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New looking to purchase a latex printer

#1 AlteredDezignz 8 years ago

I am looking at the 360. We currently have a mutoh 1324 solvent printer.

Can anyone help me with media and things like that.

Very new to latex as i have never used it.

It reads as it has print heads that ahve to be changed also? Can anyone advise on that.

We like the no wait time laminate and cutting of stickers.

We like the fact that it will create its own profile for all material iteself. We strugle with weather changes even tho it is a set temp inside our print room. The smallest thing will change it.

Thanks

#2 HP-MarcM 8 years ago

Hi AlteredDesignz,

Welcome to the HP Latex Community. I will be glad to actually answer any question you could have regarding HP Latex Technology.

With the HP Latex 360 you use a wide range of medias. I'll recommend you to have a look on the HP Media Solutions Locator in order to check which medias have been certified for the printer you're willing to acquire.

About the printheads, the warranty on the printheads is 1 litre (of ink that went through the printhead, not of ink consumed from the cartridge). Just for you to know, the expected average is 4 litres.

Finally, I will like to encourage the other users of the HP Latex Knowledge Center to share their experiences with their HP Latex Printer with you.

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#3 AlteredDezignz 8 years ago

Thank you for the information. So i should be safe to say the heads will need to be changed out at about every 3 l of ink? can you tell me where to price the ink and the print heads?

Dont want to sound dumb but i am used to buying from pretty much one supplier but they do not offer any latex inks that i know of or heads.

I am trying to figure my operating cost comparison in depth to my current solvent based system.

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#4 HP-MarcM 8 years ago

Hi AlteredDesignz,

I am happy you are considering to buy a new Latex printer. Could you please share your location so we can redirect an HP reseller to contact you. She/he will be able to advise you in a better way.

I encourage to keep using this channel in case you need further instruction or assistance.

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#5 TG-Frank 8 years ago

You can learn how to replace the printheads with the following video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQ8SMorbMnI

If you have a printer, you will easily connect to this kind of videos through the online help on the display and the QR-Codes at some topics. I don't know where you from, but in our market, for the replacement costs of a Mutoh Valuejet Printhead, you can buy nearly 30 HP Printheads. And because of the ink is cheaper than Eco-Solvent-Inks, only with the lower price the heads are paid.

In addition, a mutoh valuejet needs a new maintenance station from time to time, as Mutoh suggested every 12 months. The HP equivalent, the Maintenance cartridge, is replacable by the user too, as can be seen in that video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnhRQB27JBM

The suggestion to have a look at the media solutions locator is a good suggestion, but if you wont find your media, have a look on the manufacturers website, or ask your distributor. I work at a dealer, and indepently from HP's certification programme, we haven't found much media which wont work on that machine. It prints nearly the same media as with an eco-solvent, but with advantages on Paper and Textiles.

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#6 AlteredDezignz 8 years ago

Here is my issue on contacting a dealer. Until i for sure i want to but a latex i will not be contacting any dealers directly. Hereis my reason. I am still getting calls DAILy from 2 companies that i was talking to about a laminator and a plotter. WE already have a laminator and a potter we just need more. They will not stop calling even tho i have talked to managers..

Anyways. I am trying to put together my own price comparison b/c with me using bulk systems with oem mutoh ink i am cheaper than latex ink based off the pricing for ink i can find on hp.

Also the print heads and main station well thats another story. I am on factory maint station with only changing wiper and cap top. No reason to change print head unless there is a major issue. Going on 4 years with thousands and thousand of prints and still prints like the same day it was brand new.

With a cost reaplacement per head at 98$ per a max of every 3l and only warrantied for 1l i would assume that if something happened after the 1l then they may not cover what ever went bad b/c you did nto change the head out at 1l.

So lets look at it this way. If you base it off 3000ML or 3 per machine. I would only see an advantage of right at .0431 cents per ml.

Is the instant laminating time worth the aditional machine purchase?

Is the latex really that mcuh better. They all say it will get rid of all the smell. We have 2 of the 1324 running 24/7 ina 20x20 room with no smell.

The icc profiling would be nice but from reading on here there are issues with tgat as well.

So i am really stuck in limbo about my newest purchase to be a latex. I dont think i have ever had an issue wiating an hour to laminate stickers and so on or 12 hours to laminate a wrap. Normally we will not do same day wraps anyways so as long as you schedule your business right there wouldnt be an issue.

So this is why i am here looking for information. If i deal with a dealer i am only going to hear thier side of why i need the latex machine and not a sol;vent machine. If i was to call that same dealer and ask them about a solvent then they would tell me all the reason why i need the solvent and not the latex.

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#7 AlteredDezignz 8 years ago

I have watched video after video comparing one one will say latex better color, fast dry, no smell. then solvent, better color, more vibrant, larger gamet, minor smell if any, back and forth....

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#8 TG-Frank 8 years ago

I have sold and supported Eco-Solvent-Printers (as Mutoh or Roland) for 10 years, before deciding to work for a HP-Dealer a few years ago. I can tell you the following:

In addition to the immediate laminating, you will have much more scratch resistant prints than with an eco-solvent-printer, and more chemical resistance too. In addition to "immediate laminating", you will have the possibility to decide sometimes to work WITHOUT any laminate.

Latex-Printers prints much easier on paper, and with much more quality on textile banners.

The printing speed specially on the Latex 360 is remarkable higher as on a Mutoh 1324.

Additional features allows to print double-sided on banners and more (Model 360).

Because of a lot more nozzles and an automatic feed adjustment (360), you will have much less banding on prints on higher speed too. And: you will have permanently relatively new print heads. On a Mutoh 1324, a head replacement could be a economic total loss of the printer if the machine is four years or older.

Some "issues" of color management in the machine should be put into perspective: for someone who currently uses generic profiles or standard profiles from the internet and dont care of creating own profiles until now, the internal color calibration functionality is a quantum leap. You will get easily much better results, good greys, linear gradiations and much more on most of the media. And, if you would like to continue working with standard profiles, there are more than 500 available for download which are working with EVERY RIP.

I'm deep in color management, I know that using an external Spectro like our Barbieri Spectro LFP or SpectroPad together with a software calibration solution with possibilities to alter settings could lead to better results ... but a Spectro LFP which solves some problems what can happen with the internal i1 costs around 6'000 Euros (nearly US$ 7'000), without calibration software.

We currently replace a lot of eco-solvent-machines in the market. And if the people keep their eco-solvents, they will put less and less work on that machines. This have a reason.

If you are able to read german, you could refer to our special website www.latex300.ch .

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#9 ariachris567051 4 years ago

I hope you have bought it.

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The opinions expressed above are the personal opinions of the authors, not of HP.

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