OK, I want a wide format digital printer. I went to a show yesterday, and really like the Gerber Jetster. But, the Mamaki (sp?) is sweet! There is a $8-10,000 difference. Jetster is lower. My distributor sells both.
The biggest difference is the media variety and ink formulations. Speed is a factor too. What is the consensus among my peers. What are you using, and are you happy with it?
[ September 20, 2003, 10:25 PM: Message edited by: Rick Beisiegel ]
Posted by Bob Burns (Member # 268) on :
ROLAND VERSACAMM or SOLJET II. www.rolanddga.com Posted by Checkers (Member # 63) on :
Hiya Rick, I have more questions than answers, but whatever you do, don't listen to your salesperson. They're paid on commission. What do you plan on printing? How long do you expect the prints to last? How durable do you expect them to be? How often do you plan on running the machine when you finally make the purchase? Who orwhat is the market you plan to sell to? When you purchase a large format printer, the printer may only be half of the cost if you want to do it right. You'll still need good rip software, a great computer to run the rip, a laminator, a trimmer and good color management to be efficient. None of these come cheap. To make matters worse, the saying, "you get what you pay for" isn't always true. We run 2, 4 color Encads, an old pro 36" set up with outdoor inks and a Novajet 700 60" set up with indoor inks. We run a variety of materials through both printers, but the bulk of the products we print are for trade show graphics printed with indoor inks on polycarbonate using the 700. The 700 comes with 2 sets of plumbing for running 2 ink options and the changeover from one ink to another is relatively painless but time consuming. Both have been fairly reliable machines and serve their purpose well. The biggest problem with almost any machine is down-time. The longer the machine sits idle, the greater the chance of problems when you try to start printing again. Also, switching inks. some machines, like our pro 36, require you to flush the plumbing before you an switch out inks. An extremely time and material consuming and messy poject. I can add a whole lot to this but this will get you started. Also, look for Ken Sandlin(sp?), if he hasn't commented already. He's the guy that wrote a book about diving into inkjet printing. I'm sure he would be an invauable source.
Havin' fun,
Checkers
Posted by KARYN BUSH (Member # 1948) on :
a friend of mine just bought the gerber jester...he loves it..and there is suppose to be more materials available soon to print on.
Posted by Nate Clancy (Member # 4046) on :
I bought the mimaki about 4 months ago & like it allot. Just like a previous post said "don't listen to your salesman". Another forum that talks allot about large format is http://signweb.com. Mostly salesman bashing each other but you can weed out the bad & see honest Q & A there. The mimaki is great for anything from trade-show & vehicle wraps to banners. Great resolutions, not as fast as the salesman said & inks are a little bit more, but all in all I still can print on anything w/ full saturation for under a buck a sq. ft. I even threw on a 18"x24" 040 alum & printed on it. Kinda freaked the sales guy out a little. If you want to talk about mimaki call me & had all kinds of problems but all have been fixed w/ tweaks quickly. 703-913-5300 Nate
Posted by Bruce Evans (Member # 44) on :
Well, having actually seen the VersaCamm, looks more like a machine that is probably gonna be their PC60 of the solvent machines. Might be good for the small shop that does small stuff. Now the Soljet II EX looked far more impressive to me. At the show, I didn't see any cutting happening with the machines. That's the only thing that made me wonder. It seemed almost as though the machines were rushed into operation. It was the typical same images being printed by all the vendors, including Roland.
Supposedly the Jetster II is not too far away, according to a Gerber person. Guess we just have to wait for Mutoh to give them to Gerber.
I think the cream of the crop are the Mimaki's and Roland Soljet II.
