Vutek PressVu or flatbed printers which are not cheap. Wouldn't it be better and cheaper (hardware wise) to print on vinyl and then apply to the coroplast?
Posted by Bob Stephens (Member # 858) on :
How much you willing to spend?
Posted by Mark Matyjakowski (Member # 294) on :
Or do you mean someone to farm out coroplast printing too? There's ads for that in most every sign magazine. Have never used any as that's one of the things we do (not as cheap as them)
Posted by Laura Butler (Member # 1830) on :
Depending on what you want on them, LazerImages in Livonia, MI sells specially adapted Iolines. They are set up to use special magic markers and you can run cor-plast through them.
Posted by Kenneth Sandlin (Member # 3014) on :
Ideally the big UV flatbed printers that start around $180K like the Zund and go up to $400K+ like the VUTEk's.
You can find pre-coated board media to run through Aqueous printers like the Encad 880 that are set up to feed rigid materials. Or you can take your chances with spray coating boards, but I don't advise it. Either way, aqueous output is not very durable outdoors and needs to be laminated as well. You are better off as was suggested, printing to vinyl and applying to the board.
Posted by Don Coplen (Member # 127) on :
Makes ya get out a calculator to figure how many coroplast signs ya need to sell to crack a 400K nut. Anybody who is THAT good at sellin may belong on Madison Avenue with the big boys!
Posted by Felix Marcano (Member # 1833) on :
I definately can't afford a vutek!! Thing is, everyone around here seems to be getting into digital printing, & I feel I'm falling behind with my CJ-500. On the other hand, I don't know if just by offering a good design & service everything will be OK.
Last year around June everyting slowed down so bad I thought I was going under. This year since June we've been so busy we almost can't keep up! But I'm wondering if it'd really be wise to get into one of these suckers... the cheaper ones, I mean.
I don't know if any of this makes sense, but thanks for the replies!!
Posted by Ted Nesbitt (Member # 3292) on :
Flatbeds definitely are the IN thing when it comes to Digi-printers right now.
Oce offers the Arizona T220, which is a Piezo electric solvent inkjet. It is capable of printing to many raw sign products up to 2+ inches thick.
Sericol offer the INCA Eagle, which is a UV printer, as are many others suggested here (SciTex VeeJet and 3M 2500UV, etc). UV printers use drop-on-demand technology similar to inkjet, but then the ink is 'flashed off' with a UV source, just like EV screenprint.
Everyone's right on when they talk about the start-up costs right now. Hundred's and hundred's of thousands of dollars are involved.
And, the footprint of these machine is gi-normous---the smallest ones are the size of a 6x10 CNC router---then add onload and offload tables, and you're looking at the size of an in-line screen press!
That said, they will RE-revolutionize the industry, eliminating alot of application and the errors that go with it.
As with all other printing technologies, watch the prices start to creep down as the manufacturers learn more, and make the machines and the technologies more efficient!
