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Question HP 500 series ?s

Christian @ 2CT Media

Active Member
For those dealers or owners of the 500 series, I have a couple questions.

We just landed 2 large jobs that necessitate the purchase of 1 - 2 printers to keep up with it. We are looking at the 500 series to go with our 300 series since the Oce won't be available in time.

For this job we run 4 pass on our 3 series and get about a 50 yard roll every 2hrs and 15mins. Would the 2 pass on the 500 series be comparable quality and faster speed the the 300 series 4 pass?

Can the 500 series take up hold 100yrd rolls like the 300 series can? Possibly need to switch to 100yard rolls for this job.

Is the $8000 difference really worth the bulk ink?

Finally, is the 500 series price difference worth it over getting more 365s if we plan to sell them off when the jobs over or the Oce comes in?
 

Robert Gruner

New Member
For those dealers or owners of the 500 series, I have a couple questions.

We just landed 2 large jobs that necessitate the purchase of 1 - 2 printers to keep up with it. We are looking at the 500 series to go with our 300 series since the Oce won't be available in time.

For this job we run 4 pass on our 3 series and get about a 50 yard roll every 2hrs and 15mins. Would the 2 pass on the 500 series be comparable quality and faster speed the the 300 series 4 pass?

Can the 500 series take up hold 100yrd rolls like the 300 series can? Possibly need to switch to 100yard rolls for this job.

Is the $8000 difference really worth the bulk ink?

Finally, is the 500 series price difference worth it over getting more 365s if we plan to sell them off when the jobs over or the Oce comes in?
2CT...Kinda surprised the BigFish isn't all over this??? If no one chooses to definitively address your questions, I would suggest you pose your questions to the Latex guy at latex@hp.com
 

Joe House

Sign Equipment Technician
2CT, I haven't looked at the spec sheet, so this is mostly my thoughts, but you really have the same printhead configuration, with the addition of another optimizer head, so I don't think you'll get comparable print quality at half the number of passes. And if I remember my webinar correctly, you'd have to run 2 shifts full time and the bulk set up would pay off in about a year.
As for 500 vs 300 series, I'd go with the 500 just because your shop will run much cooler compared to the 300 series.
The spec sheet should answer the weight limit of the rolls.

Hope this helps.
 

Kentucky Wraps

Kentucky Wraps
For those dealers or owners of the 500 series, I have a couple questions.

We just landed 2 large jobs that necessitate the purchase of 1 - 2 printers to keep up with it. We are looking at the 500 series to go with our 300 series since the Oce won't be available in time.

For this job we run 4 pass on our 3 series and get about a 50 yard roll every 2hrs and 15mins. Would the 2 pass on the 500 series be comparable quality and faster speed the the 300 series 4 pass?

Can the 500 series take up hold 100yrd rolls like the 300 series can? Possibly need to switch to 100yard rolls for this job.

Is the $8000 difference really worth the bulk ink?

Finally, is the 500 series price difference worth it over getting more 365s if we plan to sell them off when the jobs over or the Oce comes in?

Passes/Speed/Quality: I still wouldn't go lower than 4 pass. But with the 2nd Optimizer head, it will go faster.
Take up: (Front loader etc is supposed to be able to handle 121 Pounds)
L560 VS L570: Price difference for bulk ink system was not worth it to me since it would take quite some time to make up the difference.
If you're going non-stop, then yes.
L365 VS L500: The price difference between the 365 series and 560 series was so small that it was a no brainer for me to go up to the L560 for the bells, whistles, speed, etc. The L570 price gap might change that question a bit more.
 

Christian @ 2CT Media

Active Member
We just looked at a 560 today tested it against our machine. Our machine at 2 pass printed 5 linear feet of the pattern we need to do in 2mins and 25s vs the 560 in 2mins flat. Our 4 pass was 4mins 35s vs 3mins 50s... So it is faster. The print quality is the same so no worries there and this job isn't about quality anyway more so speed. I can't really say what the job is but I have 3 weeks to produce 7 dozen rolls end to end and they don't care about quality as long as it's black and white.

The interior cavity can hold the same diameter roll which is 9.5" so both our machine and the news can run 100yrd rolls of the specific material we need to run.

Now it comes down to is the labor to change inks and the lower cost of ink worth the $8,000 additional the 570 commands or should we just get a second 365 then sell off our old one after the job is over? I sure wish I could get the Oce Colorado right now as it would make the decision much easier.
 

AKwrapguy

New Member
We picked up the 2 570's and the bulk inks system in awesome. It will also lower you operating cost and increase your profit.
 

Christian @ 2CT Media

Active Member
We settled on a 570 for our additional printer for now, still Looking hard at OCE, VP is coming to us on Friday next week.

We have now successfully loaded a 95lb 300' roll of SAV on our 360 and 570. Its so nice Having 2 machines.
 

Christian @ 2CT Media

Active Member
We settled on a 570 for our additional printer for now, still Looking hard at OCE, VP is coming to us on Friday next week.

We have now successfully loaded a 95lb 300' roll of SAV on our 360 and 570. Its so nice Having 2 machines.
Unfortunately after getting the second printer going our first went down, get.. oh well HP will hopefully have it fixed tomorrow!
 

Christian @ 2CT Media

Active Member
So far the 570 has been a champ! We have a trial by fire going, 20 days to print 64,000sqft. We are at 30,000sqft and day 9. It's burning through 100yrd rolls in about 4hrs and 45mins.

We are getting an even larger order and are hoping to get on the early adopter list for the new Oce' Colorado as this next order would be for roughly 18 months at 130k sqft every 20 days.
 

nate

New Member
We are getting an even larger order and are hoping to get on the early adopter list for the new Oce' Colorado as this next order would be for roughly 18 months at 130k sqft every 20 days.

Did you make it? We did. Got all the paperwork yesterday.
 

Christian @ 2CT Media

Active Member
Did you make it? We did. Got all the paperwork yesterday.
Supposed to know Tuesday, then fly to Chicago for briefing if we do... We are more than excited as it offers us a middle ground for growth that HP isn't offering currently. Based on what OCE has told us this tech has a bright future!
 

rjssigns

Active Member
Got Docs today, trying to nail a date now for delivery.

Good thing since we got an additional 200,000sqft order by end of July.

:eek:Holy Cow!!!!!!!! That's a lot of printing!!!! Sounds like you need a 5 meter rig. A sub I use for big jobs runs two 5 meter Scitex. Each rig runs at 3000 square feet an hour.
 

Christian @ 2CT Media

Active Member
:eek:Holy Cow!!!!!!!! That's a lot of printing!!!! Sounds like you need a 5 meter rig. A sub I use for big jobs runs two 5 meter Scitex. Each rig runs at 3000 square feet an hour.
We are discussing that or possibly 2-3 Colorados. Working with HP on a 1500 and also going back and forth with OCE'. Signed PO is in hand so it makes our discussions better on both sides. We are currently working on the short term of adding 2 more 570s.
 

rjssigns

Active Member
We are discussing that or possibly 2-3 Colorados. Working with HP on a 1500 and also going back and forth with OCE'. Signed PO is in hand so it makes our discussions better on both sides. We are currently working on the short term of adding 2 more 570s.

Sounds like you have a well sorted plan. Looking forward to hear about what ultimately ends up in your shop. Just to satisfy personal curiosity I'd like to see you put the spurs to the Colorado 1640. With the volume you need to produce it would certainly be a trial by fire.
 
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