Re: piezo, thermal, bubble...DesignJet
Re: piezo, thermal, bubble...DesignJet
- Subject: Re: piezo, thermal, bubble...DesignJet
- From: "Tim Brown" <email@hidden>
- Date: Wed, 31 Aug 2005 15:39:52 -0400
- Thread-topic: piezo, thermal, bubble...DesignJet
I have several designjet 5500 UV printers -- I have very good print
quality on canvas and fine art paper.
We used to have only Epson head printers (Mutoh), but reliability and
banding have made them impractical for manufacturing consistent fine
art. Nozzle issues, step adjustment, media feeding -- all caused
problems, such that I rarely have all 4 running at the same time. I am
trying to convert my entire manufacturing system over to the HP
printers.
With my HP 5500 UV printers (5, currently), I can change a head in a
couple of minutes. The printer does all the alignment and calibration.
If nozzles are plugged, they are compensated for internally. Ink comes
in 680 ml containers, so I don't have to change it very often. I put
the first rolls on these printers around 6 to 7 AM, and the last roll on
at around 10 to 12 PM -- 5 days a week. While I have had issues with
the printers, it turned out that the cause was usually related to a bad
RIP, media defects, or something like that. Even when I thought that I
had a printer related issue (and it wasn't), HPs service guys came the
next day and replaced the entire ink loading system, from the head to
the ink cartridge (air pump, sensor, the works) and completed the work
within an hour -- under warranty, to make sure that wasn't the cause of
my problem. There were two guys working on one of my Mutohs for several
days who were a bit chagrined to see the ease with which the HP was torn
totally apart and put back together.
I have to say that my print quality, reliability, ease of manufacturing
-- all have been good with my HP printers.
That being said, the HP has larger dots than the epson head. With a
single black ink, this could cause issues for black and white images on
very glossy papers. However, you won't see the banding that I usually
find in epson printers that are printing B&W photos. You might want to
evaluate that before purchase.
Tim Brown
Senior Engineer
The Thomas Kinkade Company
900 Lightpost Way
Morgan Hill, CA 95037
(408) 201 - 5446 office
(408) 624 - 7840 cell
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