Sc-545 and XC540 differences?

[customsticker]

I have an XC-540 coming this Tuesday, and already have an sc-545 here printing away.

What are the main differences between these printers? I will be printing at 720 x 720, 8 pass with Flexi 8 with it.

Is the speed that noticeable? I would assume the wear parts (squeegees, mist pads, print heads etc.) are all different?

Who here has gone from an sc-545 to an xc and noticed a lot of differences? I know the obvious such as a take up reel, post heaters, etc.

I don't see any posts on this board directly about the XC!

Thanks!

 

[customsticker]

Wow, great responses.

 

[javila]

So you didn't do your homework before buying a $25-30K piece of equipment?

 

[customsticker]

Roland provides zero pictures of these machines on their site, so you can do nothing but assume of what they look like except for the frontal view.

I know the obvious differences, but wanted to know the differences from a users point of view. Does roland provide this? Obviously not.

No need to be a smart ass, it doesn't get you anywhere. This will be my 3rd soljet.

 

[customsticker]

Let me chime in here and help out, since no one seems to know the differences. I now have both of these printers running side by side.

I am running the XC with flexi 8.0. The xc has the added print dryer, which I don't use, since I laminate everything. It also has a take up reel that is standard, that I won't ever use.

The media clamps are now worthless for any kind of print and cut jobs, but they have kicked up the placement of the suction for the vinyl coming through. I thought I would miss the sc-545 media clamps, but I really don't because of the xc's ability to pull the vinyl down towards the machine.

The machine isn't any larger width wise and sits about 5" lower then what the sc-545 does. It will still print the same length from machine to floor, which is important. The take up reel really doesn't add a lot more space then what the sc-545 already takes up. The xc looks a lot more updated than the 545.

The xc also has automatic crop mark detection, that seems to work wonderfully. I really like this option.

Printer profiles wise, I used the same settings on the 545 as the xc and I am getting nearly the same results. Of course each printer won't be the same, but the same print quality has been acheived. I rebuilt all of the profiles for the xc using the eye one, and I was printing within hours.

The machine is a workhorse, and they have really honed a lot of the featuers of it over the sc-545. A lot more of the menus are more thought out, the heating system is more in depth, but it all works very well.

All in all, I am very happy with my purchase. Coming from an Stika, to a gx24, to a sc500, to an sc-545 + gx300, to an xc, 545 and gx300, roland has really done it again.

I know these machines have been around for a while, but there are never any true user reviews on them. I know a lot of people are still buying this printer.