need advice

[printmaster]

Hello all !

Congratulations for the most extensive and by far the most helpful
forum in the industry !

We have been in the printing business for about 20 years now
but mainly offset and small format digital printing. Due to high
demand and lack of good associate to outsource to, we decided
to try to make a move towards large format printing.

Our main jobs would be: posters, banners, window stickers and labels.

At the moment we are considering the Roland VS-640, as we found the print/cut function the most flexible for our case.

We are extremely concerned about print quality and durability, and have heard about some issues regarding eco-solvent inks.

Any words of wisdom would be highly appreciated regarding anything and everything we should have in mind during this new step for our company.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Fred Weiss]

Not sure what issues you've heard about with eco-solvent. The primary issue with any of the solvent or eco-solvent inks is to provide good ventilation. Any Roland, Mutoh, Mimaki, HP, Epson, or other brand will serve you well providing the ink system is based in some solvent. If you plan on doing labels, window decals, etc. though, you need to also plan on overlaminating before cutting.

Beyond that, the best words of wisdom that come to mind are to choose your supplier wisely. There is a great value in after the sale support and availability of inks and media without delays.

 

[printmaster]

Hi Fred, thank you for your response.

I agree and I am well aware of the support value, which is why
the options are extremely limited in a small country such as mine.

We have narrowed it down to 2 suppliers, one sells Rolands and the
other Mimakis. Now I prefer the Roland for the better (I believe) print
& cut function/technology and the new head printing with 7 size droplets.
However from what some people have told me the Mimakis true solvent inks
will last minimum 5 years in the sunshine we have here whereas its questionable if the Roland print will even last 3 years.

 

[Berferful]

Printing business

Sounds like we come from the same background. I have gotten rid of all of my offset equipment an am totally digital now. Our Roland has served us well and yes, this forum is a great resource for learning.

Couple of quick tips. Make plenty of room for finishing your prints, build a 4x8 table and get yourself at least one big squeegee.

 

[printmaster]

Thanks for the tips !

We are still not completely ready to leave offset behind due to our large client base for it, however it is an extremely costly business to be in and not at all profitable compared to digital printing.
We started our digital move a few years ago with an Indigo Press and now
we will definitely start with large format.

Fortunately we have got a lot os space available.

What is your opinion on Rolands eco-inks? how durable are they really?
And how is the print quality for photos (skin tones) ?

Do you know any online store I can buy professional tools for fitting etc. ?

thanks again.

 

[Fatboy]

Welcome to the forum.There is nothing wrong with the eco sol ink.We are getting great results with it!

 

[printmaster]

Thanks Fatboy, what printer are you using?

 

[Gino]

For the needs you mentioned, I would think just about any printer will serve you well. You haven't mentioned any long-term applications... nor do you imply you intend to go in that direction.

I would go with the printer you want as long as you get the tech support Fred mentioned and get your feet wet for the first year or two and then get serious about a real print set up.

 

[printmaster]

The window sticker jobs that we have in mind need to last a few years
at least, and also car wrapping is important, as there have been cases when i outsourced and the colours faded away after 1 - 2 years.

 

[Gino]

You never mentioned car wraps in your original post..... Yes, they need some extra 'oompf'.

I doubt your prints were made properly if you were barely getting two years out of them. It sounds more as if they weren't laminated.

Anyway, you should ask if your supplier was using any solvent or mild solvent inks vs. pigmented or dye type of inks. We have banners and other media printed on a VersaCamm that have lasted 3 & 4 years without any lamination.

How far are you from the equator ?? UV plays a big part in any digitally produced media regardless of thermal, solvent or aqueous.

You may need to look seriously into a laminator for some extra durability.

 

[printmaster]

Sorry I forgot to mention the wrapping part before.

We are definitely getting a laminator !

Our supplier uses a Roland Versacamm not sure which exact model.

But due to warranty restrictions we would only use original Eco-Sol
inks for the first 12 months.

We are located in Cyprus, an island between lets say Greece, Turkey Israel and Egypt , so we have sunshine 80% + of the year.

 

[Bigdawg]

Hi printmaster... and welcome!

I'm in Sunny Florida so we have sunshine issues to. I use a Roland VP40 with OEM inks and have very good results. Lamination for everything but temporary coro signs is pretty much a must to help the prints.

Now having said that... a friend runs a Mimaki with full solvent inks and gets a little better results as far as longevity. But not a lot more. The drawbacks are he has to ventilate to a much higher extent than I have to with my Roland.

Your color prints are going to depend on your profiles being set up correctly. I have extensive offset printing experience which has served me well adjusting colors, but profiles are key to good skin tones. If you're running a calibrated system for your offset, then you understand profiling already and that should help you. We use an i1 system.

Good luck to you

 

[printmaster]

Thanks !

The Roland dealer guaranteed that the print (using original Eco-Sol inks)
will only start to deteriorate after 3 years, would you say that is accurate ?

Apart from offset we also run an Indigo so yes we do know profiles so that should help us quite a bit.

What is the learning curve for a Roland VS-640 would you say ?