Anyone have any experience with the VG3 540/640 printers?

[txhotrod]

Looking for the good , the bad and the ugly truth. Upgrading from a VS series and can't really find any unbiased information on this model. TIA

 

[fine point]

We have VG2 and VG3. VG3 for over 2 years.
It's a good machine. We never had any issues.
There are minor upgrades from VG2, such as adjustable take-up roll holder. However, VG2 has a better print quality IMO. It could be the ink set up of ours, but it prints "banding" when we print solid blue colors.
Overall satisfied.

 

[Roland Certified Tech]

I think you should go straight to an XG-640.

The TR2 is a nightmare with the cyan ink. I constantly put cyan printheads in these printers.

Two this week

I would avoid the VG series with the TR2 ink. Or use non Roland DG ink on the cyan.
Of course we don’t know yet on the XG as they have only been out for a year, but I think it’s a much better printer.

 

[LarryB]

We have VG2 and VG3. VG3 for over 2 years.
It's a good machine. We never had any issues.
There are minor upgrades from VG2, such as adjustable take-up roll holder. However, VG2 has a better print quality IMO. It could be the ink set up of ours, but it prints "banding" when we print solid blue colors.
Overall satisfied.

I also have a VG2 and VG3 and I agree with the banding on the VG2 when printing solid blues. We had a lot of things replaced in it and it still banded in blues. With the VG3 we do not have any issues and run it the most without any issues.

 

[txhotrod]

We have VG2 and VG3. VG3 for over 2 years.
It's a good machine. We never had any issues.
There are minor upgrades from VG2, such as adjustable take-up roll holder. However, VG2 has a better print quality IMO. It could be the ink set up of ours, but it prints "banding" when we print solid blue colors.
Overall satisfied.

Did you buy new or used from indivdual? or Roland Certified?

 

[Tizz]

I think you should go straight to an XG-640.

The TR2 is a nightmare with the cyan ink. I constantly put cyan printheads in these printers.

Two this week

I would avoid the VG series with the TR2 ink. Or use non Roland DG ink on the cyan.
Of course we don’t know yet on the XG as they have only been out for a year, but I think it’s a much better printer.

I have read that the cyan head is replaced more often than the other colours, in your opinion do you think it's the head or an ink issue?
Also thinking of upgrading

 

[Tmaxx123]

It's the Ink, we had the problem with Roland DG Cyan ink. Our Dealer said new print head and sent us a quote. So we switched to a certified cyan ink from a local supplier and no more cyan dropout and streaks. Other than that instance its been a great printer the VG3-540.

 

[CustomThunder6]

Was installing these devices
In my opinion best output I saw was by choosing CMYKLcLmOrangeGreen configuration for maximum gamut output

Second was
CMYKLightBlackOrangeGreenWhite for those who needed white prints out too and still trying to keep up high output gamut

VG3 Is great workhorse, easy at maintenance, with touchscreen and finally with led illumination inside everywhere, great print quality and speed, cheap flexfire printheads, take-up unit included.too
What's nice - can register your vinyls in memory after tests - it prints them for first time and then reads output data to eliminate (or at least try to do it while printing) color shifting and price for about 15k for big one compared to UV's whose are 2x more expensive and prints can't be laminated (of course you can - just need to figure out right way but it doubles time till finish) and inks doesn't fade after only 6 months when used outdoors

ROLAND long time ago complained about cyan TR ink problem and trying to fix issue, because of some additions in manufacturing process released TR2, but if fast noticed head banding problem while test print is still perfect, best solution while new heads are processed for delivery is to swap cyan head with yellow one so client can continue printing and if nozzles are little blocked because of cyan ink's you won't notice any lack in print quality because yellow doesn't play big role in prints and head can recover itself back and you'll have one new in box for extra case
But mostly affected where users who were using TR inks from beginnign and then switched to TR2 via firmware upgrades, or who used both TR and TR2 removing chips to print out stock

 

[fine point]

Did you buy new or used from indivdual? or Roland Certified?

Always brand new. We never have that much money but we don't touch used printers with 10 ft pole.

 

[AB Rolan]

VG3, third generation of the VG series. Therefore has as all the bells whistles. VG3 has 6" touch screen which is way better. VG3 has auto calibration for each media type, seemingly making it a media profile creator?? Printing should be identical if calibrated correctly.

 

[MarkSnelling]

I sell a lot of them and they have been total winners. They aren't really available anymore new but if you can still get one, it would be a good investment. The new flagship units are really nice as well, but $10K more.

If you don't care about the print+cut feature, the XP 640 is a speed demon if you load it up dual CMYK and only $16,995 for the ISA show special. If you can afford to put a plotter (if needed) next to the printer, then you don't have to worry about the cutting aspect slowing down your production.

 

[dejancurk]

Brand new owner of VG3-640. Bought it on discount before VG4 came out. Well it didn't yet in southeast Europe. And it will cost much more. I am not able to reserve a space for dedicated cutter, so I will be also cutting a lot with it. Coming from old Mimaki the interface is well different

I'll be posting much more in the Roland forum now