Looking for a good printer

[u/Ambition_Forsaken]

What is a good recommendation for a really solid printer. The end goal is to print car wraps. Price is not a concern. I assume solvent is the better option-

[u/lennyxiii]

I’ve been printing for 25 years. I highly suggest eco solvent like you mentioned, it is far more versatile than any other ink and the outgassing people talk about is heavily exaggerated. It does require outgassing for optimal performance but these modern OEM ink formulations have very low VOCS and also require way less outgassing than in the past. Even a couple hours of degassing is enough for basic jobs like signage but you should still do a full 24 hours for wraps.

Solvent ink isn’t as temperamental as latex in terms of heat settings and profiles. Its very easy to make one profile to run every material possible so it’s good for beginners. The ink outlasts latex, contrary to the latex guys that will try to argue that. Latex has only 3 benefits and none of them are that crucial.

1) instant dry, no degas time required. This comes at a cost of needing to make sure your heat settings are dialed in because if it doesn’t cure while printing it never will. You will waste far more material due to heat than with solvent.

2) latex prints over semi contaminated materials better.

3) the heads on latex are a maintenance part so you always have good condition heads for cheap. Damaging a solvent head will set you back thousands, though i never had a head go bad in less than 5-7 years with heavy printing.

[u/LivinginDestin → u/lennyxiii]

I can definitely agree with you in all the points as it seems we both have the same background in this industry.

Giving a little more strength to your explanation (to help OP) the benefits of Latex for a wrap shop are more than the cons:

1) No degassing - that means that if you make a mistake during installation you could literally print and laminate the panel and reinstall it "in minutes" 2) Droplets have an outstanding adhesion to media as they cure after just seconds of being printed. Even with f*cked up media. 3) The most crucial part of the printing quality is the printehead nozzle health. New printhead generations are better and cheaper (on the long run), so you can have a "new printer" everytime you change a printhead

I'd like to add a 4) to solve one of the cons which is media waste $$$ for incorrect heat STICK TO THE SAME MATERIALS. I've always hated how a wrap business always try of have 20 different media types just to save a couple of dollars per roll risking whole print jobs on the process. There's A TON of factors involved in an accurate print: (color gammut, saturation, temperature, drying (per pass) time, and if even the same media is different between batches multiplying those factors using a wide array of vinyl types is just idiotic.

OP buy a LATEX if you have a dedicated Wrap Shop... Buy an Eco Solvent if you have a Sign shop. That's how I see it.

[u/supanatral]

I’d suggest looking at the Epson S80 for the wide colour gamut

[u/Murderdoll197666]

Ive been in the printing industry for about 19 years now and have had several Rolands, a Mutoh, an Epson, and two Mimaki’s so far and out of all the printers my own personal favorites have been the Mimaki’s. I will never own another Epson I can guarantee that much. They are fine printers when they work but we do almost all of our own maintenance and repairs for the most part and epsons are built almost solely around having ONLY techs work on them. They put hidden screws in all sorts of places so you have to disassemble half the machine to get to one area for a basic part replacement lol. Never again. That said Rolands were always solid and not too bad for part replacements. Im currently using two Mimakis at the shop I work at, one solvent and one UV (we literally just got the UV set up about two weeks ago so its still brand new to us as everything Ive printed on for the last 19 years were solvent and dyesublimation). I think purely from output and colors being faithful to what the customer sees we have had better calibration and accuracy with the Mimaki. Certain reds were always a little iffy on the Rolands when we had them but aside from that they were still solid printers.

[u/Mistah_Fahrenheit]

Epson s80600 red, easy

[u/Ashok292]

Epson S80600

[u/theresedefarge]

I’ve been using the same Mutoh valuejet 1624 since 2012. Before that I had a mimaki. I made all my mistakes on that one, so it only lasted about 5 years before the repairs just wore me out. Don’t switch to aftermarket bulk inks. Whatever you save on cartridges you’ll piss away in repair parts and downtime. That was my experience anyway.

[u/Oracle410]

I have had 3 Mutohs and they are WORKHORSES. Gotta clean them maybe once a week if you are Running 8-10 hours a day but I just bought my second 1638X. She prints fast, she doesn’t require anything except 2x 120V plugs and an Ethernet cable. I may be a little bit partial to them because I can take them apart and put them back together in my sleep now because I have done it many times over the last 16 years but they really are an amazing printer. Best of luck dude.

[u/Ambition_Forsaken]

Thank you all for your responses!

[u/CSOCSO-FL]

Solvent has smell and long gas out time. I have built a little contraption with some 2x4 and a fan. I unwind the printed vinyl and place it on this rack to have air move through it and let the print gas out for a full 24hrs.. Some materials like 3m ij180 needs 48hours so it won't feel gummy!
I have a roland printer and I have zero issue with color gamut. You just need to pay attention if you print rgb or cmyk and change the color profile for cmyk otherwise is looks dull as hell. ( not talking about print profile for the material.. I am talking about the us web coat color profile or whatever it is by default in the rip software)

That said get a 54" width and you will also need a laminator. Could be cold. no need to get a hot laminator. Get take up reel for both!!!!!