New Flatbed Printer

[the4uto]

Hello all, I currently operate an Oce Arizona 365GT. I am looking to upgrade sometime next year. My service reps are pushing another Oce printer on me and I don't know much about the other available printers. We currently print on precut pieces of white steel. Our printer has a 4'x8' table and I would like to retain that size. I have no need for white ink, but wouldn't be opposed to using it. Does anyone have any suggestions for various printers? Budget would be $150k or less. Ideally less.. Thanks for you help!

 

[ProColorGraphics]

I love my Epson V7000!

 

[johnnysigns]

We were happy with our Vanguard and we ran a fair amount of precut parts in jigs that were printed after they were cut.

 

[the4uto]

We were happy with our Vanguard and we ran a fair amount of precut parts in jigs that were printed after they were cut.

Could you elaborate a little bit about the jigs? What material are they made out of, how you made them etc, does the vaccuum table work with the jig?

Thank you!

 

[AlsEU]

In the past, Fujifilm had in offer OCE's Arizona branded as Acuity. Now Fujifilm sells its own models of flatbed printers (Acuity Prime), check them out.

 

[the4uto]

In the past, Fujifilm had in offer OCE's Arizona branded as Acuity. Now Fujifilm sells its own models of flatbed printers (Acuity Prime), check them out.

I'll look into this, thank you!

 

[FireSprint.com]

There's alot of them out there. It's really important to set up a virtual demo. Send them some of your material and watch them print on it. Or even better, go see it in person. If speed is important to you, figure out what print mode you think is sellable by testing the same file in each mode, then time a board with a stopwatch.

Here's our video/blog where we go into alot more detail on making big purchases like this and how we do it here at FireSprint.

Making Large Purchasing Decisions in the Print Industry

Thinking about making a purchase in the print industry? Use these tools to prevent costly mistakes on your next printer, cutter, or other large equipment purchase.

firesprint.com

 

[the4uto]

There's alot of them out there. It's really important to set up a virtual demo. Send them some of your material and watch them print on it. Or even better, go see it in person. If speed is important to you, figure out what print mode you think is sellable by testing the same file in each mode, then time a board with a stopwatch.

Here's our video/blog where we go into alot more detail on making big purchases like this and how we do it here at FireSprint.

Making Large Purchasing Decisions in the Print Industry

Thinking about making a purchase in the print industry? Use these tools to prevent costly mistakes on your next printer, cutter, or other large equipment purchase.

firesprint.com

Thank you, I'll definitely take a look.

 

[Raum Divarco]

Hello all, I currently operate an Oce Arizona 365GT. I am looking to upgrade sometime next year. My service reps are pushing another Oce printer on me and I don't know much about the other available printers. We currently print on precut pieces of white steel. Our printer has a 4'x8' table and I would like to retain that size. I have no need for white ink, but wouldn't be opposed to using it. Does anyone have any suggestions for various printers? Budget would be $150k or less. Ideally less.. Thanks for you help!

What type of volume are you looking at? Also, what quality of the image are you looking for as the baseline for your business?

 

[Pauly]

There's a lot of questions you need to answer before looking at different options.

Why are you upgrading?
I.e
Current one is to slow?
need better quality?
bigger table size (which you've already answered)

What do you want to gain from a new one?

 

[the4uto]

There's a lot of questions you need to answer before looking at different options.

Why are you upgrading?
I.e
Current one is to slow?
need better quality?
bigger table size (which you've already answered)

What do you want to gain from a new one?

Well, we bought our old printer very used and we are starting to pay for it. Parts keep needing to be replaced, the cost is adding up and also print head cost replacement on this machine is almost double that of newer machines. Also we would like to future proof. We are also developing new products to be made, but that is probably secondary. We could definitely do with better quality prints as well. I have also heard that some machines have a lacquer or poly coating channel, which might be of interest to us depending on cost. A stronger vacuum table is also something we would look into.

 

[Pauly]

Well, we bought our old printer very used and we are starting to pay for it. Parts keep needing to be replaced, the cost is adding up and also print head cost replacement on this machine is almost double that of newer machines. Also we would like to future proof. We are also developing new products to be made, but that is probably secondary. We could definitely do with better quality prints as well. I have also heard that some machines have a lacquer or poly coating channel, which might be of interest to us depending on cost. A stronger vacuum table is also something we would look into.

Let me be honest here.

Parts always need to be replaced. With a used machine, it's obvious you'll be replacing more with an older machine.
Printhead replacement is not so common, but it's going to happen on any printer depending on age and how well they're looked after.
& ALL printheads are expensive. they are literally the cost of the machine.

Better quality prints? here's the thing. The Arizona platform is regarded for it's higher quality prints vs most others. The newest model uses the same printhead (slight differences, same quality)
other printers use different brand and are either worse, same for that price point. if you want better, you'll be spending double or more.

More vacuum? the vacuum is great on these machines. Unless you want the "Flow" high volume pump which is designed so you don't need to mask the bed.
otherwise masking the bed will suck down anything.

Most of the time when people upgrade is if you need capabilities yours cannot do. for example a larger bed, or more throughput or both..

To me, it sounds like you're spending 150k and you'll have a new machine that'll print the same speed with the same quality.
I honestly suggest thinking about if it's worth buying something new that does the same job as the old.

 

[the4uto]

Let me be honest here.

Parts always need to be replaced. With a used machine, it's obvious you'll be replacing more with an older machine.
Printhead replacement is not so common, but it's going to happen on any printer depending on age and how well they're looked after.
& ALL printheads are expensive. they are literally the cost of the machine.

Better quality prints? here's the thing. The Arizona platform is regarded for it's higher quality prints vs most others. The newest model uses the same printhead (slight differences, same quality)
other printers use different brand and are either worse, same for that price point. if you want better, you'll be spending double or more.

More vacuum? the vacuum is great on these machines. Unless you want the "Flow" high volume pump which is designed so you don't need to mask the bed.
otherwise masking the bed will suck down anything.

Most of the time when people upgrade is if you need capabilities yours cannot do. for example a larger bed, or more throughput or both..

To me, it sounds like you're spending 150k and you'll have a new machine that'll print the same speed with the same quality.
I honestly suggest thinking about if it's worth buying something new that does the same job as the old.

The machine that was leading the pack for me currently was the V7000 Epson, which the print heads are roughly 1/3 the cost of the current print heads I'm using. Also ballpark figures I'm seeing are around ~$83k. I understand what you're saying, but the previous owner to our machine had done modifications and used some non-OEM parts, so we are having various issues related to that.

 

[petepaz]

There's a lot of questions you need to answer before looking at different options.

Why are you upgrading?
I.e
Current one is to slow?
need better quality?
bigger table size (which you've already answered)

What do you want to gain from a new one?

all important questions.
also if your current machine fits the bill you may not want to switch brands because you will be also switching inks and sometimes it's problem getting compatible inks for the substrate you are printing on. make sure to run some test samples
with that said we have a fuji/acuity and also an efi flatbed both do good quality work. both have their pros and cons. we generally print on sintra, styrene, foam board and acrylic

 

[johnnysigns]

We'd laser cut or CNC cut out of acrylic, SBS, corrugated that would locate the parts and we could run multiple parts up on the printer.

 

[StratoJet]

Hello all, I currently operate an Oce Arizona 365GT. I am looking to upgrade sometime next year. My service reps are pushing another Oce printer on me and I don't know much about the other available printers. We currently print on precut pieces of white steel. Our printer has a 4'x8' table and I would like to retain that size. I have no need for white ink, but wouldn't be opposed to using it. Does anyone have any suggestions for various printers? Budget would be $150k or less. Ideally less.. Thanks for you help!

Where are you located? There will be a lot flatbeds to look at at the ISA in Las Vegas, April 12-14

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[Janis Karasnieks]

Hi, does anyone have experience working on flatbed printer "IMPRIMO UV LED LITIUM 250 PLUS"?

 

[JamesLam]

Hi, does anyone have experience working on flatbed printer "IMPRIMO UV LED LITIUM 250 PLUS"?

Checking out their website they offer quite a few machines for wide-format, laser engraving, etc. I would be surpised if they actually made any of their own equipment.

It doesn't look like they sell or service beyond Europe but Latvia shouldn't be a problem. Though their warranty (1 year) and new purchase maintenance support (90 days) look kind of weak.

 

[JamesLam]

We looked at a new Ricoh TF6251 the other day, which is either a re-branded Roland IU-1000F or maybe the Roland is a re-branded Ricoh. Not sure either way but regardless the Ricoh is about $100k Canadian more than the Roland.

We also took a look at the Mimaki JFX200 series. Between the Ricoh and the Mimaki the quality seems to be pretty well spot-on and the print speeds didn't seem to be that dramatically better on the Ricoh to justify the Rolls Royce premium.

I'll be checking out Epson V7000 in the next few weeks. With the bigger range of inks has anyone compared the image quality? Has Epson scaled back on QC or other features to allow their price point?

With the exception of the Ricoh anyone of these should be available installed and up-and-running for under $150k Canadian.

 

[StratoJet]

We’ll be in Canada as well, there will be a lot of brands at Graphics Canada.

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StratoJet USA a Manufacturer of UV Large Format FlatBed and Roll to Roll Printers

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