MakeMyGraphic
New Member
okay... so I have some concerns. I am looking for people who are using Cuantek inks for their Roland machines. My machine warranty ended in late 2013 and I therefore decided to switch over to using Cuantek inks, it took me a while to go through my 440ml of original Roland OEM Ecosol Max cartridges, eventually I managed to switch to Cuantek and had a mixture of inks in my system and for a while it seemed that the inks were just as good, but recently in this past year I have been receiving a HUGE amount of customer emails regarding the fact that my decal prints did not last the 3 years I touted they should.
Please note that appart from the ink manufacturer none of my practices have changed at all. Same machine, same material (Oracal 651 yeah not top but whatever my customers are ok with this stuff) NEVER laminated, same transfer tape, same weather and so forth. Only change was the ink.
Here are two of the oldest decals I have access to which are currently placed on my old 1986 Ford Econoline van, that sits in the HARSH Escondido, CA sun 7 days a week, I took all these pictures around the same time, these were made BEFORE I switched over to Cuantek inks.
then there is this one also made around the same time using same OEM inks:
now... I am not as busy as most of you guys business-wise. But I do have a steady stream of customers, it therefore took me about a year to transition over from using up all Roland inks to going 100% Cuantek which I was told was VERY comparable and 100% compatible with no need to flush my lines. I did not receive any complaints during this time. However, now that I am 100% on Cuantek inks (as of late 2015) and I noticed that a few of my newly made decals that I was using 1st hand (Bowie Memorial decal) had actually faded and it was of a concern to me,
I figured maybe the sun was particularly harsher this this past year but then I looked back at my old decals (above) and that is when I became suspect, contacted my Bro in law and asked him to send me a pic of a decal I made for him when I had actually transitioned 100% to Cuantek (Doge Decal)
well... to me it became apparent that there was definitely something wrong with either the batch of inks I received from Cuantek, so I decided to wait a little... but then I started receiving more and more emails and messages from old customers from less than 2 years ago regarding the fact that my decals were NOT lasting as long as I thought they should last IF in fact Cuantek inks were like OEM Roland inks which I said 3 years to all my customers, figuring that was a decent amount of time considering I had first had experience at this point with hold old my oldest decals were lasting on my old Van.
I therefore decided to contact Cuantek, a gentleman who had been helping me for years named Francisco. I brought up my concerns and asked him if there was a bad batch or an ink formulation change. He told me nothing had changed and suggested that perhaps my customers were using harsh chemicals to wash their vehicles therefore making the decals lose vibrancy. and here is what i said in response to that:
i would accept that as a reason (that maaaybe customers are using bad things to wash vehicles with), however the customers in question that I am receiving this feedback from are my own family members as well as myself. Occasionally I will get a bad review on one of the printed products in my shop site, but none of my family use harsh abrasive solutions on our vehicles when we rarely do wash our cars (SoCal so the most car washes most of us get are when it rains once in a blue moon haha) my van has been sitting in direct sunlight for years with the older decals not being affected. no lamination at all.
Unfortunately the only factors that have changed here that I can think would be affecting color vibrancy are the inks since I change the inks more often than I do everything else:
Same Printer since 2011
Same material since 2010
Same weather since 2010
Inks have been changed out from Roland to Cuantek
no decals have been laminated since 2010 ever (I can walk out my door and look at one printed before the ink change in 2013)
so I guess if this is normal then, it took me almost 3 years to start to notice the fact that the colors aren't lasting as long. This might be due to color mixing of original Roland inks with the Cuantek inks. So now the only thing left for me to do is to actually try a different manufacturer
I wanted to share this experience with you all here since I am just a little guy(Gal), and I felt that the claims Cuantek has made thus far have not held up to the test... I am now switching back to OEM Roland inks unless I can find an actual third party manufacturer that will actually stand by their products on this matter. I was wondering if anyone else here has any stories regarding Cuantek inks? Or maybe help me figure out why my prints are not lasting as long? (No I am not willing to laminate my prints sorry...my customers would not appreciate the upcharges I would need to do to make that work) I have a Roland BN-20 Versa Studio. Thank you.
Please note that appart from the ink manufacturer none of my practices have changed at all. Same machine, same material (Oracal 651 yeah not top but whatever my customers are ok with this stuff) NEVER laminated, same transfer tape, same weather and so forth. Only change was the ink.
Here are two of the oldest decals I have access to which are currently placed on my old 1986 Ford Econoline van, that sits in the HARSH Escondido, CA sun 7 days a week, I took all these pictures around the same time, these were made BEFORE I switched over to Cuantek inks.
then there is this one also made around the same time using same OEM inks:
now... I am not as busy as most of you guys business-wise. But I do have a steady stream of customers, it therefore took me about a year to transition over from using up all Roland inks to going 100% Cuantek which I was told was VERY comparable and 100% compatible with no need to flush my lines. I did not receive any complaints during this time. However, now that I am 100% on Cuantek inks (as of late 2015) and I noticed that a few of my newly made decals that I was using 1st hand (Bowie Memorial decal) had actually faded and it was of a concern to me,
I figured maybe the sun was particularly harsher this this past year but then I looked back at my old decals (above) and that is when I became suspect, contacted my Bro in law and asked him to send me a pic of a decal I made for him when I had actually transitioned 100% to Cuantek (Doge Decal)
well... to me it became apparent that there was definitely something wrong with either the batch of inks I received from Cuantek, so I decided to wait a little... but then I started receiving more and more emails and messages from old customers from less than 2 years ago regarding the fact that my decals were NOT lasting as long as I thought they should last IF in fact Cuantek inks were like OEM Roland inks which I said 3 years to all my customers, figuring that was a decent amount of time considering I had first had experience at this point with hold old my oldest decals were lasting on my old Van.
I therefore decided to contact Cuantek, a gentleman who had been helping me for years named Francisco. I brought up my concerns and asked him if there was a bad batch or an ink formulation change. He told me nothing had changed and suggested that perhaps my customers were using harsh chemicals to wash their vehicles therefore making the decals lose vibrancy. and here is what i said in response to that:
i would accept that as a reason (that maaaybe customers are using bad things to wash vehicles with), however the customers in question that I am receiving this feedback from are my own family members as well as myself. Occasionally I will get a bad review on one of the printed products in my shop site, but none of my family use harsh abrasive solutions on our vehicles when we rarely do wash our cars (SoCal so the most car washes most of us get are when it rains once in a blue moon haha) my van has been sitting in direct sunlight for years with the older decals not being affected. no lamination at all.
Unfortunately the only factors that have changed here that I can think would be affecting color vibrancy are the inks since I change the inks more often than I do everything else:
Same Printer since 2011
Same material since 2010
Same weather since 2010
Inks have been changed out from Roland to Cuantek
no decals have been laminated since 2010 ever (I can walk out my door and look at one printed before the ink change in 2013)
so I guess if this is normal then, it took me almost 3 years to start to notice the fact that the colors aren't lasting as long. This might be due to color mixing of original Roland inks with the Cuantek inks. So now the only thing left for me to do is to actually try a different manufacturer
I wanted to share this experience with you all here since I am just a little guy(Gal), and I felt that the claims Cuantek has made thus far have not held up to the test... I am now switching back to OEM Roland inks unless I can find an actual third party manufacturer that will actually stand by their products on this matter. I was wondering if anyone else here has any stories regarding Cuantek inks? Or maybe help me figure out why my prints are not lasting as long? (No I am not willing to laminate my prints sorry...my customers would not appreciate the upcharges I would need to do to make that work) I have a Roland BN-20 Versa Studio. Thank you.
