We are an in house graphics dept. for EMS vehicles. We are comparing these two printers and would like your feedback. The main advantage of the 560 is the self-aligning function. We will be using 48" 3M IJ680CR vinyl almost exclusively so our roll will not be changed out frequently. Our runs will be about 10 feet at the most. Is the $4000 cost difference worth it? Thanks.
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HP 365 vs HP 560
- Thread starter missytoe
- Start date
bannertime
Active Member
No. Not for your purpose.
I'm not aware of a "self-aligning" feature. Assuming that means print heads or maybe self-aligning the material? Either way, those aren't worth $4k by themselves.The speed difference at 10p is marginal. The only real difference you'd see is the material "wiper." If you take a fresh roll and put it on and leave it, you don't really need it either.
I think you'd be better comparing 365 vs 570 (bulk in tanks) and that's really going to be based on production volume. i.e. how many rolls a day, week or month.
560 can print more.vivid colors can it not? I know it can lay down more ink resulting in deeper colors.... Not that I've ever used that before. But it may come In handy.
I love.the spindless system. We never load crooked... It's super easy to load. I have a 110 as well, I hate touching it due to the spindles... When I started to use the 560 I couldn't go back. Now its just sitting in the corner.
I love.the spindless system. We never load crooked... It's super easy to load. I have a 110 as well, I hate touching it due to the spindles... When I started to use the 560 I couldn't go back. Now its just sitting in the corner.
In a shop I guess it's different. My 110 was in my garage... I didn't have a work table or nothing. So I had to put the roll on the holder, put the spindle in.. put the other side in... Lift it up... It wasn't too bad unless I already had a roll on. Then what were my options? I had to move the roll into the holder... Take the spindle off.. move the vinyl.. put new roll on..put new spindle on... Lift it up... And I always had something in the way of the spindle.
The 560 is just swivel the Loader, slide the arm and away you go. Ive never loaded it crooked.. well, not never.. but maybe one in 100 tries.
I hate how big the hater are is though. On my 110 I can waste 2-3" of material at the start of every print... In the 560, depending on media.. like 3m 3430,4090 I tend to extend 3 ft out to get it past the heater or it'll cause a jam. So now I carefully measure roughly 4 ft... Then once I'm done printing I cut it and use it for road signs... No waste that way, but a pain in the ass still.
The 560 has its flaws, but I love the loading system compared to the 110, which I assume is roughly the same.
And yes... The Reds it's weak point. It does an ok red, but our solvent was better... Even our solvent couldn't hit 3M translucent vinyl colors though. maybe a printer with red ink could, but red solvent doesn't tend to last too long.
No machine will be perfect sadly. But we've had a Epson, Seiko, fb500, 110, some weird Blizzard printer...but so far I'm loving the 560 the best. So much so that I upgraded my garages 110 to a 560... And we now have 2 560s at work... Just so I can print on different materials without having to reload all the time.
I used vivid colors on a canvas actually. Think I maxed the ink out... It turned out so glossy. I tried to replicate it on the 110 and couldn't. It's hard to see from this picture... But it looks like someone lacquered the canvas. I was pretty impressed. It was the first thing I printed on the 560... Did it for my kid just to see how it'd look. So while it's obviously not going to be used a lot... Vivid printing is kind of nice!
The 560 is just swivel the Loader, slide the arm and away you go. Ive never loaded it crooked.. well, not never.. but maybe one in 100 tries.
I hate how big the hater are is though. On my 110 I can waste 2-3" of material at the start of every print... In the 560, depending on media.. like 3m 3430,4090 I tend to extend 3 ft out to get it past the heater or it'll cause a jam. So now I carefully measure roughly 4 ft... Then once I'm done printing I cut it and use it for road signs... No waste that way, but a pain in the ass still.
The 560 has its flaws, but I love the loading system compared to the 110, which I assume is roughly the same.
And yes... The Reds it's weak point. It does an ok red, but our solvent was better... Even our solvent couldn't hit 3M translucent vinyl colors though. maybe a printer with red ink could, but red solvent doesn't tend to last too long.
No machine will be perfect sadly. But we've had a Epson, Seiko, fb500, 110, some weird Blizzard printer...but so far I'm loving the 560 the best. So much so that I upgraded my garages 110 to a 560... And we now have 2 560s at work... Just so I can print on different materials without having to reload all the time.
I used vivid colors on a canvas actually. Think I maxed the ink out... It turned out so glossy. I tried to replicate it on the 110 and couldn't. It's hard to see from this picture... But it looks like someone lacquered the canvas. I was pretty impressed. It was the first thing I printed on the 560... Did it for my kid just to see how it'd look. So while it's obviously not going to be used a lot... Vivid printing is kind of nice!
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BigfishDM
Merchant Member
The 365 will be just fine for what you are going to be using it for. Is it speed you are most concerned about? At high pass counts there won't be a difference. Do you have a dealer yet you are working with?
Thank you for your feedback. We do have a dealer and are at the very end of finalizing the deal. Our owner had spoken with a print shop associate who brought up some points and so she had me do some more due diligence. The print guy did all kinds of jobs, whereas ours are very specific, same material, same kind of art, etc. So I don't want to purchase something that is more than we really need. Sometimes we will need to match a color to what a vehicle currently has so I want to make sure we have the ability to do that. I also presume we can do test runs to make sure our alignment is correct before running jobs.
Christian @ 2CT Media
Active Member
The 365 and 560 for all intents and purposes are the same.
The benefits (to some) are the spindless media holders, higher weight capacity, and enclosed curing unit (slightly lower heat required).
Thself-aligning system is only partially good, they also removed the manual roller lift lever to achieve it. It works by lifting the rollers and feeding back and forth to get the media to slip into the right position, it doesn't always work well.
Stick with the 365 for reflective as the open curing tunnel also reduces the buckling in the heat sensitive media.
The benefits (to some) are the spindless media holders, higher weight capacity, and enclosed curing unit (slightly lower heat required).
Thself-aligning system is only partially good, they also removed the manual roller lift lever to achieve it. It works by lifting the rollers and feeding back and forth to get the media to slip into the right position, it doesn't always work well.
Stick with the 365 for reflective as the open curing tunnel also reduces the buckling in the heat sensitive media.
eahicks
Magna Cum Laude - School of Hard Knocks
What do you mean by bulk print?
eahicks
Magna Cum Laude - School of Hard Knocks
That's not by design, that's just the workaround to stop the material jams.
I lose 6-12" on all my good media's and at maximum 18-24 on media's that are heat sensitive... Not sure how you're wasting 3 ft every time!
Christian @ 2CT Media
Active Member
Do you tape it up to the take up everytime?
Not every time. But if the media isnt poking out from the front slot I have a about a 50% chance of a media jam. In all honesty its more like 2 ft maybe a little more.
Christian @ 2CT Media
Active Member
It's exactly 16" from pinch wheels to 1" out the front, why waste more than that?
Going back to your original question, i evaluated the difference between the 560 and the 570 which is about $6000 difference. the due to the price difference the 560 will be cheaper until you reach about 150k sqft of material run through the printer. at that point the the 570 is cheaper.
we use to have 360 and 560, and realistically there is not much difference between the 2 printers. if you will not be doing high volume, save the money.
we use to have 360 and 560, and realistically there is not much difference between the 2 printers. if you will not be doing high volume, save the money.