What’s your thoughts on a Vanguard VR 6

[dbot]

Looking for some opinions on the above machine.
We are located in Africa and don’t have options like Cet, or digitech.

the vanguard is looking like our best option so far

Fujifilm prime 30 - slower and ink a bit more expensive
JHF 3900 - even slower but a lot cheaper ink about the same price
Canon 2300 - a lot more expensive and ink more
Epson 7000 - cheaper but ink price and print cost out tests show it uses more ink.

Have not been able to see a vanguard up close.
Anyone able to give some first hand input on easy of use in terms of GUI and maintenance

Are the published speeds as good as they say they are.

 

[Andrew Heiner]

Just talked with the sales rep yesterday. They look like solid machines.

 

[10sacer]

Looking for some opinions on the above machine.
We are located in Africa and don’t have options like Cet, or digitech.

the vanguard is looking like our best option so far

Fujifilm prime 30 - slower and ink a bit more expensive
JHF 3900 - even slower but a lot cheaper ink about the same price
Canon 2300 - a lot more expensive and ink more
Epson 7000 - cheaper but ink price and print cost out tests show it uses more ink.

Have not been able to see a vanguard up close.
Anyone able to give some first hand input on easy of use in terms of GUI and maintenance

Are the published speeds as good as they say they are.

I was personal friends with founder of company, Dave Cich, before his untimely passing. These are very good machines and you will not be disappointed. That being said, I don't care what you buy, but you need to drill down on service and support viability in your geographic region. They are machines and no matter who makes them, machines break. My girlfriend's Mercedes is a revolving door to the service department for stupid crap.

 

[nsm]

I don't have personal experience with them other than Vanguard used to print samples for me for trade shows. But the customers I have that have purchased Vanguard have always been happy with them.

Also, to add to 10sacer's comment, the little bit I knew David he always took pride in his printers and was not in the business of building and selling shoddy equipment.

Also, seeing that they are now part of the Durst family I would imagine they have to be solid for Durst to have acquired them.

 

[ToTo]

The lucky thing about these units is that you can replace each part on your own. Maybe you need some advice by phone, but it reduces costs when a repair is needed.

 

[dbot]

Thank you everyone for the great info!! Appreciate it.
Does anyone have any views on JHF machines.

 

[swordguy3222]

We went down to Fuji, Vanguard and EFI to check out their demo centres. EFI at the time was hands down the top contender, but the recent partnership with AGFA made buying one of their Hybrids a little risky. So we were left with Vanguard and Fuji. Vanguards machine are not bad, but unless you are getting the new 3200, all others are rebranded Chinese machine, so they have little control over needed changes and adjustments. We wound up going with Fuji, got the Prime L. If you have the space, ditch the 30 and go L. More you can do with the increased size, and the linear drive of the L is better and quieter then the belt driven head on the 30. Fuji also has a lot more techs out there then Vanguard does, so repairs will be a lot easier when needed, and the phone support is good too if you have someone in house who is comfortable in doing some repairs. So, go Fuji.

 

[Bxtr]

Hello, We have a Vanguard VK300D, it's a little over two years old. It has been a huge leap forward for us in comparison to our EFI H1625 it replaced. The speeds are amazing, we have 6 heads (2 White) it will print a 4x8 in 4 minutes.
One of the reasons we bought this machine is that we can add heads if necessary. If we maxed it out at 10 heads it would print a 4x8 in under a minute. One challenge we had was figuring out how much extra ink to keep on hand, we had a large coro job when we got it and it went through ink a lot faster than expected. The maintenance isn't bad, at most takes an hour to do the big services (6mo/Yearly) The phone support has been great, you have to wait for them to call you back but I've never been down for more than an hour. I know they sell a lot more of the VR line, we just wanted the 5x10 bed. We ended up buying the demo from a show and got 6 heads for the price of 5. Please reach out with anyother questions.

 

[dbot]

thanks for the info!! Seems like you had a hybrid before. Did you find as my suspicions tell me that hybrids tend to do rolls better and flat stock now where near as good as flatbeds

 

[Bxtr]

thanks for the info!! Seems like you had a hybrid before. Did you find as my suspicions tell me that hybrids tend to do rolls better and flat stock now where near as good as flatbeds

The hybrid was fine on flat stock as long as registration didn't matter. The conveyor vacuum is not a true science in my opinion.

 

[dbot]

Bxtr can you comment on maintenance on the vanguard. How many days could you not print for before you have to do extensive maintenace to get the heads firing.
Also what is the daily morning maintenance like.
I have noticed that machine like the Fuji have an automatic maintenance as well as manual built in.

 

[Bxtr]

Bxtr can you comment on maintenance on the vanguard. How many days could you not print for before you have to do extensive maintenace to get the heads firing.
Also what is the daily morning maintenance like.
I have noticed that machine like the Fuji have an automatic maintenance as well as manual built in.

The daily start up consists of purging ink through the heads, wiping them.
Then you print a 12"x12" of white ink, we print a CMYK pattern with white on top of it.
Next is a nozzle check. If everything is there, then your good to go.
It takes less then ten minutes...

If you need to get the white perfect, then we put flush through the heads before printing. This will add 15min.
We try to gang all of our white together so we don't have to do this all the time.

At the end of the day you clean the bottom of the jet plate, wipe the heads with flush and park it for the night. (5-10min)

The weekly maintenance adds maybe another 10min. The monthly takes maybe 30min depending on the calibrations.
The 6 month and yearly take a about the same. The maintenance just stacks additional things on the previous if that makes sense.
Weekly = Daily + Weekly
Monthly = Daily + Weekly + Monthly
6 Month = Daily + Weekly + Monthly + 6 Month and so on.

We are really happy with the machine and support. When we hit the three year mark we plan on having someone come out and go through the machine as preventative maintenance.
We keep a few parts on hand as well as plenty of ink. (Filters, Ink Pumps, Crash Bars, and at least two extra sets of ink.

 

[MelloImagingTechnologies]

Good points on maintennance.
My customers who don’t have white clean under side of carriage on Monday mornings.
The rest of the week they just do a nozzle print and usually don’t have to do a purge and wipe.
One of my customers came up with a great way to flow white.
On one job per day, usually a 4’x4’. Coroplast. He runs white under the Cmyk and he has zero white problems.
Bruce

 

[MelloImagingTechnologies]

I just finished training on an affordable Vanguard VR5 with only 2 heads and was able to set it up and build Onyx profile for it to run in High Speed Carriage and 2 pass to print 4x8 in 4 minutes!

 

[dbot]

So we took the plunge and went for the vk300d.
Shipping out this week. Should have it in a few months up and running.

 

[Bxtr]

So we took the plunge and went for the vk300d.
Shipping out this week. Should have it in a few months up and running.

Congrats! Enjoy, this was a game changer for us.