Colorspan information?

[kazoosigns]

Does anyone have any information and/or experience with the ColorSpan digital printers? I'm trying to do research on a variety of options for our company to print banners with, and am looking for some more info on ColorSpan in terms of customer reviews, pricing, etc.. Their website hasn't been much help.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Derf]

You have to call their 1 800 number and speak to a sales rep.

The one I looked at was $100,000.000..... I got a Mutoh insted.

I don't have the volume to need that thing

 

[kazoosigns]

The boss is looking at a Matan Sprinter B (which is around $90,000), so the ColorSpan wouldn't be that far out of the estimated budget, although I'm trying to just do research so I can see how practical the thing really is to us.

 

[RobGF]

Can I assume that since you're talking about banners and the like that you're thinking about an solvent machine? If you're talking solvent I might be able to offer some comments.

Rob

 

[Scott Reynolds]

Colorspans 72si Gator prints 600 sqft hr (billboard 300x600) for $55K. Its runs 600x600 4 pass at 200 ft/hr. and looks good at that speed. Colorspan comes with bulk ink at $125 liter and the Seiko's 1 liter cartridges is something like $260. Im still up in the air on the Colorspan vs. Seiko thing.... It comes down to 33K vs. 55K ........

ps. when I called both companys, Seiko was real a-holes on the phone, and the dude a colorspan was super cool, granted, he was trying to sell a 55K printer!!

 

[Scott Reynolds]

I found the link for the 72s video, the last time I checked it was not working on my old peice of junk lap top. Maybe you will have better luck...

http://www.colorspan.com/videos/72s/promo/start.htm

 

[kazoosigns]

Yes Rob, you are correct. We are going to use this machine for banners, instead of sourcing them out (like we do now). Secondly, if we could find a machine that will also print on a clear film for screenprinting, that would be a bonus. Thanks for all the help so far, gents!

 

[RobGF]

Hi there...

Here are a few of my comments about the colourspan solvent gators. Firstly, this is not a machine which is in the same class as the Roland's and Seiko's a lot of signmakers use. The colourspan will not provide the same level of quality (resolution) that these units provide. What the colourspan will provide is a highspeed and more cost effective output. The machine does come very close to the manufacturers claims in therms of performance if you are using full width rolls or 36" rolls. If you are using other size rolls the machine is slightly less effecient because the head still travels the full width.

There is a fair amount of maintenance with this machine. More than likely an owner hand cleans the print heads (16) each day before operation with solvents. The service station needs to be cleaned very frequently too. Rails, heaters, vacuum holes, etc. need to be cleaned on a regular basis too.

The printer works best when jobs are run to take-up so there's a lot of waste if you so small jobs on various types of media. Might not be an issue for you as your're taking banners mostly.

I've seen Sprinter B output and it's not as nice in terms of resolution. I can't imagine how a thermal resin unit like the sprinter would be as cost effective to run.

In short, the machine is designed to run every day all day. It's not really a casual use machine. It's also a machine that really wants to have an opporator who can become skilled at deciphering it's little oddities.

For screen print, I can't imagine this machine will have the resolution or registration you need but that's up to you.

Hope that helps.

 

[kazoosigns]

Rob, thanks for all the info. Since the majority of our banners are up 25ft on light poles, the best resolution in the world will still look fuzzy to people going 35mph by it (which is a hard thing to get some of these artists submitting artwork to realize).

The boss really liked the Sprinter B, but after going to see one in action only to watch the service techs tinker with it for a couple of hours, I'm trying to avoid that one.

As for making screenprinting film, the only thing I rely on the printer to do is print a good solid, opaque black. Any registration we put on by hand before the screens are shot. We're using an Epson Stylus Pro 9600 now for the screens, and it's doing well. We just need something a lot more durable than that.

 

[RobGF]

Well it sounds like this printer might be a good match for you. It's a nice unit that's very cost effective for the speed it provides. Certainly a wonderful machine for banners.

With regard to my comments on screen printing positives, I mentioned registration... perhaps I should have said repeatability or accuracy. I can't see in a complex colour separation over any length sheets of the media actually lining up. I mean this thing moves fast and there is a lot of heat involved...

Good luck.

 

[kazoosigns]

Ah, I see now! It's one of those things that I'd personally like one "magic" machine that can handle both printing digital banners and making negatives, but if the speed makes registration from panel to panel difficult, we can still rely on the Epson.

And, if you're familiar with it, we also use an old CalComp EcoGrafix I machine to make the negatives for our RTP banners, so we can reuse and abuse them.