Time for a new printer

[John Miller]

Hi all,

I'm shopping for a new printer/cutter. I've always used Roland so I'm partial to their machines but not married to them. Not looking for UV. I heard horror stories about the TrueVis printers when they were first released. Have the bugs been worked out? Does another company offer a dependable print/cut solution?

Thanks in advance for any and all input, John

 

[Pauly]

Why print and cut?
why not a seperate solution?
yeah they’re more expensive but far more options out there.

 

[John Miller]

I already have a cutter. It won't read crop marks.

 

[Notarealsignguy]

Mimaki is your only other choice I believe. We have had a cjv150 for 3-4 years now without any problems. If I had to buy another printer today, this would be it.

 

[balstestrat]

Yeah you have quite limited choices then.
Why are you buying a new printer? What new do you need if you can't go outside the print&cut combo?

 

[Billct2]

Why is there so much prejudice against print/cut? Seems like the perfect machine for a shop with limited space and/or lower volume.

 

[iPrintStuff]

It’s great to save space. That’s it. Low volume or not I’d still get my jobs out quicker if I didn’t need to stop printing to start cutting.

For the OP; I would look at mimaki if you do want a print and cut. Solid machines. Rasterlink isn’t the best rip (works fine, I just hate the visuals). But it’s hard to find something more reliable. Our old CJV30 is still a beast!

 

[John Miller]

The last thing I want to be is a high volume printer. I still really enjoy creating signs. No offence intended toward HV printing shops, they probably make more $$ than producing a sign from raw materials but that’s what I do. So, if I was to look at a Mimaki, which one?

 

[victor bogdanov]

I've had 2 roland sg2 going non stop last 6-9 months. No issues, great printers. I do lots of cutting on the printers, mainly phototex. Vinyl that needs to dry first gets cut on graphtec.

Not a single issue so far, only reason I didn't get the vg2 is lead time was too long

 

[victor bogdanov]

Forgot to add, the tr2 inks blow away previous roland inks like eco sol max if you've used older Roland's. 3m warranty on the prints too with these new inks

 

[Notarealsignguy]

Look at the cjv150, it's a single head print/cut.

 

[LarryB]

I have a Roland TruVis VG2 and have not been happy with it. We do a lot of wraps and the dry time needed is a couple of days and it is still a little tacky. Install takes much longer than with a latex printer.

 

[Joseph44708]

Im running a Roland XR640 print cut, never have cut on the roland. I print a whole 100' roll then cut it on a Graphtec 160 while im printing the next 100' roll.
Consumables are much cheaper for the Graphtec than for the Roland.

 

[Jester]

I have a Roland TruVis VG2 and have not been happy with it. We do a lot of wraps and the dry time needed is a couple of days and it is still a little tacky. Install takes much longer than with a latex printer.

That doesnt seem right. Our VG2 is fast drying. It sounds like you are putting down too much ink. Are you using Versaworks? If so, are you using the built-in generic profiles, substrate-specific canned profiles you've downloaded, or custom profiles?

 

[LarryB]

That doesnt seem right. Our VG2 is fast drying. It sounds like you are putting down too much ink. Are you using Versaworks? If so, are you using the built-in generic profiles, substrate-specific canned profiles you've downloaded, or custom profiles?

Yes we are using Versaworks. Have tried all of the profiles Roland has suggested in discussion with them trying to resolve this. We are installing an additional heater next week to trying to rectify this. So frustrating.

 

[victor bogdanov]

Yes we are using Versaworks. Have tried all of the profiles Roland has suggested in discussion with them trying to resolve this. We are installing an additional heater next week to trying to rectify this. So frustrating.

That's odd, my prints are dry by the end of the day if it's heavy ink load on cheap vinyl, on phototex dries in minutes

 

[LarryB]

That's odd, my prints are dry by the end of the day if it's heavy ink load on cheap vinyl, on phototex dries in minutes

If we are installing box truck wrap we can’t lay down a panel in one piece as it’s too tacky. Have to install one foot at a time. Install takes so much longer. My old Roland XC-540 had no issues.

 

[dale911]

You can get the same high quality images coupled with quick drying when using the Epson s series. You can laminate almost immediately off the printer and install is still a breeze. The speed is also amazing.

For the OP, the benefits of a separate cutter far outweighs the space savings of an all on one. When I started kit, I had a Mimaki cjv150 and found that most of the time, I had to take the print off the laminate it, then put it back on the printer and get it set up to cut. The cutting speed is agonizingly slow.

Another benefit is the adjustments that can be done as well as the way a separate unit cuts. We have a graphtec 8000 and a graphtec 8600. The 8600 offers sectional cutting so that the cutter is only doing a section of the entire print at one time. This allows the accuracy to improve and it also reduces the time involved with the cutter not finding the marks properly. Not to mention that I run ours at half the maximum speed and it’s about 10x faster than the printer’s built in cutter.

The fine adjustments of the cutting pressures and speeds make a huge difference. Just this week, I attempted to set up a print/cut so I could just walk away and come back later would not work. The vinyl cutting was fine but the perf cutting was not working well and caused jams every time. I ended up printing it and moving the prints to the graphtec. The cutting was a fraction of the time and I was able to automate the cutting/registration reading for a a 50’ run.


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[Notarealsignguy]

What good is all this speed if you don't need it? The mimaki cuts accurately too, the roland I had before that did not.

 

[dale911]

I did not say the Mimaki doesn’t cut accurately, but it also doesn’t have the abilities that a standalone cutter has. The best thing about speed is the ability to be done sooner. For some people, that means getting more jobs done in he same amount of time. For others, it means being done earlier so they can do other things instead of working. Some people like having the ability to use it if needed. Why do cars go 100mph when you are only allowed to go 70? I get the speed for all of the above reasons. We print to the trade only and I have a 2 and 3 year old that I want to spend as much time as possible with so our primary things to look at are speed and quality. The faster we can get it done, the sooner I can get to my little ones. It also helps to have separate units so that if one goes down, you aren’t down a printer and a cutter. I know you said you already have a cutter that doesn’t read marks, so that isn’t an issue but for nearly the same amount of money, it is a good idea to
Have separate machines. Then you can sell the one that doesn’t read marks and be set up for any given situation. When I bought my Mimaki, I already had a graphtec. I decided to add the cutting feature onto the Mimaki for
The extra $500 just to have the ability if I wanted to use it. I don’t use it often but when I do, it’s because it’s the ideal solution for the job....but then again, I’m the same guy that has every tool in the garage because I I like to have the option to use the exact right tool for the job. Others will disagree. To each his own.


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