you for flipping and just run them straight through, I can get 3 signs double sided in under 2 hours. It takes 1 minute and 43 seconds for me to print the first side. If you run them straight through without kicking them back to flip, you can load the next set once the first set is at 51% printed. If you do it this way, you don’t have to wait for loading. Between units that eats up time. I only paid $15k for this machine with under 200k square ft through it and I made that back in under a month.

Yea...

 

[JJBender]

We have a FB700 for sale with the options you need, please call 203-336-4034!