Report from the ISA Show
We went to the ISA show in Orlando this past Saturday and spent a fair amount of time looking at the Roland Versacamm. Here are my impressions:
1. This is a 30" inkjet print and cut device using Ecosolvent inks.
2. There is currently no competition for the machine in the size, price range, and type of work it outputs unless you go to thermal resin systems such as offered by Summa.
3. Of the types of inkjets that have been shown in the past, this year almost everything shown for smaller
sign shops is either the Versacamm or the Mimaki JV3 at twice the size and price.
Positives:
The output is beautiful and both the device and the software appear to be competent.
Production costs are fairly low. An average yield for a CMYK ink set is said to be 900 square feet. The ink cartridge set lists for $300, so if they are near accurate, the ink cost is 30¢ per square foot.
Negatives:
Testing a sample I brought back, a wipe with denatured alcohol immediately removed all ink in its path. Naphtha had the same result. So the conclusion is that the output has virtually no solvent resistance.
Further testing with a white, non-abrasive eraser resulted in complete ink removal with little effort.
It should be noted that repeating the same solvent and abrasion tests on output from the Mimaki JV3 (a true solvent inkjet) produced identical results.
Conclusion: Solvent and Ecosolvent inkjets provide state of the art imaging and sunfade resistance, but for vehicle graphics and other situations that may be in adverse conditions, overlaminating is necessary.
Laminating machines is another surprise ...... there is no available 30" laminator! Models in the 42" and up range add another $7000 to $10,000 to the price of a complete system.
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LP
