Large format vinyl printers

[greg lindsey]

Hi All,

I am looking to possibly purchases a large format printer. I have a few customers who are sending this work elsewere and have offered to send it my way as I do alot of other work for them now. My question is: I have seen several in auctions and am courious as to what the major cost for repairs are if required. I realize the inks are a consumable but what other things should I be looking for before buying a used one. Any specific brands whould be helpful to know about. Seems like most of the ones I find are HP, Thank for any advise you can share.

[Scott Shepherd]

Greg, I'm no expect on the subject, but I'll offer what I can. Hopefully it's all accurate Most all the used stuff is going to be solvent based ink. The HP 9000 is a common used machine that's done well and is a good machine. I wouldn't go back much past the 9000 model. You start to lose speed and quality to some degree, so best to stay in that range. However, the new HP's are Latex ink and it's doing really really well. You see the occasional complaint, but overall, people are really loving them. I think it's a HP 25500 (last model year), and now the HP 26500. With solvent, the prints have to dry. It can take 24 hours before you can laminate them (and if it's going outside, it needs to be laminated). The latex is dry when it comes off the machine.

It takes a LOT to get into printing. You need a printer, you need a laminator, and you need a RIP, and then a plotter that can read registration marks. The RIP can cost you $1000-$5000, depending on which one you get. The new HP models list for like $25,000, but I've seen people getting them for $16,000-18,000 brand new.

Solvent is what you'll probably get if you get used and it requires venting and it's fairly nasty stuff.

You could maybe squeak by with a HP 8000 and a laminator, and grow into some other things if you had to, but I definitely wouldn't go back to the HP 6000's or anywhere in that era.

Not sure if that helps any. That's all just my opinion.

[Joe Pelonio]

HP does make good ones that are used by most professionals, though I think Mutoh is better. . If you want to save money, Roland & Prismjet make less expensive models that are good for lower volume use, starting under $15,000 for 48".

[Scott Shepherd]

HP does make good ones that are used by most professionals, though I think Mutoh is better. . If you want to save money, Roland & Prismjet make less expensive models that are good for lower volume use, starting under $15,000 for 48".

Yes, and Roland has the "print and cut" machines as well that people seem to speak very highly of.

[Cliff Bisson]

Roland equipment is very reliable and has consistent color.

Consumables in a high volume shop can be a little pricy but the quality and consistency is worth the extra cost.

Print and cut in a lower volume shop is the way to go IMO, especially if you're not laminating. Much less handling involved.

Downtime and maintenance were minimal.

Versaworks is free with the Roland, and at least the version's I had were outstanding for a free rip.

Oh, and the service techs were alway outstanding, which in large format printing is incredibly important.

[Albert Nix]

I have a roland and unless you have lots of room it is the way to go. Good support and prints and cuts on one machine.
you take a 54" printer, cutter and laminator and they can take up some floor space.

[Neal Schlee]

I purchased Sign Warehouse's Trifecta about a year and a half ago, Mutoh VJ 1204 (48" Eco Solvent printer), their Vinyl Express Q54 (rebranded Graphtec) plotter and the 55" Enduralam cold laminator (Imported Chinese). Everything has worked well although. The only problem intially was the laminator had a bad solder connection that took awhile to track down before it would work. Included was Flexi Pro 10 and since purchase we've gotten 3 free Flexi Upgrades, the latest which came out last week being Version 11 with their Cloud features and they've finally fixed the dropped shadow problem when inporting PDF's.

I like having a dedicated printer and cutter as most of our decals and labels are laminated. Also you can cut sign vinyl and other material while the printers printing. The Graphtec plotter's ARM system has only failed to read registration marks a few times and when reset they have always cut. If you're planning on doing a lot of wraps then their 64" setup would a better choice but we've been able to get by with the 48" Mutoh. I've see the 1204 48" is now less than $10K and even cheaper at times. They now have a 48" model that prints on pre grommeted banners too. All in all we've been happy with the package. It helps if you go to a trade show and get a hands on demo and talk to the tech people, being in Alaska we're pretty much on our own when it comes to anything other than phone or online support.

Neal