Newbie to UV Flatbed Printers

[CreoleCuisine]

My company may or may not invest in a flatbed printer later this year.

I'll start by saying we are NOT a print shop. I work for a family owned business that owns 30 restaurant and venues in New Orleans, and we print everything in-house (menus, rack cards).
I use a Ricoh 7210 and have no experience with a flatbed printer.

We were initially given the Xante X-55 as an option by our Ricoh dealer. However after reading other forums, looks like Xante has some issues.
The flatbed would be for printing our a-frame signs that stand on the sidewalk. Coroplast and foamcore mostly. But I would like the machine to print on a variety of substrates.
The printer would not be used every day. Perhaps more of a once/few times a week situation, to sometimes not at all. So the printer will have to be ok sitting for a while and not cause any issues. Low maintenance is also key.

Can anyone suggest a different brand I can look into in the meantime?
Does anyone know of some videos or presentations I can watch to get ahead of learning about flatbeds?

 

[Smoke_Jaguar]

Xante is just a $5k printer with 6-10x the price tag when it comes to their flatbeds.

 

[Humble PM]

Ricoh has very limited imagination when it comes to product names, like the 7210, or the 7210

 

[scox]

A Flatbed seems a bit of overkill for what you are describing, and not using them everyday would still mean daily maintenance especially if you are running white ink. If you have the space for a table to lay your vinyl on your substrate I'd think something like a Mimaki UCJV (or whatever preferred brand) would offer you more options and bang for your buck. You would be able to do your signage, banners, window treatments and even stickers. They tend to have better auto maintenance features as well so sitting for a little bit isn't as big an issue. Also significantly lower investment over a quality flatbed.

 

[victor bogdanov]

Get an application table and an Epson 40600. You will have a very reliable/capable set up for around 20k , a decent flatbed will cost you much more and wont like sitting

 

[StarSign]

How many signs will you be printing? I would look hard at the ROI.

 

[White Haus]

I'll keep my comments to myself regarding whether members like this should allowed on an industry forum...........

How much are you currently spending annually on signs? Do you have a 1500-2000 sqft space to essentially open a print shop in, and capable staff to run said print shop?

Doesn't sound like a logical purchase to me but what do I know, I own 1 sign shop and not 30 restaurants.