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Sky Air-Ship SkyJet UV FlatMaster

1. 8 L 7 Gandinnovations Jeti Teckwin TeckStorm 3246 UV Jetspeed UV Curable printer for Glass and other rigid materials w FL ANAN R Re exe an SkyJet UV FlatMaster Printer These are some of the most Recent FLAAR Reports 2007 2009 You can find these and more reports at www wide format printers NET Comments on UV Inkjet Printers at Major Trade Shows 2007 2009 i PLA Reports PLAAR Reports ib LAAB Peers CT LAAR Hitet b LAAR R uv Printer Tre nds UV Printers Flatbed amp Roll to Roll Chinese Made in UV Flatbed Printers UV Printers Uy Buiicacts Printers edi G 2008 ua a oe ae ai documented at DRUPA 2008 LUV Market TRENDS _ a u aih jg a eee Analysis One by mig jain OO cert Anahaik One by One ut of the cured printers servane na ysis ne neo UV cured printers at FESPA Digital the UV cured printers at ISA 2009 ISA 09 Europe 2009 FESPA Digital Europe b LAAR Reports UV Roll to rollf UV Flatbed Printers ie LAA Reports eLA AR Rmt TRENDS UVCOMBO TRENDSINHYBRID od Ove Fide Fow sce Printers FLATBE DS STi TRUC TURE Uv PRIN TERS 3 a A gt sae Observable at at APPPEXPO Shanghai 09 Shanghai 2009 Shanghai 2009 Shanghai 2009 EE AEL 109 UV Printers Manufactured in China Korea and Taiwan amp TLAAR Reports amp PLAAR Reports PLAAR Reports UV Printers UV Printers Manufactured in Manufactured in Manufactured in Korea 2009 KOREA 2008 amp PLA
2. SkyJet UV FlatMaster air pressure controls SkyJet UV FlatMaster compressed air line J BEDAVA R Re rts SkyJet UV FlatMaster Printer 19 Is it recommended or required to buy a spare parts kit Or extra printheads The warranty includes spare parts and SkyJet covers the shipping Most end users don t wish to buy a spare parts kit up front in part because they don t yet have the experience to do their own repairs when they are first buying this printer 20 Or do the dealers prefer that customers not try to make their own repairs Every printer manufacturer and distributor has their own policy on whether they wish the end users to make their own repairs The philosophy of ColorSpan was to keep the end user from fiddling with anything inside the printer This was logical because many were first time users of this kind of printer The downside was that once you became experienced or if your printshop was already advanced the lack of access to the innards of the printer was self defeating and undesired But there is no right or wrong policy ColorSpan is not wrong they are simply trying to protect newbie s from making a mess of the inside of the printer In general the end user is usually not encouraged to take the printer apart and do repairs on their own Only later on when you have considerable experience and have taken advanced tech support training would doing your own repairs be realistic However have visited ma
3. would list printhead cleaning as delicate 132 How much time media and ink are used during regular cleaning calibration and maintenance The time depends on the experience on the operator It wasn t possible to determine the exact amount of ink used 133 What is the average number of maintenance calls per printer per year One infamous UV printer reportedly had an average of 52 service calls per year 134 Is there a sleep mode Should the machine ever be turned off At night how much do you turn off Does this en tail having a UPS unit to guarantee it is on all the time There is no sleep mode but the printer was designed so that it does not need to be turned off during the day This is because every time the UV lamps are turned off and on again the life of the UV lamp decreases So you turn it on only early in the morning and turn it off when your last shift is over 135 How long can the printer sit unused If idle for more than several days it is recommended to flush ink from print heads completely and replace with print head flush solution Actually it is best to use your UV printer every day If you are not going to use it every day fill the system with flush solution and cap the heads please note this procedure varies considerably from one printer to another some have no capping station others you have to inject flush with a syringe Check with an experienced tech support person but merely turning your UV printer on fo
4. Bi DIRECTIONAL VS Uni DIRECTIONAL PRINTING 162 What is the direction of uni directional printing From right to left or left to right or both Left to right 163 Is printing bi directional or uni directional It can be bi directional or uni directional But it depends on your image For example SkyJet recommends uni directional when an image has big areas of blue For other images bi directional is OK 164 What are the different results in speed in quality Uni directional printing offers better quality but this mode decreases speed J PL AVA R Re exe rts SkyJet UV FlatMaster Printer 165 Which materials can be printed fast at 2 pass or 4 pass modes The number of passes needed may also depend on how worn the printheads are If the printheads are old you may need more passes than when the printheads are new PRINTHEAD Positioning 166 What is the position of the printheads relative to the media Above jetting down the common position or along side jetting horizontally rare Above jetting down 167 Are the printheads in a straight row or staggered The printer in the demo room was a previous generation This model had the printheads in a straight row except for the white channel But in the current printer the heads are staggered The normal position for printheads is parallel to each other in a row But there are exceptions and staggered the positions may have other benefits Each pattern for positioning the
5. One person said that DuPont s UV printer from RTZ Flora was the first of all Most other printers do not have such a beacon Presence of a beacon is not a major plus point absence of a beacon is not a significant minus point UV Curable printer for Glass and other rigid materials w BAVA R Re an SkyJet UV FlatMaster Printer CONSTRUCTION BUILD QUALITY 66 What kind of testing is done in the factory of the incoming parts Parts are tested all together when the printer has been already assembled 67 What is the solid ness of the construction of the outer body Is it plastic Metal Heavy gauge The framework is steel The outer parts are also solid metal FLAAR analyzes every detail of printers construction to be able to report objectively At left Nicholas inspecting the framework of the printer SkyJet UV FlatMaster general view of the chassis You can see the outer parts are made of solid metal too 68 Is there a hood No this is an open design no hood A hood protects you from most UV lamp light leak A hood protects you to some degree from misting UV ink With a hood it is easier to exhaust ozone and misting UV ink if you attach a ventilation system to a vent opening in the top of the hood But since it is expensive for a printer manufacturer to add a hood most cheaper UV printers have no hoods An exception is ColorSpan they sell so many UV printers and many go to relatively family operated companies
6. Some chemists have told me that there is no way to totally prevent all misting since you are generating x million drops a second from a rapidly accelerating carriage Misting is inevitable The most misting that have seen so far was inside an Infiniti UV printer the entire surface of the inside platen rollers etc was totally covered with misted ink The second most amount of ink misting that have seen was in a ColorSpan 72UV X But many other printers mist as well You can check simply by putting a white swab or white cloth or white paper in a fixed location inside the printer under the hood Check it every week or so to see how much misted ink has settled on it This is the amount of ink that you may be breathing if the workplace is not adequately ventilated UV Curable printer for Glass and other rigid materials Ww FLAAR Re DO rts SkyJet UV FlatMaster Printer INK Color Gamut 229 Which colors print best Yellows are very good Color gamut will depend on the color of the material on which you are printing on your experience with color management and whether you are using canned ICC color profiles or custom profiles that you made yourself 230 Which colors print poorly or not at all The green tones in the FLAAR print sample looked a little bit yellowish When you do test prints try various reds try a wide range of yellows and greens Try a red brown These are colors which may present issues 231 Is the color gamut w
7. and thus can achieve really small ink droplets that you don t absolutely need light Cyan and light Magenta But on the Oce 250 they claim this and am skeptical or maybe it is just the dithering pattern of their PosterShop RIP that causes the noticeable dithering pattern this RIP is renowned for this issue 212 How many ink lines or printheads are dedicated to white ink One or two This depends on your ink configuration 1 or 2 When SkyJet changes the ink system to handle 16 ink lines instead of 12 you could have more than 2 whites 213 Is the white ink situated in the same area as the other inks This question is in the FLAAR FAQs because the Zund 250 situated their white ink up inside the printhead carriage If you have 500 features on a printer 200 tend to be standard similar solutions on most UV printers another 200 are special or have a few tweaks and one or two are unique 214 Is varnish simply as though it were an extra color or is it handled specially Varnish option is available negative pressure of normal ink white ink and varnish are controlled separately J PL TAVAN R Re exe rts SkyJet UV FlatMaster Printer INK Cost 215 Does the refill container of ink come in cartridge bottles or bulk How large are the ink containers for this re placement ink Ink tends to come either in bottles where you pour the ink into the ink container on the printer or containers that are themselves the ink container you take t
8. that not to have a hood would be too risky for possible future lawsuits Yet in the real world most printshops run their printers with the hoods completely off or opened 69 Does the printer wobble back and forth when printing There is no significant vibration on the FlatMaster although to some degree vibration is inevitable in most machines due to the fast acceleration of the printhead carriage UV Curable printer for Glass and other rigid materials w BAVA R Re an SkyJet UV FlatMaster Printer AESTHETICS 70 How would you describe the design of the printer Clean design the FlatMaster looks modern 71 Can you easily distinguish which is the front and which is the back Yes it is easy to distinguish the front for the position of the main control area and the design of the printhead carriage call the front the area where the LCD and operator panel s are situated This usually means that the other side is where you feed the material in call that the back But many printer companies call the feeding area the front It makes no difference as long as you define what you mean in advance Some UV curable printers have a moveable control computer that can be situated at one end or at the feeding area whichever location the opera tor prefers But the standard arrangement is that the LCD and keyboard are on the output side call this the front SkyJet UV FlatMaster at Shanghai 2008 SET UP OF THE PRINTER
9. 500 companies as well as smaller companies and individuals who seek help on which printers to consider when they need digital imaging hardware and software A modest portion of our income comes from our readers who purchase the FLAAR series All income helps continue our tradition of indepen dent evaluations and reviews of inkjet printers RIPs media and inks ra BAVAS R Re exe rts SkyJet UV FlatMaster Printer These are some of the most Recent FLAAR Reports 2007 2009 You can find these and more reports at www wide format printers NET Introduction to UV Curable Inkjet Flatbed Printers S amp FLAAR Reports GTLAAK Reporte wo 2 TLAAR faisa LAAR Rapi Classifications of s Buy aov cured if CERA an Inkjet ame Printer UV G lossa ry UV Cured Printers a iea 1 a kh _ m Priman Flatbed Printers FLAAR Reports _ UV Lamps a 7 Tips Info Help for flatbed Inkjet Printers Introduction to Documentation UV Cured Inks on Piezo Printheads Used in UV Cured Inkjet Printers amp TLAAR Reperi TLAAR Reperts Brief History of the Development of UY Cured Inkjet Printing including Cationic UV Ink Most recent UV Printers P a iA E Erh k ANR Reporte ATLAAR Regex ia al b PLAAR Reports LAAR Reporti Roll to Roll UV Printers Roland LED UV Entry Level Hybrid critay E wit Flatbed UV Printer Curing amp Varnish UV Roll to Roll Be Sce FBC 100 aaa a peeo paee m
10. FLAAR Re DO rts SkyJet UV FlatMaster Printer Our report on Caldera RIP is being updated We are receiving more training on the HP latex ink printers since more Jim und Wey ale people are writing asking FLAAR about this ink than we anticipated FLAAR was initially trained on HP latex ink first m iF in Israel and then at the world headquarters of Hewlett Packard wide format printers in Barcelona all before the printer was even released to the public or shown at any trade show To meet Nicholas and ask questions directly you can make a reservation for consulting with him at SGIA in New Orleans If you are in Europe you can make a reservation for consulting with Dr Hellmuth at VISCOM Madrid VISCOM 4 ask NIM Quesbons Dusseldorf or VISCOM Milano of every INC Of printer click here Once you have a U V curable printer the next item you should consider is a digital XY contour cutter router FLAAR has been inspecting various brands of XY contour cut ters and routers including visiting factories where they are man ufactured and doing site visit case studies During October more FLAAR Reports will be issued on this sub ject Here are a few photos to show you what we will be evaluat ing amp PLAAR Reports io PLAAR Reports Making recyclable Architecture with furniture Be recyclable Materials j a fir A ee with Fig LMR Repor im that are cutee LAAR Reports Cutter R GLOSS digital X
11. Y Cutt Learning about Digital Terms Related to X A Flatbed Cutters Flatbed Cutters v to pair with your UV Cured Flatbed Inkjet Printer ma RAVAN DG lt ole ais Reality Check Being a university professor for many years does not mean we know everything But intellectual curiosity often leads us to enter areas that are new to us So we do not shirk from entering areas where we are obviously not yet expert If in your years of wide format print ing experience have encountered results different that ours please let us Know at ReaderService FLAAR org We do not mind eating crow though so far it is primarily a different philosophy we practice because since we are not dependent on sales commissions we can openly list the glitches and defects of those printers that have an oc casional problem FLAAR and most universities have corporate sponsors but FLAAR web sites do not accept advertising so we don t have to kowtow to resellers or manufacturers We respect their experience and opinion but we prefer to utilize our own common sense our in house experi ences the results from site visit case studies and comments from the more than 53 000 of our many readers who have shared their experiences with us via e mail the Survey Forms Licensing Information If you wish to distribute this report to other people within your company please obtain a site licensing agreement for multiple copies from FLAAR by contacting ReaderServic
12. do work hard at finding the beneficial features even of printers are otherwise get the most critique from our readers Over one million people will read the FLAAR Information Network in the next 12 months 480 000 people will be exposed to our reports on wide format printers from combined total of our three sites on these themes You can be assured that we hear plenty of comments from our readers about which printers func tion and which printers fail to achieve what their advertising hype so loudly claims An evaluation is a professional service and at FLAAR is based on more than 11 years of experience An evaluation of a printer an ink a software laminator cutter or whatever part of the digital printing workflow is intended to provide feedback to all sides The manufac turers appreciate learning from FLAAR what features of their printers J BEDAVAYA Reports SkyJet UV FlatMaster Printer need improvement In probably half the manufacturers FLAAR has dealt with people inside the company did not themselves want to tell their boss that their pet printer was a dog So printer software and component manufacturers have learned that investing in a FLAAR evaluation of their product provides them with useful return on investment Of course if a printer manufacturer wants only a slick Success Story or what we call a suck up review that simply panders to the manufacturer obviously FLAAR is not a good place to dare to ask for such a review
13. for UV related wide format printer publications FLAAR Reports on UV curable roll to roll flatbed hybrid and combo printers are updated when new information is available We tend to update the reports on new printers on printers that readers ask about the most and on printers where access is facilitated such as factory visits demo room visits etc SkyJet UV FlatMaster Printer Reports on obsolete printers discontinued printers or printers that not enough people ask about tend not to be updated FLAAR still publishes individual reports on solvent printers and on giclee printers but subscriptions on these are not yet available these FLAAR Reports on solvent eco solvent and water based wide for mat printers have to be purchased one by one Please Note This report has not been licensed to any printer manufacturer dis tributor dealer sales rep RIP company media or ink company to distribute So if you obtained this from any company you have a pirated copy If you have received a translation this translation is not au thorized unless posted on a FLAAR web site and may be in violation of copyright plus if we have not approved the translation it may make claims that were not our intention Also since this report is frequently updated if you got your ver sion from somewhere else it may be an obsolete edition FLAAR reports are being updated all year long and our comment on that product may have been revis
14. for a 400 000 UV printer as it is for a 70 000 model No matter how well translated all translations done by a speaker for whom English is a second or third language should have the translation proof read by a native English speaker If a company is selling printers into the US the translation needs to be fully and completely comparable to spoken English not literal English 90 of the manuals whose native language is other than English use terms that are too literal they are translated terms not the actual terms that anyone in America would use This is a polite way to say that every manual should be read by a native English speaker who is familiar with the jargon of UV printers 96 How hard or easy are the manuals to obtain BEFORE you buy the printer Some printer manufacturers hide their manuals because they don t want anyone to see them Yet MacDermid ColorSpan offered their manuals openly on line on their web site So the policy varies by manufacturer We do a full report only on those printers where the manual is available to us TRAINING 97 Is training included in the purchase price If so what kind of training is offered Generally yes but it depends on the city you are in J BAVA Reports SkyJet UV FlatMaster Printer 98 Is training necessary Yes training is essential for any UV printer whether an entry level machine or high end Lack of training incomplete training and lack or of experi ence are a factor i
15. for providing a JV4 and then a Mimaki TX 1600s textile printer and Improved Technologies ITNH providing their Ixia model of the Iris 3047 giclee printer We thank 3P Inkjet Textiles and HP for providing inkjet textiles so we could learn about the different results on the various textiles IJ Tech nologies 3P Inkjet Textiles ColorSpan Encad HP Nan Ya Pepa Oracal Tara and other companies have provided inkjet media so we can try it out and see how it works or not as the case may be several ma RAVAN DG lt ole ais inkjet media failed miserably one from Taiwan the other evidently from Germany We thank Aurelon Canon ColorGate ColorSpan ErgoSoft HP PerfectProof PosterJet Onyx Ilford CSE ColorBurst ScanvecAmiable Wasatch and many other RIP companies for pro viding their hardware and software RIPs We thank Dell Computers for providing awesome workstations for testing RIP software and content creation with Adobe Photoshop and other programs We also appreciate the substantial amount of soft ware provided by Adobe As with other product loaned or provided courtesy of ProVar LLC especially the 23 monitors which makes it so much easier to work on multiple documents side by side We thank Betterlight Calumet Photographic Global Graphics West cott Global Imaging Inc Phase One and Bogen Imaging for helping to equip our archaeological photo studios at the university and its archaeology museum in Guatemala Heidel
16. immediately outside the image area This pattern causes every color to jet even if these colors are not being printed in the image itself Although most UV printers do not require a band of printable colors along the edge many UV printer manufacturers do recommend spitting How ever some UV printers do not have a spitting capability 127 Does the manufacturer provide any special cleaning tools Yes there is a cleaning kit J BAVAN AS Reports SkyJet UV FlatMaster Printer MAINTENANCE 128 What daily procedure is required at start up in the morning Only purging and cleaning nozzles with the manual wiper 129 What daily maintenance is required at night The same previous procedure The printer does not need to be turned totally off But in case you turn it off you should close the ink valve because there won t be negative pressure to keep the ink from dripping out of the printheads 130 What maintenance do the UV lamps require such as cleaning the quartz You have to remove dust from lamps also you have to clean the quartz 131 What is the most delicate or complex or time consuming cleaning or maintenance chore Printhead nozzle plates are fragile Some manufacturers say never to wipe the actual nozzle plate by touching it Other manufacturers requite that you physically wipe the nozzle plate with a swab A few manufacturers are unsure and change their recommendations But no matter that model printer or what model printhead
17. of those same trade ma RAVAN DG lt ole ais shows another brand had over 30 of their printers in booths in virtu ally every hall each one producing museum quality exhibits Not our fault when we report what we see over and over and over again One of our readers wrote us recently Nicholas last month you recom mended the as one of several possible printers for our needs we bought this It was the best capital expenditure we have made in the last several years Just wanted to tell you how much we appreci ate your evaluations FLAAR is a non profit educational and research organization dedi cated for over 36 years to professional photography in the arts tropi cal flora and fauna architectural history and landscape panorama photography Our digital imaging phase is a result of substantial funding in 1996 from the Japanese Ministry of Public Education for a study of scan ning and digital image storage options This grant was via Japan s National Museum of Ethnology Osaka Japan That same year FLAAR also received a grant of 100 000 from an American foun dation to do a feasibility study of digital imaging in general and the scanning of photographic archives in particular The FLAAR web sites began initially as the report on the results of these studies of scanners Once we had the digital images we began to experiment with digital printers People began to comment that our reports were unique and very helpful S
18. offset from each other 9 When and where was this model first introduced The current printer appearance was officially launched in July 2008 At FESPA 09 in Amsterdam was the first time in a trade show for the 4th generation but previous models had already been exhibited else where 10 Is there enough new on this printer to make it worth while buying it if I already have another recent model Yes The mechanics to move the gantry have been improved to make it faster the printheads have been changed for another brand etc SkyJet has constantly upgraded this model since the first generation 11 What is the history of the development of this print er The first generation was actually a combo system with transport belt but a combo of these dimensions could not handle heavy materials so SkyJet moved into a flatbed platform whose components have been changed through the developmental period of about 10 years 12 What is the philosophy behind the development of this printer What did the manufacturer seek to achieve This manufacturer does not want to make a me too printer whose sole advantage is being cheaper They realize that to separate themselves from competing brands they need to offer technical support and have a SkyJet UV FlatMaster Printer better printer to begin with so it does not need so much tech support 13 Is this printer mature or still in alpha stage or beta stage This printer is long out of b
19. printers work best if used frequently If you are not going to use your printer for two or three days you have to put flush into the system and prepare it for hibernation even if for only four or five days Then you have to flush the ink system all over again Also realize that the surface of inkjet prints are fragile and gener ally require lamination to survive much usage Lamination comes in many kinds and it is worth finding a reliable lamination company and receiving training on their products Also realize that no hybrid or combo UV printer can feed all kinds of rigid materials precisely Some materials feed well others feed poorly others will skew Although we have found several makes and models to work very well in our facilities how well they work in your facilities may also depend on your local dealer Some dealers are excellent others just sell you a box and can t provide much service after the sale Indeed some low bid internet sales sources may have no technical backup what soever If you pay low bid price you can t realistically expect special maintenance services or tech support later on from any other dealer they will tell you to return to where you paid for the product This is why we make an effort to find out which dealers are recommendable Obviously there are many other dealers who are also good but we do not always know them To protect yourself further always pay with a level of credit card which allows you
20. roll to roll system for some models 185 What sizes of material can be printed on For the smallest model the maximum printing dimensions are 2440mm x 1220mm For the medium model the maximum printing dimensions are 2440mm x 1830mm For the biggest model the maximum printing dimensions are 3000mm x 1830mm The maximum width for glass wood and concrete pieces heavy media that doesn t need vacuum is 2 2mt These materials are not easy to be de formed For foamboards and other advertising media lightweight media that needs vacuum it is 1 83 186 What about edge to edge printing borderless Yes it is possible 187 Can you adjust the rate of media feed Yes you enter the feeding value in the software You need to adjust the rate of feed to remove banding lines caused by media feed that is slightly off This is not entirely the fault of the printer but a result of the fact that each different kind of material feeds slightly differently UV Curable printer for Glass and other rigid materials Ww FLAAR Re DO rts SkyJet UV FlatMaster Printer j 4 f P z re i TN i a 7 m 1 Pe ij P a l E i a E o o sep f L S SkyJet FlatMaster printer can print edge to edge Here is Jose Melgar Technical Writer FLAAR Reports holding a sample LOADING MEDIA 188 What thickness can this printer handle 10cm 189 Can you measure the height of the material with a sensor or is it manual
21. solvent ink through their printers which previously were made only for water based ink the fittings and other parts of the original ink delivery system were made to handle water not solvents There were endless tech support issues for more than a year as a result At least Roland and Splash of Color finally fixed these issues and two different eco solvent ink chemistries were developed in subsequent years as well 225 What kind of e chain is used Igus brand Igus e chain The model is 2500 07 100 UV Curable printer for Glass and other rigid materials w BAVA R Re exe an SkyJet UV FlatMaster Printer The energy chain is the plastic linked system that holds all the cables and ink tubing so that it does not get rubbed while being moved back and forth to feed the carriage Most mid range and almost all high end UV printers have an energy chain from the company lIgus In trade shows in the US 99 of the printers use Igus In fact thought Igus was the only manufacturer of e chains in the market But at APPPEXPO 09 could see many printers using other brands of e chains A printer manufacturer has to have its own research and testing on brands of parts and components but there must be a reason why virtually all printers manufactured in the US and in Europe use Igus p z P Igus e chain This chain holds wires and hoses inside protecting them and providing an easy movement 226 Where and in how many locations is the ink he
22. the Shanghai 2009 trade show noticed another three or perhaps four other Chinese manufacturers who had reached the level where they are potentially a viable product for outside China To document printer manufacturers we spend time visiting them both in trade shows and in their home city back in China Sky Air Ship is one of the three or four Chinese manufacturers who are now ready to be considered for growing export to North America Latin America and Europe Actually Sky Air Ship is already the 1 seller of flatbed printers in China and has several installations outside China already Here you can see Nicholas with Mr Liang Jian president of Sky Air Ship at their headquarters in 2009 THE BASICS 1 Brand name model SkyJet UV FlatMaster 2 If there are two or three or more widths of this printer what differences exist other than the width There is a 1 2 x 2 4 meter model a 1 8 x 2 4 m model and a 1 8 x 3m model The basic model is a flatbed platform but you can have an option with rising balls to help lift up glass This option does not use vacuum because the glass boards are heavy enough to remain in their place ra BAVAS R Re exe rts SkyJet UV FlatMaster Printer 3 What is the nature of the company Is this company the manufacturer distributor or rebranding a machine made by someone else SkyJet is the original manufacturer Ji ai I iT kaasaan URS i AEn TT AIDAAN AMER ATATEN 4 What other pr
23. the XAAR printheads Also in this generation the shutters are controlled by an electronic switch The UV lamp was also changed The new lamp is Integration Technology SubZero 85 These UV lamps are ideal for mid range printers Third Generation Also used the central screw for the movement of the gantry Some improvements were made in the UV curing system more precisely in the shutters In this third generation the shutters are con trolled by air pressure Integration Technology SubZero 85 UV lamp Fourth Generation 2009 SkyJet abandoned the movement by a central screw and replaced it with movement generated by belts at the sides of the gantry Many improvements were made in the technology of the controls the UV lamp system The outer appearance was also enhanced The vacuum table was modified allowing now 6 areas for vacuum 51 What features are being added or changed further out in time SkyJet engineers are considering moving the gantry so that the carriage moves in the wider dimension since at present the carriage moves in the narrow dimension This would be for the 1 2 and 2 4 models Also SkyJet wants to add a roll to roll system in the smallest model Currently you can have up to 12 printheads In the future there are going to be 16 printheads There is also going to be a sensor to measure the gap the distance between the printheads and the substrate 52 What do end users ask for what improvements do owners of this
24. AR Report amp TLAAR Repo al Chi UV N SE B igst Printere 2008 2009 ee erase Markata Comprehensive Complete amp Applications i 4 ai ait Comprehensive FLAAR Inventory FLAAR Inventory
25. ASING 5 FEATURES OF THE PRINTER Vacuum 5 STRUCTURE OF THE PRINTER Media Transport Mechanism amp Media Path 7 LINING UP FLAT MATERIAL to help it feed straight 7 FLATBED ASPECTS for dedicated flatbeds 7 MISCELLANEOUS 10 UPGRADES Future Improvements 11 Miscellaneous Movement 11 OPERATING THE PRINTER 12 CONSTRUCTION BUILD QUALITY 14 AESTHETICS ie SET UP OF THE PRINTER PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS 15 INSTALLATION OF THE PRINTER 16 INSTALLATION OF THE PRINTER INSTRUCTIONS amp MANUALS 17 TRAINING 17 TECH SUPPORT amp WARRANTY 18 CLEANING amp MAINTENANCE NEEDS 19 MAINTENANCE 21 SAFETY amp HEALTH CONCERNS 22 PRINTHEAD TECHNOLOGY 22 PRINTHEAD DPI amp Features 24 Bi DIRECTIONAL VS Uni DIRECTIONAL PRINTING 24 PRINTHEAD Positioning 25 PRINTHEAD Associated Features 25 PRINTHEAD Life Expectancy 26 PRINTHEAD CARRIAGE and GANTRY 26 SUBSTRATES 27 LOADING MEDIA 28 SUBSTRATES Materials Applications and Issues 28 SUBSTRATES Cleaning Priming Preparation 30 WHAT IS THE INTENDED MARKET FOR THIS PRINTER 31 APPLICATIONS 31 INK 34 INK White amp Varnish 34 INK Cost 39 INK Supply System Tubing Filters etc 35 INK Color Gamut 37 THE UV CURING LAMPS 37 UV CURING and ODOR of the printed image 38 UV LAMPS Cooling 38 UV LAMPS Reflectors 39 RIP SOFTWARE amp Printer Software 39 PRODUCTIVITY amp ROI Return on Investment 39 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 40 SUMMARY Image Quality Issues General 40 CONCLUSIONS 40 amp T LAAR Repo
26. Currently it is manual but there will be a sensor in the near future What you really want to measure is the printhead gap height the space gap between the top of the material and the nozzle plate the print head SUBSTRATES Materials Applications and Issues 190 What materials does the manufacturer list Any flat surface media 191 What materials can this printer print on perfectly Glass and acrylics are very good 192 What materials can this printer print on okay It helps if the material is a clean homogeneous surface and should all be the same thickness 193 What materials can this printer not print on at all This printer can print on most flat materials but some substrates might need a primer For example glass ceramic tiles metal sheets The SKYJET UV GlassMaster printer can print very good on glass and acrylic UV Curable printer for Glass and other rigid materials w BAVA R Re DO rts SkyJet UV FlatMaster Printer f Here are some samples printed on glass with the SkyJet UV FlatMaster 194 Can you print on mirrors Yes 195 Heat concerns will the heat generated by the UV curing lamps cause adverse effects to some delicate forms of heat sensitive media Which materials might curl distort or discolor from the heat Heat sensitive materials for mercury arc UV lamps would include polyethylene polypropylene shrink wrap very thin and thermal sensitive papers plastic coated carton
27. In several instances it was FLAAR Reports that allowed a company to either improve their printer or drop it and start from scratch and design a new and better one And naturally end users like the opportunity to learn about various printers from a single source that covers the entire range from UV through latex through all flavors of solvent We have also learned that distributors often prefer to accept for distribution a printer or other product on which a FLAAR Report already ex ists We turn down offers of funding every year These offers come from PO Box enterprises or products with no clearly visible point of manufac ture Usually the company making the offer presumes they can buy advertising space just by paying money But that is not what our readers want so we politely do not accept such offers of money Contributions grants sponsorships and funding for surveys studies and research is however open to a company who has an accepted standing in the industry It is helpful if the company has a visible presence at leading trade shows and can provide references from both end users and from within the industry Where possible we prefer to visit the company in person or at least check them out at a trade show Obvi ously the product needs to have a proven track record too Competing companies are equally encouraged to support the FLAAR system We feel that readers deserve to have access to competing information Competition is the cornerstone
28. PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS 72 What is the delivery time between the time I order the printer and it is delivered 10 to 15 working days depending on your location 73 Do you need to budget installing a ventilation or room exhaust system All UV printers need room ventilation for everything from ozone to misting ink to general odor Increasingly ozone production is surprised this has led some companies to claim that no ventilation is needed Such a claim is dangerous especially in a country like the US where litigation is so common Has Agfa never heard of misted ink Ink mist is what the printer operator could potentially breathe if the ink is misting many printers mist most notoriously the Infiniti 1600 models the ColorSpan 72uvX also mists a great deal 74 Are there any special temperature or humidity requirements or preferences of this printing system 40 to 60 is the recommended humidity range for this printer A temperature of 20 to 25 is ideal Temperature and humidity are indeed crucial especially humidity Even more important is that whatever temperature and humidity is present in the work area that it not vary during the day cool in morning hot by 11 am Hotter by 2 pm J PL AVA R Re exe rts SkyJet UV FlatMaster Printer 75 What about altitude Some cities such as Guatemala City are at a high altitude Almost no spec sheet and not even many User Manuals mention anything about altitude But Guatemala City is
29. The Gandinnovations are keyboard operated The Fieldcenter Formosa UV printer has many cranks and manual switches So clearly there are several equally valid ways of operating a computer 60 Do you get an LCD screen in the printer or other real computer monitor How big is the screen or monitor It is not included in the purchase price but SkyJet can supply one 61 What controls are on either end No controls at either end Main control area is centralized in the front Main control area is centralized in the front of the printer like you can see on the photo This model was covered with plastic for shipping 62 Is a foot pedal included for operating aspects of the printer did not notice a foot pedal Only about 10 of UV cured printers have a foot pedal 63 Can you do unattended printing For how long How about overnight You can set the software so that the machine starts printing immediately after the RIP has processed the image But considering the nature of a dedicated flatbed where you load the media manually you can do unattended printing only for the substrate s that is already loaded in your flatbed table 64 How many operators or operator assistants does this printer require Normally one In some cases you might want to consider two persons for example to load a large piece of heavy glass 65 Is there a pole with beacon lights Dilli was among the first to use a vertical pole with beacon lights
30. about 1500 meters above sea level which is rather high there are four volcanoes visible out my window as I write this and other parts of the world have even higher elevation 76 What about dust and cleanliness of the air A clean dust free environment is strongly recommended for the optimal operation of the printer although in the factory the windows were open all the time Dust in the printing environment is an aspect that is often neglected It is crucial that if a sign shop that no sanding sawing routing sandblasting or grinding operations be nearby The dust and debris from sawing and comparable operations are extremely unhealthy for a UV printer In other words you need to ventilate away more than ozone and ink odors you need to ventilate away everything else that is already in the print shop environment 77 What is the connectivity Network SCSI FireWire USB or USB 2 or other USB 78 Realistically how much surrounding and support space will the equipment need in addition to the machine s own footprint You will need 36 sq meters for proper operation of the printer 79 Does the printer come in one piece Does this mean you have to remove a wall to get the printer this size into your office Yes it comes in one piece but the gantry is disassembled and placed along the widest dimension to use a smaller crate 80 What is the size and weight of the printer Model Width length Breadth Height SKYJET UV FlatMa
31. accept may not be the same as your Fortune 500 clients In many cases we have not ourselves used the products but are bas ing our discussion on having seen them at a trade show during visit ing a print shop or having been informed about a product via e mail or other communication Results you see at trade shows may not be realistic Be aware that trade show results may not be realistic Trade shows are idealized situations with full time tech support to keep things run ning The images at a trade show may be tweaked Other images make be faked in the sense of slyly putting on primer without telling the people who inspect the prints Most UV inks don t stick to all ma terials many materials need to be treated Or the UV prints may be top coated so that you can t do a realistic scratch test Booth personnel have many standard tricks that they use to make their output look gorgeous In about half the cases you will not likely obtain these results in real life in most cases they are printing uni directional which may be twice as slow as bi directional Trade show examples tend to be on the absolutely best media When you attempt to save money and use economy media you will quickly notice that you do not get anywhere near the same results as you saw in the manufacturer s trade show booth or pictured in their glossy advertisement Five years ago we noticed Epson was laminat SkyJet UV FlatMaster Printer ing prints to show
32. ad FLAAR Reports a for Glass and other rigid materials pei eens Po deeeee 6 TOCO EE j TEE Fy s o ey oe 4 E 1 l d r y k k a O a 7 2S FiatMaster rata I WY AVAN RG GTO Please Note This report has not been licensed to any printer manufacturer distributor dealer sales rep RIP company media or ink company to distribute So if you obtained this from any company you have a pirated copy Also since this report is frequently updated if you got your version from somewhere else it may be an obsolete edition FLAAR reports are being updated all year long and our comment on that product may have been revised positively or negatively as we learned more about the product form end users To obtain a legitimate copy which you know is the complete report with nothing erased or changed and hence a report with all the original description of pros and cons please obtain your original and full report straight from www large format printers orqgd Your only assurance that you have a complete and authentic evaluation which describes all aspects of the product under consideration benefits as well as deficiencies is to obtain these reports directly from FLAAR via www wide format printers NET Copyright 2009 FLAAR UV Curable printer for Glass and other rigid materials SkyJet UV FlatMaster Printer Contents INTRODUCTION 1 THE BASICS 2 PURCH
33. adquarters so we can inspect their manufacturing facili ties demo rooms and especially when the companies make their research engineering and ink chemistry staff available for discus sions When received my education at Harvard was taught to have a desire to learn new things This has guided my entire life and is what led me into wide format digital imaging technology it is con stantly getting better and there is a lot to learn every month Thus actively seek access to improving my understanding of wide format printer technology so that we can better provide information to the approximately quarter million readers of our solvent and UV printer web site www large format printers org and the over half a million who read either our wide format printers org site or our roughly half million Combined who read our digital photography org and www FineArtGicleePrinters org sites Barbieri electronic color management Caldera RIP ColorSpan DEC Durst Gerber Grapo IP amp l Mimaki USA Mutoh Dilli GCC NUR Oce Shiraz RIP Sun Teckwin VUTEk WP Digital Xerox Yuhan Kimberly Zund have each brought FLAAR staff to their head quarters and printer factories Bordeaux InkWin and Sunflower ink have brought us to inspect their ink manufacturing facilities and demo rooms We have visited the world headquarters and demo rooms of HP in Barcelona and received informative and helpful technology briefings We are under NDA as to the subject
34. an load at the back while the printer is cranking the previous job of flat material out the front this can print and load and unload all at the same time have seen this ability to feed while printing also with the ColorSpan 9840uv HP Scitex FB910 UV Curable printer for Glass and other rigid materials Ww FLAAR Re DO rts SkyJet UV FlatMaster Printer But with a dedicated flatbed printer there is less alignment issue just because the media is not cut squarely from the factory Poorly cut material is a major disadvantage for combo or hybrid printers So again the reason there are more than four different classifications of UV printers hybrid combo dedicated flatbed dedicated R t R is because each has pros and cons In theory the perfect printer would be a dedicated flatbed with a dedicated roll fed system across the long axis Oce is the first with a functioning version of this double concept Gerber unfortunately is doing all their printing across the short axis MISCELLANEOUS 45 Does the printer have levels built into the structure of the printer No visible levels The only entry level or mid range hybrid or combo printer where have noticed levels actually incorporated into the structure of the printer are the UV curable printers of Dilli 46 Does the printer have leveling supports How many and how strong Yes there are leveling supports at each corner Leveling any UV printer is crucial Indeed at the NUR factory onc
35. ated In over 80 of the UV curing printers that have inspected ink tends to be heated in two locations in a sub tank and on the printhead Most UV printheads have special features in or on the printhead to facilitate heating the ink This is to prepare the viscosity so the ink is liquid enough to jet out the nozzles this ink heating has nothing to do with the ink needing to be cured So far the only printer whose ink does not get heated at the printheads is the new Roland LEC 300 This is also the only UV printer so far which suc cessfully uses an Epson printhead 227 Can the end user vary the printhead temperature or is the temperature fixed It is not advised to change the printhead ink temperature arbitrarily However in certain situations a sophisticated end user with a high level of knowledge of the overall ink chemistry UV curing situation and experience in the ramifications of varying the factory set temperature then chang ing the temperature could be considered 228 Has any misting or spray been reported What about ink inside the machine parts SkyJet managers honestly commented they have had problems with misting of ink but they have solved the problem Just ask any ink chemist about ink misting then ask most sales reps Most people in a typical booth are in a state of denial or do not fully understand the concept of misting Most safety instructions do not mention the potential of the UV ink misting during printing
36. attend all major international trade shows which are ideal locations for us to gather information We thank Sun LLC Caldera Raster Printers EFI Rastek DEC LexJet DigiFab Barbieri electronic Seiko Mutoh Europe IP amp l Dilli Yuhan Kimberly GCC Grapo Durst and WP Digital for providing funds so that we can make more of our publications free to end users During 2000 2001 we had grants to cover all the costs of our publications and all FLAAR Reports were free in those early years As that early grant naturally expired after a few years we had to begin charging for some of our reports to cover costs Now in 2009 we are seeking corporate sponsorship so we can gradually make another 20 of our publications free to our readers Since 2006 we do a major part of our evaluations at a factory and headquarters demo room Since the university does not fund any of SkyJet UV FlatMaster Printer these trips it is traditional for the manufacturer to fund a research sponsorship In the US this is how most university projects are initi ated for decades now and it is increasing In fact there is a university in Austria that is not an edu but is a GmbH funded by the chamber of commerce of that part of Austria In other words a university as an educational institution but functioning in the real world as an actual business This is a sensible model It has been helpful when companies make it possible for us to fly to their he
37. aware of Be aware that some inks have severe health hazards associated with them Some are hazardous to breathe others are hazardous if you get them on your skin For example some chemicals such as cyclo hexanone do not sound like chemicals you want to breathe every day Be sure to obtain read and understand the MSDS sheets for the inks media and laminates that you intend to use Both solvent eco solvent and UV curable inks are substances whose full range of health and environmental hazards are not yet fully revealed It is es sential you use common sense and in general be realistic about the hazards involved especially those which are not listed or which have not yet been described FLAAR is not able to list all hazards since we are not necessarily aware of the chemical components of the prod ucts we discuss Our reports are on usability not on health hazards Most inks are clearly not intended to be consumed Obviously these tend to be solvent inks and UV curable inks Yet other inks are edible seriously they are printed on birthday cakes Indeed Sensient is a leader in a new era of edible inks Therefore the user must assume the entire risk of ascertaining information on the chemical contents and flammability regulations relative to inks media or laminates as well as using any described hardware software accessory service technique or products We have no idea of your client s expectations What students on our campus will
38. be or ought to be prepared before printing by being corona treated Corona treatment is to improve surface tension to promote adhesion Corona treatment may help on some materials if you do the treatment within a few hours or day or so before printing Otherwise the corona treat ment wears out after a while so has to be refreshed before printing to be effective So buying pre treated material is only a good idea if it is fresh but you have no way to know how long the material was in a warehouse before reaching your shop WHAT IS THE INTENDED MARKET FOR THIS PRINTER 201 What is the market that the manufacturer has designed this printer for The intended market is broad This printer is not only aimed to print traditional signage because it would be limited The range of applications is very wide 202 Are other markets buying this printer that were unexpected This printer is being used in specialized markets like ceiling boards tiles glass Screen printing companies use this printer to do short runs You can print doors furniture 203 What kinds of companies have bought this printer models in the last two years The FlatMaster has been sold to companies in the glass industry advertising industry and many others APPLICATIONS 204 Can you print fine art pho tos giclee or d cor You can print output very close to photo realistic quality 205 What other kinds of appli cations can you print Mats wood floor tiles
39. berg Scitex CreoSci tex now Kodak and Cruse both in Germany have kindly provided scanners for our staff to evaluate We really liked some of the results whereas some of the other prod ucts were a bit disappointing Providing samples does not influence the evaluations because the evaluators are students professors and staff of Bowling Green State University These personnel are not hired by any inkjet printer company they were universities employ ees as was also true for Nicholas Hellmuth The testing person for the HP ColorPro desktop printer said he frankly preferred his Epson printer When we saw the rest results we did not include this Heweltt Packard ColorPro printer on our list of recommended printers but we love our HP DesignJet 5000ps so much we now have two of them one at each university Sometimes we hear horror stories about a printer The only way we can tell whether this is the fault of the printer design or lack of training of the operator is to have the printer ourselves in house Of course some printer manufacturers don t understand the reasons we need to have each make and model they are used to loaning their demo units for a week or so That is obviously inadequate for a seri ous review Some of the media provided to us failed miserably Three printers failed to meet common sense usability and printability standards as well HP 1055 one older desktop model HP Color Pro GA and one Epson Yet we know o
40. cifically and openly mentions how many hours are wasted by each strike namely three hours So the 1 800 hours is not use time but depends on how many times you turn the lamps off and on Each time is one strike so uses up more than one hour s worth of lifetime 240 Is the lamp fan filter a user replaceable item How often should this be cleaned or replaced If the filter gets clogged with dust then it is less efficient in keeping down heat Heat build up is not good for the overall carriage area UV CURING and ODOR of the printed image 241 Are the UV lamp fixture set at an angle or perfectly parallel to the printing plane The current models have the UV lamps in a straight vertical position but SkyJet is planning to install the lamps at an angle As of 2009 many printer manufacturers are experimenting with an angle position of the UV lamps The lamps have to be angled outwards so that the light of the UV lamp won t reflect toward the printheads because this would solidify the ink inside It was refreshing to see how well the engineers here were already aware of the improvements that should be added to their next generation So during the two days we were at their factory our main contributions were on quality control marketing concepts new ink chemistries for the future and reality of attracting OEM manufacturing business in the future 242 What is the true drying curing time of the inks used with this set of lamps What factors i
41. cilities We would obviously never ask for hardware software or consumables that we knew in advance would not be good However even for us a product which looks good at a trade show sounds good in the ad literature and works fine for the first few weeks may subsequently turn out to be a lemon Or the product may indeed have a glitch but one that is so benign for us or maybe we have long ago gotten used to it and have a work around And not all glitches manifest themselves in all situations so our evaluator may not have been sufficiently affected that he or she made an issue of any particular situation Yet such a glitch that we don t emphasize may turn out to be adverse for your different or spe cial application needs Equally often what at first might be blamed on a bad product often turns out to be a need of more operator experience and training More often than not after learning more about the product it becomes pos sible to produce what it was intended to produce For this reason it is crucial for the FLAAR team and their university colleagues to interact SkyJet UV FlatMaster Printer with the manufacturer s training center and technicians so we know more about a hardware or software Our evaluations go through a process of acquiring documentation from a wide range of resources and these naturally include the manufacturer itself Obviously we take their viewpoints with a grain of salt but often we learn tips that are w
42. d a UV printer is intended to be used every day We just received an e mail from an end user whose printer had endless issues He said they used it seldom because of other issues My first question was whether the infrequent use was a cause of at least some of the issues J BEDAVA R Re O rts SkyJet UV FlatMaster Printer SAFETY amp HEALTH CONCERNS 137 How many emergency stop buttons are there Where are they located There are three emergency buttons two at the back and one at the front 138 Have you employed an emergency stop yet We would need to ask this question to an end user Emergency buttons are used in the factory for testing but it hasn t been used due to an emer gency 139 What keeps UV lamp light from leaving from the space between the bottom of the hood and the platen or trans port belt At present there is no system to shield the UV light We hope to see better protection for the operator s retinas on future improvements 140 What system of ventilation or exhaust system is built into the printer Or if not required what would common sense dictate Is it adequate to clear the work area of gasses and fumes This is an open printer it does not have an enclosed structure But in general for all printers it would be advisable to work in an open environment i e a ceiling more than 2 5mt tall to avoid accumulation of heat and ink smell 141 What is the noise level primarily of the fans for the vacuum The thre
43. dealers FEATURES OF THE PRINTER Vacuum 23 Is there a vacuum function Yes the flatbed table works with vacuum although there is a version of the printer that is especially designed to print on glass This version does not need a vacuum but instead has a system of balls to allow you to raise and lower the glass sheets more easily 24 Is the vacuum created by simple fans or by an air pump The vacuum is created by three air pumps 25 In how many sections At the front you see the six buttons to activate the six areas of vacuum 26 Are the vacuum areas size and position user definable a a rial i Te o t _ No The areas are fixed SkyJet glass lifter balls that allow you to raise and lower the glass sheets easily fs ee A se Tik UV Curable printer for Glass and other rigid materials BRAVAN Re ports SkyJet UV FlatMaster Printer Here you can see there are two kinds of tables the one that works with vacuum at the right and the one that is especially designed to print on glass at the left SkyJet UV air pumps 27 Can you turn one or the other section s off and on You can have any of the six on while the other s are off 28 Just Off and On Or variable Just off and on UV Curable printer for Glass and other rigid materials BD AVAN AS Re ports SkyJet UV FlatMaster Printer STRUCTURE OF THE PRINTER Media Transport Mechanism amp Media Path 29 Is this a dedicated flatbed wi
44. e FLAAR org Substantial discounts are available for licensing to distribute with in your company we call this a subscription The advantage of a subscription license is that you can opt for automatic updates You may have noticed that FLAAR reports tend to be updated as additional information becomes available In some instances a license would be available to distribute out side your company including in other languages To distribute this report without subscription license violates federal copyright law To avoid such violations for you and your company you can easily order additional copies from www wide format printers NET Update Policy Starting in 2008 updates on UV curable wide format inkjet printers are available for all individuals and companies which have a sub scription or to companies who are research project sponsors If you are a Subscriber or manager in a company that is a research sponsor you can obtain the next update by writing ReaderService FLAAR org If you are neither a Subscriber or a research sponsor simply order the newest version via the e commerce system on www wide format printers NET Please realize that because we have so many publications and many are updated so frequently that we have no realistic way to notify any reader of when just one particular report is actually updated There is a free PDF that describes the UV curable inkjet printer Sub scription system Subscriptions are available only
45. e are no raised bars but there is a system of pins along the edge of the flatbed table These pins can be raised or lowered with a button called location cursor 34 Is there a registration gate that is lowered across the back printing area At the time there seems to be no registration system across the gantry Most printshops report that most rigid media is crudely cut and rarely are the edges really at 90 to each other So you don t really want to align a corner you want to align one side on one end FLATBED ASPECTS for dedicated flatbeds 35 If a dedicated flatbed how many sections is the flatbed divided into The flatbed area is formed by 4 planks 36 If a dedicated flatbed do the edges joins of the sections of the table cause a noticeable imprint on thin material Although you can see the joins of the planks they are carefully placed and no significant mark is left in the substrate As you cans see the flatbed is formed by 4 planks and you can see the moment of its installation UV Curable printer for Glass and other rigid materials w BFAA R Re O rts SkyJet UV FlatMaster Printer The careful placement of the planks make the edges almost imperceptible to the eye and touch 37 Is there a pinch roller system for the flatbed and if so where is this located Yes there are actually dedicated flatbed systems that also have pinch rollers Indeed one Chinese flatbed has two sets of pinch rollers at
46. e occasionally hear of shutters of other brands of printers sticking as well Indeed one company said they don t use shutters at all due to the possibility of them not opening or closing Making them pneumatic resolves many of these issues Of course one reason for not using shutters is to save cost Most Chinese printers and low cost UV printers made in the US and elsewhere may skip shutters But it may be safer to have no shutters at all rather than have shutters then depend on them and if they fail nonetheless then the UV lamps can set the printer on fire 246 How long does it take to cool the lamps down before you can touch them to change them The operator s instructions for the Durst Rho 800 Presto is the first user s manual where have seen mention of how long you need to let the lamp cool down enough to touch it safely they recommend one hour UV LAMPS Reflectors 247 Is the curing unit totally enclosed No UV light is strong and unprotected We have suggested improvements here 248 Are the reflectors at an angle What angle and why A wrong direction would be light that reflected off the surface of the material up into the nozzle plate RIP SOFTWARE amp Printer Software 249 Which RIPs are featured Caldera and PhotoPrint At the factory the printer being tested was using PhotoPrint 250 Does the price of the printer include a RIP It includes PhotoPrint Caldera is optional 251 Is a computer and monitor inc
47. e possible to cover these expenses At the end of most FLAAR Reports there is additionally a list of how many times that report has been updated A report with lots of updates means that we are updating that subject based on availability of new information If there is no update that is a pretty good indication that report has not been updated With 101 models of UV printers several hundred solvent printers and scores of water based printers we tend to give priority to getting new re ports out on printers about which not much info at all is available elsewhere So we are pretty good about reporting on advances in LED curing But glitches in a common water based printer will take longer to work its way through our system into an update especially if the glitch occurs only in certain circumstances for example on one type of media With several hundred media types we may not yet have utilized the problem media While on the subject of doing your own research be sure to ask both the printer operator and printshop owner or manager you will generally get two slightly different stories A printer operator may be aware of more glitches of the printer than the owner If a printer is no longer a prime model then there is less interest in that printer so unless a special budget were available to update old reports it is not realistic to update old reports As always it is essen tial for you to visit printshops that have the printers on your short l
48. e same kind of print business that you do Don t rely on references from the reseller or manufacturer you will get their pet locations which may be unrealistically gushy find someone on your own Factors influencing output Heat humidity static dust experience level of your workers wheth er they are new or have prior years experience these are all factors that will differ in your place of business as compared with test results or demo room results Actually you may have people with even more experience than we do since we deliberately use students to approximate newbies FLAAR is devoted to assisting newcomers learn about digital imaging hard ware and software This is why Nicholas Hellmuth is considered the Johnny Appleseed of wide format inkjet printers Therefore this report does not warranty any product for any quality performance or fitness for any specific task since we do not know the situation in which you intend to use the hardware or software Nor is there any warranty or guarantee that the output of these products will produce salable goods since we do not know what kind of ink or media you intend to use nor the needs of your clients A further reason that no one can realistically speak for all aspects of any one hardware or software is that each of these products may require ad ditional hardware or software to reach its full potential For example you will most likely need a color management system which
49. e the structure is leveled in the assembly room rather than roll it from stage to stage all construction stages take place with the printer not moving from stall to stall 47 Does the printer have wheels How many and how strong Yes four wheels 48 Are the leveling supports part of the wheel or are the wheels and leveling supports separate The printer uses casters modules composed by wheel and leveling support 49 Do the wheels have a lock on them For any printer weighing over one ton it is assumed that no locks or brakes are needed on the wheels because a tank will not roll anywhere if parked on a level floor The SkyJet UV FlatMaster has a caster at each corner Wheel and leveling support are integrated in the same structure UV Curable printer for Glass and other rigid materials Ww FLAAR Re DO rts SkyJet UV FlatMaster Printer UPGRADES Future Improvements 50 What features have been added or changed since the printer first appeared As explained earlier the evolution of the FlatMaster has been divided into generations We explain here the main differences First Generation Used a transport belt to move me dia it was a UV combo printer that used XAAR 360 printheads Second Generation SkyJet changed the transport belt for a dedicated flatbed table and the movement was created by a lead screw along the wider dimension SkyJet began to study Konica Minolta technology and implemented it to substitute
50. e vacuum pumps produce considerable noise Normally the vacuum pump is the nosiest part of any UV curable flatbed or combo style printer Roll to roll UV printers do not need as much vacuum table area so are not as noisy in this respect 142 What moving parts might hit a person if they are standing near the printer The only potential hazard in this aspect would be the printhead carriage 143 How easy is it to obtain the MSDS of the ink It is rare that the MSDS of the ink is easy to obtain If the MSDS is an auto download from the company website this is how it should be But most companies do not wish the end user to know which brand of ink is being used so hiding the MSDS is not necessarily an attempt to hide the dangers but may be to hide the source of the ink PRINTHEAD TECHNOLOGY 144 Which brand printhead is used T ae a E aF Taj a Konica Minolta Most UV printers made in the US Japan and Europe use Spectra Ricoh or KonicaMinolta heads VUTEk is one of the few that uses Seiko printheads It is report ed that one downside of Seiko heads is that they must spit which waste expensive ink Most Rho printers do not have to spit except for white ink 145 Which model of printhead is used 512MH 146 Is the printhead identified in the spec sheet brochure by brand or also by model or not at all Yes the printhead is identified in the brochure by brand and model if As you can see in this photo in the previo
51. ed positively or negatively as we learned more about the product from end users If you receive any FLAAR Report from a sales rep in addition to being violation of copyright it is useful to know if there is a more recent version on the FLAAR web site because every month new UV printers are being launched So what was good technology one month may be replaced by a much better printer elsewhere the next month To obtain a legitimate copy which you know is the complete re port with nothing erased or changed and hence a report with all the original description of pros and cons please obtain your origi nal and full report straight from www FLAAR org Your only assurance that you have a complete and authentic evaluation which describes all aspects of the product under consideration benefits as well as deficiencies is to obtain these reports directly from FLAAR via www wide format print ers NET Citing and Crediting A license from FLAAR is required to use any material whatsoever from our reports in any commercial advertisement or PR Release If you intend to quote any portion of a FLAAR review in a PowerPoint presentation if this is in reference to any product that your company sells or promotes then it would be appropriate to ask us first FLAAR reports are being updated every month sometimes and our comment on that product may have been revised as we learned more about the product from end users Also we noticed that one compan
52. erials cause this Do some materials generate static electricity which cause the media to attract ink in areas not supposed to be printed on How is it manifested Some textiles some types of acrylic and some plastic media may generate static you might need to clean it first with alcohol or any liquid to avoid static Alcohol has the advantage that it dries very fast You do need to be aware of how to prevent static electricity build up e No carpets or rugs on the floor Indeed you should consider anti static tiles or carpet e Use a humidifier during winter months to avoid dryness e Learn which media are susceptible to gathering a static charge e Consider a printer that has specific anti static features e Grounding e Static bar s Most printer reps suggest this is more an environmental issue than a printer or ink issue They say you can t have carpet and you must maintain a high humidity They admit that the static electricity situation varies depending on each site s situation Nonetheless some UV printers already have anti static systems carefully built into their printers When these work it documents that the investment is well spent However if the low price of your printer is in part because there is no on board static system and if you indeed have a static issue the natural question is why since this is such a well known issue did your brand not have an anti static system or if so why does it not work satisfacto rily One econom
53. eta stage More than half of the UV flatbed printers made in China are either only prototypes or are in alpha stage Only a few are even in beta stage About three are mature enough to survive in a printshop Sky Air Ship is one of these brands that actually manufacturers a real flatbed most of the others are only concept cars which are made for exhibit at trade shows in the hope that an end user or distributor will buy one 14 List price At FESPA 09 was told by the distributor for Holland and Belgium that the price is 59 000 The price in USS is 65 000 But prices may vary ac cording to your location and distributor 15 Does a complete set of full sized ink cartridges come with the new printer or merely a starter set that is not as full as a regular set Yes a complete first set of inks is included 16 Do you need an uninterruptible power supply UPS Generally yes For example in Indonesia the current is not constant and an UPS is a must 17 Do you need to provide air pressure for negative pressure for ink in printheads Do you need to provide compressed air for any other purpose Yes The factory has an air line for each printer that will be assembled 18 Is an air suction system needed to be installed as a separate item or is allthe vacuum table or other vacuum requirements already included in the printer itself The printer includes the vacuum pumps There is no need of any other air suction system
54. etc The biggest problem with UV cured inks on vehicle graphics is when the material has to stretch or conform to the shape of the vehicle especially over rivets deco rative trim or anything that is not flat Most UV printers are not recommended for vehicle wrap unless they use a special ink made to be flexible Also be careful by making sure that adhesion and cleanser resistance is adequate That said today 2008 the inks are a lot better and you can consider experi menting with UV curable vehicle wrap especially since 3M inks are specifically directed towards allowing vehicle wrap Actually have seen vehicles being wrapped with prints from GRAPO Octo pus using their normal UV ink Here are some other print samples of the SkyJet UV FlatMaster N UV Curable printer for Glass and other rigid materials FLAAR Re exe rts SkyJet UV FlatMaster Printer l Tile printed with the SkyJet UV FlatMaster Transparent amp solid acrylic samples printed on with the FlatMaster ra BAVAS R Re exe rts SkyJet UV FlatMaster Printer 33 Aluminum deco and ceiling print samples J DAVAN AS Reports SkyJet UV FlatMaster Printer 206 Is there a special ink for flexible material and another ink for rigid material What other inksets are available Is there any choice in inks Since a roll to roll system is being planned for the near future SkyJet is working with some ink manufacturers for an appropriate ink for flexib
55. f ColorSpan printers tell us that this printer is their real money earner for example We know other print shops where their primarily income is from Encad printers Kinkos has settled on the HP 5000 as its main money maker production machine and so on Yet we have documentation of several print shop companies whose business was ruined by specific brands that failed repeatedly It is noteworthy that it is always the same brand or printer at both loca tions one due to banding and printheads then simply no longer print ing one color the other brand due to pokiness of the printer simply not being competitively fast enough Same with RIPs we have con sistent statements of people using one RIP and only realizing how weak it was when they tried another brand which they found sub stantially better Thus we note that companies which experiment with more than one brand of product tend to realize more quickly which brand is best This is where FLAAR is in an ideal situation we have nine RIPs and 25 printers Hence it is logical that we have figured out which are best for our situation Grant funding sponsorship demonstration equipment and training are supplied from all sides of the spectrum of printer equipment and software engineering companies Thus there is no incentive to favor one faction over another We receive support from three manufactur ers of thermal printheads Canon ColorSpan and HP and also have multiple printers from three man
56. for this was the half million dollar Luscher JetPrint so being Made in Switzerland was not much help Counterfeit parts are a problem with many printers made in China Several years ago many UV printers made in China and some made elsewhere in Asia had counterfeit parts No evaluation has the fund ing available to check parts inside any printer to see if they are from the European Japanese or American manufacturer or if they are a clever counterfeits Be realistic and aware that not all materials can be printed on equally well Many materials don t feed well through hybrid pinch roller on grit roller systems or combo UV systems with transport belts Banding both from poor feeding and from bi directional lawnmower effect are common on many UV curable inkjet printers It is typical for some enthusiastic vendors to claim verbally that their printer can print on anything and everything But once you unpack SkyJet UV FlatMaster Printer the printer and set it up you find that it requires primer on some materials on other materials it adheres for a few weeks but then falls off And on most hybrid and many combo printers some heavy thick or smooth surfaced materials skew badly Since the claim that the printer will print on everything is usually verbal it is tough to prove this aspect of misleading advertising to a jury Not all inks can print on all materials And at a trade show many of the materials you see s
57. g speed vs quality By not identifying the actual passes or by defining pass in an atypical manner this results in effect in hiding the reality of speed vs quality Thus we commend those companies that keep to or return to the traditional usage of the term pass es Increasingly most printer companies are not listing the passes that their printers run back and forth The definition of a pass is not consistent in any event FLAAR defines a single pass as the movement of the printer carriage while jetting ink from one side to the other There is a difference be tween single pass and one pass but that needs an entire article one pass means a page width row of non moving printheads Mutoh describes one pass as a complete back and forth movement FLAAR defines that as two passes Most printer manufacturers would rather avoid having to state clearly how many actual passes it takes to achieve specific quality levels So they cre ate modes that are a combination of passes and possibly other features that result in a specific quality level 159 If modes what are the modes called 4 pass is Draft 6 pass is Production 8 and 12 are High Quality 160 At trade shows how many passes is the printer operating at to show the results At APPPEXPO 09 the FlatMaster was printing at 8 pass mode 161 Are trade show images done at uni directional or bi directional mode In most cases the printer will be set to print uni directional
58. glossy output because their pigmented inks could not print on actual glossy media The same equipment inks media and software may not work as well in your facility as we or you see it at a trade show All the more reason to test before you buy and keep testing before you make your final payment Your ultimate protection is to use a gold American Express credit card so you can have lever age when you ask for your money back if the product fails Images printed at trade show may be in uni directional mode so you may not realize the printer has bi directional curing banding defects until you unpack it in your printshop Bi directional curing banding is also known as the lawnmower effect Many printers have this defect sometimes certain modes can get rid of it but are so slow that they are not productive You absolutely need to do print samples with your own images and the kind provided by your clients Do not rely on the stock photos provided by the printer ink media or RIP manufacturer or reseller They may be using special images which they know in advance will look fabulous on their printer Equally well if you send your sample images to the dealer don t be surprised if they come back looking awful That is because many dealers won t make a serious effort to tweak their machine for your kind of image They may use fast speed just to get the job done this will result in low quality Check with other people in your area or in th
59. hat your clients need for their logos and products How about red Does it turn out more orange Is red bright enough in saturation to satisfy clients Or are the colors overall a bit dull SkyJet engineers are doing efforts in the Magenta channel to achieve the traditional red that Chinese culture expects THE UV CURING LAMPS 232 How many different sets of lamps are there Is there pinning first and then curing later 95 of UV curable printers have only curing UV lamps Only the Inca Spyder 150 and a few other innovative machines have a pinning lamp before the curing lamp 233 What technology is used in curing lamps micro wave continuous mercury arc LED or flash pulsed Xenon Mercury arc technology Virtually all UV printers use mercury arc UV lamps Only NUR and a few others use microwave UV lamps Pulsed Xenon lamps have failed the few times they were tried an early VUTEk UV printer circa 2000 2001 a cheap Oce Arizona 60uv printer LED lamps are now being tried in several UV printers such as by Sun LLC in Russia Mimaki and Roland The Gerber Solara ion uses a rare type of long relatively cool UV lamp that is not used by any other wide format inkjet printer manufacturer 234 How many watts are the lamps The power for this model is stated as 100 W cm 235 What wave length do the lamps cover The wave length advertised for this model of UV lamp is 85mm 3 3 236 What brand of lamp is used Integration Technol
60. he old one out throw it away and place the new container in its place Cartridges tend to only be used in printers with Epson printheads No currently functioning UV printer other than the narrow format Roland LEC 300 uses Epson printheads one Eastech printer tried but it is not widely used 216 What is the cost per container What is this cost translated to liters Between 100 and 120 Cost of ink varies depending on the dealer distributor and depends on what country you are in Usually the smaller and cheaper the printer the more the ink costs The larger the printer is and the more ink it uses the lower the ink is priced 217 How much ink is used to print a square unit 1 to 1 2ml sq ft 218 How many square units does 1 liter of ink print 1 liter of ink prints 833 to 1000 sq ft 77 4 to 92 9 sq meters INK Supply System Tubing Filters etc 219 Where are the printer s ink containers located Front back or end Up on top or lower down You open a door located at the right 220 How is new ink added Pouring into the on board container Switching the container to the new ink container You remove the empty container and plug in the new one 221 What is the situation with the ink gelling Ink gels from heat not only from UV light since in theory the inside of the printer will have black ink lines so no UV light can reach the ink But overall heat will cause UV ink to gel But if you have some circulation withi
61. his error after the fact is rather embarrassing So it is safer to ask before you quote a FLAAR review on your product Legal notice Inclusion in this study by itself in no way endorses any printer media ink RIP or other digital imaging hardware or software Equally exclu sion from this study in no way is intended to discredit any printer Advisory We do our best to obtain information which we consider reliable But with hundreds of makes and models of printers and sometimes when information about them is sparse or conflicting we can only work with what we have available Thus you should be sure to rely also on your own research especially asking around Find another trustworthy end user of the same make and model you need to know about Do not make a decision solely on the basis of a FLAAR report because your situation may be totally different than ours Or we may not have known about and hence not written about one aspect or another which is crucial before you reach your decision The sources and resources we may list are those we happen to have read There may be other web pages or resources that we missed For those pages we do list we have no realistic way to verify the ve racity of all their content Use your own common sense plus a grain of salt for those pages which are really just PR releases or outright ads We are quite content with the majority of the specific printers RIPs media and inks we have in the FLAAR fa
62. hould be negotiated because most dealers would ask the end user to pay for the airfare of the technician in charge of repairs The warranty does not cover printheads 106 Is there an extended hardware warranty What price Yes you have the option of an 18 month warranty 107 What training does my tech support person have Is he factory trained In what language How many tech sup port people are available to cover the US or Canada SkyJet has a center to train new engineers design department etc The full training is for 6 months 108 For how many months is tech support offered Is this the entire period of the warranty For as long as you have the printer After the warranty expires the end user pays the airfare of the engineer J BDAV R Re O rts SkyJet UV FlatMaster Printer 109 What happens if the tech support from your local distributor is uninspired or inadequate Can you telephone the manufacturer directly If so will be manufacturer actively assist you or only begrudgingly SkyJet can provide on line assistance by email Skype etc or by a phone call or even sending a technician MacDermid ColorSpan was good at providing direct manufacturer s tech support Whether this will continue under HP ownership is not yet known Dilli also can provide manufacturer s tech support if absolutely needed Some other manufacturers simply don t provide tech support themselves or only begrudgingly they expect their dealers
63. iage can hover only over the length of your media OPERATING THE PRINTER 55 Can the operator manage print jobs via the Internet with this printer Not normally It is an option considered for future generations but not currently 56 What is the level of ease of use Can anyone use this printer or do they have to be trained and certified What about daily and periodical routine maintenance Yes the printer is relatively easy to use It is thought that a person without previous experience would need 3 to 4 days of training for the basic operations 57 What sensors does the printer have The encoder strip works with a sensor There is a sensor inside the printheads In the future there will be a media height sensor 58 Which materials are pre established in the software or do you have to create the settings for each class of mate rial yourself SkyJet creates the ICC profiles depending on the substrates most likely to be used by the buyer UV Curable printer for Glass and other rigid materials W PL AVA R Re an SkyJet UV FlatMaster Printer 59 In the main area for operation is the machine software based touch screen or with physical control buttons Or both The machine is software controlled in the sense that you use a keyboard and a mouse to control the printer But it is not a touch screen system It also has physical buttons at front and in the printhead carriage The Durst Rho printers are touch screen operated
64. ical way to get rid of some static is to use a fabric softener Downy for example which you can get from the supermarket But be sure to learn which materials need anti static treatment No sense wasting time with those materials which do not have a static issue And be aware that the amount of cleaning liquid you put onto a material can cause after effects when that same material is heated by the UV lamps SUBSTRATES Cleaning Priming Preparation 197 Do you have to brush off or otherwise clean each sheet of incoming material by hand before you print on it For flat rigid material generally yes The need to clean incoming materials is typical of any printer Some materials have more detritus or dust or issues than other materials And some suppliers offer better materials than others rarely see any printer operator attempting to clean roll fed materials 198 What liquid cleaning material should you use to clean your materials Which kind of cleaner and which kind of materials per cleaner Alcohol is commonly used In the market you can find a liquid especially formulated to clean inkjet media 199 How often is pre treatment required either receptor coating or other special surface treatment to the material to be printed Clear glass would tend to need pre coating and some times after coating UV Curable printer for Glass and other rigid materials Ww FLAAR Re DO rts SkyJet UV FlatMaster Printer 200 Which substrates must
65. ice if you buy from a distributor 88 How many people come for the installation 1 person 89 How many people are required to lift move the printer during installation How many people do you need to provide for the installation 3 or 4 persons are required 90 Do people also come for a pre installation site inspection Or is the inspection just a form sent in by e mail or fax by the print shop to the distributor From the factory or from the distributor or from the dealer Yes a person is sent to inspect the site where the printer is going to be installed INSTALLATION OF THE PRINTER INSTRUCTIONS amp MANUALS 91 How many manuals are available There is only one manual 92 Which manuals are hard copy Which manuals are only on CD The manual is delivered in a CD 93 Is there a glossary in the User s Manual Yes there is a glossary but in general the manual is being improved 94 Is there a Service Manual There is a Service Chapter in the main manual 95 What is the native language of these guides Is the translation acceptable The manual is written twice There is one version for the local market and another version for the overseas sells So the manual for the local market is obviously written in Chinese and the manual for customers outside China is written in English So according to one sales manager the manual is not translated but written all over again in English The following statement is as valid
66. idity with the dust that is in your local air with your local operator and with disorientation of the insides of a printer during rough shipment and installation we have no knowledge of what conditions you will face in your own printshop We tend to inspect a printer first in the manufacturing plant demo room no disjointed parts from any ship ment since this printer has not been lifed by cranes and run over a rough pot holed highway or kept in smeltering heat or freezing cold during shipment Taking into consideration we do not know the conditions in which you may be using your hardware software or consumables neither ma AVANE lt J ole ais the author nor FLAAR nor either university is liable for liability loss or damage caused either directly or indirectly by the suggestions in this report nor by hardware software or techniques described herein because Availability of spare parts may be a significant issue Chinese printers tend to switch suppliers for spare parts every month or so So getting spare parts for a Chinese printer will be a chal lenge even if the distributor or manufacturer actually respond to your e mails at all Fortunately some companies to have a fair record of response Teckwin is one based on a case of two problematical hy brid UV printers in Guatemala The distributor said that Teckwin sent a second printer at their own expense and sent tech support per sonnel at their expense also But unfortunately b
67. implies color measurement tools and software To handle ICC color profiles you may need ICC color profile generation software and a spectrophotometer since often the stock pre packaged ICC color profiles which come with the ink media printers and or RIPs may not work in your situation Not all RIPs handle color manage ment equally or may work better for some printer ink media combi nations than for others Be aware that some RIPs can only accept ICC color profiles you quickly find out the hard way that you can t tweak these profiles nor generate new ones So be sure to get a RIP which can handle all aspects of color management Many RIPs come in different levels ma RAVAN DG lt ole ais You may buy one level and be disappointed that the RIP won t do everything That s because those features you may be lacking are available only in the next level higher of that RIP often at consid erable extra cost Same thing in the progression of Chevy through Pontiac to Cadillac or the new Suburbans A Chevy Suburban simply does not have all the bells and whistles of the Cadillac Escalade ver sion of this SUV Don t blame us besides that s why we are warning you This is why we have a Survey Form so we can learn when you find products that are inadequate We let the manufacturers know when end users complain about their products so that the manufacturers can resolve the situation when they next redesign the system Most newer printe
68. int speed The disadvantage is that requires a lot more attention for a synchro nized movement SkyJet UV FlatMaster new movement system 40 How much weight can the table hold 400 kg 41 Is pin registration present How many pins What is their position s Pin registration is normally present only on a dedicated flatbed not on a moving transport belt Just realize that not all sheets of rigid material are themselves actually perfectly rectangular 42 If no pin registration system is present what kind of other registration system is available No other registration is present in the current model nor are multiple registration systems common 43 Does the printhead carriage move across the widest dimension of the table like Gandy Jeti or Oce 250 or across the narrow dimension this is how Inca does it No On the current model the movement of the carriage is on the narrower side but in the next generation already being designed movement will be in the widest dimension 44 What are the pros and cons of a dedicated flatbed compared with a combo printer with moving transport belt or hybrid printer with platen But even dedicated printers have their downsides too with a dedicated flatbed you the operator are idle totally while the printer is printing You can t load or unload anything except on some of the newer million dollar printer systems But if you have a 450 000 combo printer such as the Durst Rho 700 or 800 you c
69. inters are the same or similar chassis from this manufacturer or distributor The FlatMaster has had a series of modifications and Sky Jet has classified the models in generations The current is the fourth generation but the fifth is already under devel opment There was one third generation model being fin ished in the assembly line most of the others were fourth generation 5 Is this same model s rebranded and sold under other names In the past some models were rebranded and sold under other names It is hard to trace back the history over the years but the Calca UV flatbed may have been from this fac tory There may have been other different brands as well 6 What other printers of other brands are comparable Similar in size and shape to the Mimaki JV 1631 Gerber ionx But the FlatMaster is at an entry level price SkyJet FlatMaster UV printer at Sky Air Ship headquarters roa FLAAR Reports 7 How does this model compare with comparable previ ous printers The current third and fourth generation is significantly better in appear ance than models I saw two years ago 8 If this is a rebranded printer what features are differ ent than the original printer It is similar to the previous models but it has undergone a series of im provements The model in the demo room was a third generation model and had the printheads parallel to each other But the models being as sembled in the factory had the printheads
70. ist and see how they function in the real world But even when we like a product and recommend it we still can t guarantee or certify any make or model nor its profitability in use because we don t know the conditions under which a printer system might be utilized in someone else s facility For ink and media espe cially after market third party ink and media it is essential that you test it first under your conditions We have no way to assure that any ink or media will be acceptable for your specific needs in your specific print shop As a result products are described as is and without warranties as to performance or merchantability or of fitness ma AVANE lt J ole ais for a particular purpose Any such statements in our reports or on our web sites or in discussions do not constitute warranties and shall not be relied on by the buyer in deciding whether to purchase and or use products we discuss because of the diversity of conditions materials and or equipment under which these products may be used Thus please recognize that no warranty of fitness or profitability for a par ticular purpose is offered The user is advised to test products thoroughly before relying on them We do not have any special means of analyzing chemical con tents or flammability of inks media or laminates nor how these need to be controlled by local laws in your community There may well be hazardous chemicals or outgassing that we are not
71. ith 45 manufacturers there are always surprises GRAPO has plenty of experience since they are them selves a signage printshop so they would not use any system that was not successful 173 What is the firing frequency voltage of the printheads in KHz The maximum frequency for this model is 13 2kHz 174 ls negative pressure required to maintain the ink without the ink dripping out the printhead when the machine is turned off Yes The printhead system uses negative pressure to keep the ink from dripping off the printheads J BEDAVA R Re O rts SkyJet UV FlatMaster Printer PRINTHEAD Life Expectancy 175 What is true life expectancy of this print head Life expectancy of printheads is expressed in quantity of drops rather than in a dimensional for time 4x109 drops per nozzle 176 How many square feet or square meters will one set of printheads produce before the head s fail A printhead is expected to print approximately 10 000 sq meters 177 What are the most common causes of printhead failure Poor maintenance dust and air However the assembly area in the factory had all the windows open 178 What does each printhead cost to replace Approximately US 1 500 per head 179 Distinguish price for the printhead and also price for the service technician to come and do the installation if it is not user replaceable You have to understand that printheads are not covered by the warranty If the end user needs a
72. latbed had even more issues So issues on dedicated flatbed printers are by no means limited to machines made in China What counts is that you seek to have more positive features than negative features As is common in most UV printers the air pumps for the vacuum are noisy In general it is recommended that the printer be operated in a clean dust free environment especially because of the fragile parts such as the print heads But in the factory all the windows were open without control of the cleanliness of the air The color gamut still needs to be improved especially to produce better reds and better greens but SkyJet has been successful in overcoming previ ous problems and it is almost certain that they will solve this problem If this printer is available used should you consider it Because the fourth generation is now available it would be preferable to consider if available used only a recent third generation or present fourth generation model Concerns of the past that are currently being addressed for the future Because the structure of the flatbed is so robust the iron is so thick the presence of rust is not considered a detriment because the rust is only on the surface So would not list rust as an engineering negative point because rust is cosmetic and will not affect the performance of the printer the primary part that rusts are the girders that hold up the under structure of the machine But gradually the conce
73. le material 207 How many colors are used to produce output four six or i eight Dr CMYK or CMYK W or CMYK W Ic Im 208 What company makes the inks Choices include Hexion Sericol Sun Triangle Toyo and several others The SkyJet FlatMaster uses Toyo inks 209 Does the printer manufacturer have its own ink chemists on staff Grapo being a printshop uses UV cured ink on a regular basis So their print shop for billboards banners POP thermo formable and other applications gives them daily experience In some aspects this counts more than having an ink testing laboratory per se which they do not have Durst HP and comparable large printer manufacturers have their own ink chem ists even when they don t necessarily manufacture their own ink But even when a company owns their own ink factory sometimes they also rebrand the ink from completely different ink companies when they need an ink that they themselves do not yet make e SkyJet UV FlatMaster ink containers INK White amp Varnish 210 Is white ink available Yes 211 To use white ink does that require not using light colors in order to make space for the white ink No As mentioned earlier you have options for ink configuration 1 CMYK 2 CMYK W 3 CMYK W Ic lm So there is no need to eliminate light colors in order to have a channel for white ink It is claimed that if you have variable droplet heads
74. luded to run the RIP No monitor included 252 What is the operating system of the RIP software PhotoPrint runs with Windows Caldera runs with Linux 253 If no RIP is bundled with the printer how many and which RIP brands can work with this printer What is your rating of these various RIPs Is one RIP brand preferred more then another by current users SkyJet can set the printer to work with Wasatch PRODUCTIVITY amp ROI Return on Investment 254 Can you sell the output at the machine s fastest output speed or is the quality at that speed not acceptable to most client standards SkyJet engineers are working on the technology so that end users are able to sell output at one pass 90 of the different brands of printers can t produce usable output at their fastest claimed speed So call these speeds junk mode It is false ad vertising in probably half the spec sheets J PL AVA R Re exe rts SkyJet UV FlatMaster Printer 255 What is the level of productivity high medium low The FlatMaster is designed to print all day long It has a high level of productivity 256 Can this printer hold up to two or three shifts per day all week Yes 257 Does this printer have to be turned off to rest between shifts No SkyJet FlatMaster can be turned on all day through Especially because every time you turn off and back on the printer the lifespan of the UV lamps decreases GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 258 How
75. many printers of this model are in use in the USA in the rest of the world SkyJet has sold about 150 printers in China It is crucial for a printshop owner who is making their short list of which printers to consider buying to know how many printers of each brand have been sold SUMMARY Image Quality Issues General 259 Can the system produce glossy finish To what degree is surface glossiness an issue Can you select glossy or matte or do you get what the system provides and that is all If you get only one or the other which is it you get There is a control for the UV lamps to produce glossy finish CONCLUSIONS 260 Are you satisfied with this printer to the point that you would recommend it to someone else would not waste my time spending days inspecting this printer and weeks preparing this report if did not find that this printer had merit 261 If so why would you recommend that others buy this same printer There are four stages to a FLAAR evaluation first look at major international trade shows e demo room testing e factory visit e and site visit case study in a printshop So far we have taken initial notes on trade shows and have evaluated the printer at the factory after APPPEXPO 09 trade show in Shanghai We would like to find a business that has bought the printer to complete this evaluation There are a few issues of course No printer is immune to issues but in general we have found the Fla
76. n about a third of the problems that people have with UV printers Another third is often inadequate cleaning and maintenance of the ink and printhead system The other third cause of problems would naturally be weak parts that wear out before they should wear and tear happens even to the strongest parts made in Switzerland and features that need improvement etc 99 Is classroom training available No classroom training is not common 100 Is factory training available Yes There are options for training and factory training is one of them Training can be done in the factory or on the end user s place Normally the engineer of a distributor will be trained in the factory Factory training is rare though some companies do welcome factory visits and a few companies do indeed offer training at the factory 101 What on line training is available Fewer than 5 of the UV printer manufacturers offer on line training 102 Between the day the printer arrives how soon is it realistic to achieve full productivity If a printer is mature and out of beta stage you can achieve full productivity within a week or month But many owners have told me quite frankly that it took them several months to achieve full productivity especially owners of the Luscher JetPrint The longest time before a printer is really productive is when a printer is still in beta stage when you buy it It takes a while for the firmware and hardware to be improved and u
77. n the tank and if the ink is far from the heat gellation will not be as much an issue 222 What filters are on the ink system to trap particles or trap gelled ink It is worth mentioning that SkyJet does not use Pall filters which are used in most wide format UV curable printers They said they tried these com mon filters but they had issues with filiments which they believed came from the filter material itself 223 Is there an issue with ink starvation It was an issue in the past but SkyJet has successfully dealt with this problem The first Gandinnovations solvent printers had severe ink starvation so this issue is common What is important is to recognise the situation and then to revise the ink and softwware so that the problem is minimized Ink starvation means that not enough ink can get to the printheads in fast printing modes Ink starvation is a real issue that affects even some quarter million dollar printers So you need to check with end users to see if they have issues with ink starvation 224 Are ink tubes black opaque but white another color transparent The first year s production of the hybrid UV printer of Infiniti used ink tubing so flimsy that the tubes split dissolved or became disconnected on a regular basis This is what happens when you take a solvent printer and try to retrofit it to take UV cured ink But something similar happened when Roland and other companies tried to run the first generation eco
78. nfluence the true total drying time No UV ink really cures within seconds Some colors depending on how thick the ink is laid down may cure instantly But several factors may result in a cure that takes 24 hours 48 hours or weeks If you set the print mode for glossy this reduces the lamp intensity These prints will outgas for weeks 243 Is there any heater to assist in drying the inks drying as opposed to curing believe if remember correctly am writing this on a train from VISCOM Germany in Frankfurt to inspect two UV printers in a printing company in Hamburg the Mimaki LED curing model 160 has a heater to assist curing if not the Mimaki then the Roland one of the two appeared to have a heater UV LAMPS Cooling 244 Are there shutters Shutters help control light leak and save from having to turn the lamps off So the lamps last a bit longer and you can be more productive not hav ing to wait for the lamps to cool down and then warm up all over again But shutters are primarily for controlling the extreme heat of mercury arc UV curing lamps J PL TAVAN R Re exe rts SkyJet UV FlatMaster Printer 245 How often do the shutters stick The shutters on the Gandinnovations printer are pneumatic so don t stick as often as mechanical shutters DuPont Cromaprint 22uv printer seems to have issues with its shutters getting stuck either stuck open or stuck shut So DuPont had to switch to another solution W
79. ng cheap solvent printers will not insure their future Cheap solvent printers got them started and paid for their impressive factory buildings But the market for cheap solvent printers in Western Europe and North America is drying up Plus there are new inks coming out at SGIA 09 ISA 10 and FESPA 10 that will pretty much spell the beginning of the end for hard solvent and even mild and eco solvent printers So there are other factors that contribute to the recent and future potential success of Sky Air Ship within the changing no more solvent success era and that is their owner their head manager and their overseas sales team Here one key factor is their openness to learn to learn also by listening to new ideas Dedicated flatbed printers are a more reliable structure than hybrid UV printers Dedicated flatbed printers are also more reliable for glass than combo systems with moving transport belts And dedicated flatbed printers will remain desirable even as new ink chemistries in 2010 offer alterna tives to UV curing for signage most of the new inks can t print on glass Sky AirShip also produces innovative solvent printers double sided with a cylinder system and this company also has a promising textile printer again based on a large cylinder system So they are innovative Cons No printer is perfect We get frequent lists of issues from owners of the 1 best selling Oce Arizona flatbed printers though the Mimaki JF 1631 UV f
80. ny printshops where the printer operator prefers to receive this training precisely so they can do their own repairs After all if the manufacturer can train their own tech support person surely a printer operator who also works with this printer every day all month all year can also learn how to maintain and repair it if they have the interest and inclination This policy varies by manufacturer Interest in doing their own repairs varies by the end user and by the printer operator A few operators like the opportunity to take service training at the factory and thereby to be able to do basic repairs on their own Some manufacturers discourage this but some manufacturers do allow end users to take advanced service training PURCHASING 21 Are dealers national most companies or regional Roland allows a dealer to operate only within a limited re gional area Does a buyer have any choice in dealers In some cases a dealer covers only a country but for example MAN the distributor for Sky Air Ship in the Netherlands covers also Belgium and Lux emburg IGE solutions in FL is the exclusive distributor to promote SKYJET UV FlatMaster in glass industrial field of USA Canada and Mexico 22 What kinds of leasing or other financing are available Financing programs do not exist yet but are being considered for the near future SkyJet sells to end users but its major sales are to distributors Any financing program is more likely to be found with
81. o by 1999 we had entire sec tions on large format printers FLAAR has existed since 1969 long before inkjet printers existed Indeed we were writing about digital imaging before HP even had a color inkjet system available In 2000 FLAAR received an educa tional grant from Hewlett Packard large format division Barcelona Spain for training for equipment and to improve the design and navigation on the main web sites of the FLAAR Network This grant ran its natural course and like all grants reached its finishing point in this case late 2005 In some cases the sponsorship process begins when we hear end users talking about a product they have found to be better than other brands We keep our ears open and when we spot an espe cially good product this is the company we seek sponsorship from It would not be wise of us to seek sponsorship from a company with a sub standard or otherwise potentially defective printer So we usu ally know which printers are considered by end users to be among the better brands before we seek sponsorship After all out of the by now one million readers we have heard plenty about every single printer out there We thank MacDermid ColorSpan now part of HP Hewlett Packard Parrot Digigraphic Color DNA Canon Gandinnovations and other companies for providing funding for technology training for the FLAAR staff and our colleagues at Bowling Green State University in past years and for funds to allow us to
82. o nicely printed on the manufacturer may be adding a primer at night or early in the morning before you see the machine printing on this material We feel that the pros and cons of each product speak more than adequately for themselves Just position the ad claims on the left put the actual performance results on the right The unscrupulous hype for some printers is fairly evident rather quickly Be sure to check all FLAAR resources Please realize that with over 200 different FLAAR Reports on UV printers you need to be sure to check the more obscure ones too If a printer has a printhead issue the nitty gritty of this may be in the FLAAR Report on printheads The report on the model is a general introduction if we discussed the intimate details of printheads then some readers might fall asleep And obviously do not limit yourself to the free reports The technical details may be in the reports that have a price to them Our readers have said they prefer to have the general basics and to park the real technical material in other reports that people can buy if they really want that level of information So it may be best to ask for personal consulting The details of the problems with the ColorSpan 5400uv series are rather complex namely the center row of the Ricoh printheads This would require an expensive graphic designer and consultants to show the details And the design of the printhead would probably be altered by the time we did an
83. of American individualism and technologi cal advancement FLAAR also covers its costs of maintaining the immense system of 8 web sites in three languages and its facilities in part by serving as a consultant such as assisting inkjet manufacturers learn more about the pros and cons of their own printers as well as how to improve their next generation of printers It is especially useful to all concerned when manufacturers learn of trends what applications are popular and for what reasons For example manufacturers need to know whether to continue designing software for Mac users or concentrate software for PC users So the survey form that you fill out is helpful to gather statistics You benefit from this in two ways first you get the FLAAR reports in exchange for your survey form Second your comments bring hopefully change and improvement in the next generation of printers When we do survey statistics then the names addresses and telephone numbers are removed completely A survey wants only aggregate num bers not individuals However if you ask about a specific brand of printer and do not opt out we forward your request to a pertinent sponsor so you can obtain follow up from that brand since we ourselves do not have enough personnel to respond to each reader by telephone But we do not provide your personal information to outsiders and our survey form has an opt out check off box which we honor FLAAR also serves as consultants to Fortune
84. ogy SubZero 85 This is one of the most used UV lamps in entry level and mid range UV printers The NUR Expedio Inspiration uses Nordson microwave technolo gy Gandinnovations uses Dr Honle but these are traditional mer cury arc not microwave Mid range and entry level UV curable printers tend to use UV mercury arc UV lamps from Integration Technology SkyJet Integration Technology Sub Zero UV lamp J PL TAVAN R Re exe rts SkyJet UV FlatMaster Printer 237 How many lamps does the printer use Two lamps Two is the usual number of lamps Some cheap Chinese printers use only one lamp Mimaki uses one lamp on several of their narrow format UV printers to avoid the lawnmower effect that is caused by bi directional printing bi directional print requires two lamps one for each direction of ink laydown by the printer carriage The Agfa Anapurna 100 a printer that was never finished due to being too complex and its recent replacement the Anapurna XLS have three sets of lamps all curing not for pinning The L scher JetPrint due to its ber dimensional size may also have needed more than two lamps whatever it had did not function fully adequately 238 How long does the lamp last in terms of hours of operation 1 800 hours After that the strength of the lamps decreases about 25 239 How many hours are used up by each strike by each time you turn the lamps on GCC is one of the few companies that clearly spe
85. ok for which factories show potential Our goal is to assist printer manufacturers improve their printers with features that our 428 000 end users per year ask for Our background at FLAAR is in architecture and museums so printers that can print on glass for museum displays as well as general architecture are of special interest to us estimate that over 90 of the flatbed printers sold in China before we became consultants were already being used for printing on glass or other architectural materials At the APPPEXPO 09 exhibition of wide format printers in Shanghai July 2009 already almost every one of the dozen manufacturers of flatbed UV curing printers were focusing on industrial applications especially glass rather than only printing for signage Plus while we were in China we visited one printshop that had bought a combo flatbed for d cor based on an earlier FLAAR Reports on printing on ceramic tiles with special primers and chemical treatment So it turns out that the FLAAR Reports are read also in Asia FLAAR has a comprehensive evaluation format that we have developed and initiated over the last twelve years The UV printer evaluation portion was initiated at DRUPA 2000 and launched full time at DRUPA 2004 This FLAAR evaluation format is intended to assist end users printshop owners and operators as well as printer manufacturers First issued August 2009 UV Curable printer for Glass and other rigid materials Ww
86. on Is it soft ware generated or do you have to press a button Is the button on the outside of the printer or inside on the carriage It is at the left of the carriage 116 How many levels strengths of printhead cleaning purg ing and or sucking can be accomplished via the firmware soft ware There is only one level but you can control the pressure 117 Is purging done with ink or with a flush solution Purging is done with ink 118 If done with a flush solution how do you add the flush to the printheads With a syringe or a manual button or toggle switch or automatically with software command or other method With most mid range UV printers you manually turn a valve to open the ink lines so that the flush will flow into them In cheaper printers you have to inject the flush with a syringe by hand SkyJet UV FlatMaster ink lines J BEDAVA R Re O rts SkyJet UV FlatMaster Printer 119 Can you select which ink lines printheads to purge or can you only purge in clusters or all or nothing Yes purging is done separately 120 The ink that is purged where does it go Into a drain waste bottle or into a drip tray It goes to a container below the purging area cleaning area SkyJet UV FlatMaster purging area 121 Is there a capping station Yes the print heads are capped automatically once the carriage goes back to parking zone 122 Where is the service area at the left or at the right Ser
87. op the flatbed There are even some combo systems with moving transport belt that also have pinch rollers the Durst Rho 700 Of course this begs the question of whether its vacuum system needs the pinch rollers But pinch rollers can be more assistance than moving the media a pinch roller can keep the trailing end of a piece of foam core from lifting up curling up as the front end is being heated and printed on So if you wish to keep an entire foam board flat from front to back you may need pinch or pressure rollers in addition to a vacuum system underneath be L ahu The previous generation of this printer had a system of pinch rollers a where the pressure movement was manually adjusted which took a lot of time In the next generations this system of pinch rollers will disappear and media will only be pressed down with the pressure roller b UV Curable printer for Glass and other rigid materials a L TAVAN R Re O rts SkyJet UV FlatMaster Printer 38 Does the table move Or only the gantry above it Only the gantry moves The flatbed area is stationary 39 If the table moves what controls its movement Lead screw How many one on each side or one in the middle or three On the third generation the gantry was moved by a central lead screw but the system was quite slow On the fourth generation motion is cre ated by the belts at each side The advantage of the new system is that it allows more pr
88. option of four printheads per color 152 How many total number of printheads Currently up to 12 In the future you will have up to 16 153 What is the position of the white printheads relative to the rest The printhead for white is in a similar position as the other color printheads 154 Is the printhead for the white ink the same t T i model as the printhead for the other colors oho p y Yes white ink uses the same brand and model of printhead ee i In the beginning DuPont tried to use a printhead for the white ink that had a larger droplet size However gradually they switched to using all the same model printheads The reason a larger drop size for white ink is a good idea is be cause otherwise you need two printheads in order to make the white ink opaque enough But it turns out you need two printheads for white ink anyway so that you can jet down a flood coat of white before the rest of the colors when print ing on transparent or translucent materials Nowadays almost all printer manufacturers use the same printheads for white that they use for colors What is different is that the ink tanks for white require a method of agitation so that the pigments of Titanium dioxide don t settle out The only instance that have heard of recently where a new UV printer is designed with special heads for white ink is where the newest L amp P Virtu uses Spectra M Class heads which are MEMS technology These are not yet appro
89. orthy of being passed along FLAAR has no way of testing 400 specifications of any printer much less the over 101 different UV printers from more than 46 manufac turers Same with hundreds of solvent printers and dozens of water based printers We observe as best we can but we cannot take each printer apart to inspect each feature And for UV printers these are too expensive to move into our own facilities for long range testing so we do as best as is possible under the circumstances And when a deficiency does become apparent usually from word of mouth or from an end user it may take time to get this written up and issued in a new release Another reason why it is essential for you to ask other printshop own ers and printer operators about how Brand X and Y function in the real world is that issues may exist but it may take months for these issues to be well enough known for us to know the details Although often we know of the issues early and work to get this information into the PDFs access to information varies depending on brand and model Plus with over 300 publications the waiting time to update a specific report may be several months Plus once a printer is considered obsolete it is not realistic to update it due to the costs involved For these reasons every FLAAR Report tries to have its publication date on the front outside cover if we updated everything instantly the cost would be at commercial rates and it would not b
90. oth the hybrid UV printers are still abandoned in the warehouse of the distributor they were still there in January 2009 But Teckwin has the highest rating of any Chinese company for interest in quality control and realization that it is not good PR to abandon a client or reseller or distributor all together Recently we have heard many reports of issues of getting parts from manufacturers in other countries not Asia So just because you printer is made in an industrialized country if you are in the US and the manufacturer is X thousand kilometers or miles away the wait may be many days or weeks Lack of Tech Support Personnel is increasing The book of sales in the third quarter of 2008 resulted in many tech support problems The recession resulted in even more some manufacturers may need to skimp on quality control during a recession or switch to cheaper parts suppliers Plus they are not hiring enough tech support during a recession So the bigger and more successful the company in some cases the worse these particular problems may be Any new compiled printer may take a few months to break in Any new printer no matter who the manufacturer or how good is the engineering ane electronics will tend to have teething issues Until the firmware is updated you may be a beta tester This does not mean the printer should be avoided just realize that you may have some downtime and a few headaches Of course the worst case sce nario
91. pdated After speaking with many different printshop owners what am learning is that if the printer is cheap and junky you will have constant down time due to the printer breaking down reports from owners of Infiniti UV printer If the printer is expensive and complex it takes longer to understand everything and achieve full productivity And when an expensive and complex printer does break down it takes longer to repair TECH SUPPORT amp WARRANTY 103 What is the original warranty period Normally it is one year The normal original warranty period is one year but Gerber has had a special offer of second year free if you buy before such and such a date 104 How does this warranty period compare to warranties of comparable printers Roland also now offers a two year warranty but this is because they want to sell you Roland branded ink and Roland branded substrates They can only sell you these higher priced consumables if they provide a free warranty If you do not use Roland ink the warranty is voided anyway But there are not really any or many UV printer manufacturers who sell their own branded media so there is no reason for a UV printer manufacturer to offer more than a one year warranty In the past Grapo offered a two year warranty That is because their UV printers are relatively simple in a positive sense meaning less to break down 105 Does it include parts labor printheads It includes parts as for the labor it s
92. priate for using with white ink so a different model head is used 1 just for the white SkyJet UV FlatMaster printheads J PL AVA R Re exe rts SkyJet UV FlatMaster Printer PRINTHEAD DPI amp Features 155 What is the drop size in picoliters You can choose a version of 14pl or a version of 42pl The drop size has a variation range of 2pl 156 What is the true dpi of this printhead If the spec sheet uses the concept of perceived dpi or apparent dpi how they calculate perceived dpi instead of true dpi The brochure of this printhead lists a 720dpi x 360dpi resolution The printer brochure lists the resolution of the entire system as 720dpi x 720dpi 157 How many passes can this printer achieve 4 6 8 and 12 The lower the number of passes the faster the printer prints but the lower the quality At a printer s fastest rated speed the output is usually unus able for most applications other than distant viewing for a billboard or banner To achieve viewing quality for Point of Purchase or an honest photo quality you generally need to set the number of passes at the highest number which results in the slowest speed 158 Does the software use passes or modes to describe quality levels Yes the quality levels are differentiated by number of passes FLAAR prefers to use consistent terms that are standardized for all printers so that printshop owners managers and printer operators have a fair chance of comparin
93. printer wish they had Some potential customers want vacuum to be automatically controlled Others wished the printer had a channel for varnish especially for acrylics Miscellaneous Movement 53 What moves e the flatbed platform e the printhead area e only the material fed by roller table then gripped and fed by the printhead area mechanism as on a regular printer or both In the FlatMaster what moves is the gantry like in most flatbeds the Gandi the Oce etc SKYJET UV FlatMaster supplys two ways printing mode in Y direction it means it also can print backward from back side of printer to front side re BAVAS R Re exe rts SkyJet UV FlatMaster Printer 54 If the objects you are printing are not as wide as the full width of the printer does the printing carriage still have to cross the entire space or can the printing assembly hover just over the area of what has to be printed and thereby be a bit faster Yes you set the width of your substrate in the software and the carriage hovers only over the width of your media Most sophisticated printers can hover But this may cause too much heat build up over one part of the printer So your software also needs to be able to modify the hovering position if so desired This is a decision the operator has to make ec ll In the FlatMaster what moves is the gantry and if the object you are printing is not as wide as the full width of the printer the printhead carr
94. printheads has a reason but most printheads are simply parallel to each other in one row 168 Do you raise the heads manually with click stops or motorized Motorized 169 How complex is the procedure to align the printheads When you add a new head how long does it take to align it The HP spec sheet is helpful in alerting you to the reality of aligning their X2 MEMS printhead when you need to replace a failed head with a new one 45 minutes Even if this honest estimate was not provided in the spec sheet it would be ascertainable sooner or later anyway commend HP for being ethical in listing this aspect of maintenance 170 Is there an alarm system to stop the head from hitting substrate if head is not high enough Not available currently PRINTHEAD Associated Features 171 Is there a heater associated with each printhead Yes Konica Minolta has two versions for this model of printhead the KM512MN for solvent ink and the KM512MH for UV curable ink The differ ence is that the MH model is equipped with a heater inside 172 Or is the entire plate heated and thereby some heat gets to the heads Heating the metal plate that holds the nozzle plate area of the printheads as a group the base of the printhead carriage so to speak is a cheap way that early Chinese printers did their heating Today GRAPO is perhaps the only serious UV curable inkjet printer manufacturer outside China that uses a heated plate to heat their ink but w
95. pt of rust will become understood and diminished But in the meantime do not be surprised if when you look underneath the frame that you spot a bit of rust This is inherent in the current production environment Being an industrial machine the level of noise is inherent to the printer and almost inevitable An exhaust system in the factory is suggested to have better control of the quality of the air in the assembly area J BRAVAN AS Reports SkyJet UV FlatMaster Printer Concluding Remarks Since Sky AirShip already has capable engineers our program is not in engineering or software firmware This company has already before we arrived initiated systematic changes upgrades and improvements in their printer They provided us their list for improvements on their 5th genera tion machine the last of the 3rd generation machines was being prepared for shipping the day we were in the factory all the other flatbeds on the assembly line were already 4th generation models And the 5th generation is already being conceptualized before we arrived Our interest is instead to assist companies in all countries equally on what end users seek for their various applications So in China FLAAR is provid ing primarily consulting on general improvements such improving basic Quality Control and basics such as adding skirts to help shield the intense UV lamp light FLAAR is asked about OEM manufacturing opportunities in Asia so we are always on the lo
96. r a test print every few days is NOT what is meant by using your printer every day It may be better to fill it with flush and not use it at all But this depends on the plumbing system of your specific printer so check with tech support we are not a medical doctor for specific individual printing problems just trying to get the message out UV and solvent printers are designed to print not to sit unused 136 How should a printer be prepared for sitting unused for a long time You should clean the ink lines purging with solvent to avoid the clogging of the ink system But In general you should try to print something every week Solvent printers need to be used every day Otherwise the ink dries in the nozzles and nozzle plate of the printheads It was an early mantra that UV ink escaped all the problems of solvent printers that you never had to weep spit at the end of every pass that you never had to purge etc But in reality UV curable ink has comparable issues plus the added problem of curing inside the nozzles Cationic ink can cure spontaneously once initiated all the way back into the ink tubes Fortunately most printers don t use cationic ink they use free radical curing chemistry But reflected light can cure the ink inside the nozzles heat can cause gellation which can clog the heads So in some printers the heads are capped at night in some printers you have to fill the ink lines with flush if you don t print frequently Indee
97. r models tend to overcome deficiencies of earlier models It is possible that our comparative comments point out a glitch in a particular printer that has been taken care of through an improvement in firmware or even an entirely new printer model So if we point out a deficiency in a particular printer brand the model you may buy may not exhibit this headache or your kind of printing may not trigger the problem Or you may find a work around Just remember that every machine has quirks even the ones we like It is possible that the particular kind of images resolution inks media or other factors in your facility are sufficiently different than in ours that a printer which works just fine for us may be totally unsatis factory for you and your clients However it may be that the specific kind of printing you need to do may never occasion that shortcoming Or it may be that your printer was manufactured on a Monday and has defects that are atypical show up more in the kind of media you use which we may not use as often or at all during our evaluations Equally possibly a printer that was a disaster for someone else may work flawlessly for you and be a real money maker for your com pany So if we inspect a printer in a printshop a site visit case study and that owner operator is content with their printer and we mention this don t expect that you will automatically get the same results in your own printshop In some cases a product ma
98. replacement for a printhead and wishes a technician to do this job he pays the airfare hotel and meals of the technician But the printheads are user installable PRINTHEAD CARRIAGE and GANTRY Pa iay SkyJet UV FlatMaster printhead carriage 180 Describe the design and construction of the carriage area Rak Kumar has many years of managing wide format printer companies so he knows all the design aspects of a printer If you wish to learn some of the jargon and design features of a UV curable printer yourself it is worth visiting the booth where he exhibits generally the booth of EFI 181 Where are all the electronics situated Above the heads behind the heads On the back side of the carriage The main board and interface board are located in the electrical distributing box 182 What moves the carriage The carriage is moved by a servo motor 183 What moves the gantry Lead screws A servo motor system On previous generations the movement of the gantry was controlled by a central lead screw ra AVA R ats exe rts SkyJet UV FlatMaster Printer Here you can see Nicholas inspecting the SkyJet UV FlatMaster servo motor at Sky Air Ship factory visit 2009 SUBSTRATES 184 Can this printer handle rigid material only or roll to roll only or both interchangeably Currently this printer is meant for rigid materials only If you need to print on flexible media you must cut pieces Sky Air Ship is planning to design a
99. rts UV Curable printer for Glass and other rigid materials SkyJet UV FlatMaster Printer SkyJet UV GlassMaster Printer INTRODUCTION There are about 16 manufacturers of UV cured printers in China who have exhibited at least one UV printer at the Shanghai advertising trade show in July over the past three years Of these there are about a dozen Chinese manufactures which produce a dedicated flatbed printer But of these twelve only about 30 are actual production models the remaining 70 of flatbeds are only prototypes made to exhibit at a trade show in the hopes that someone might order one There are five major types of UV cured wide format flatbed printers today e Hybrid pseudo flatbed printers with pinch rollers and grit rollers e Combo flatbed printers with a moving transport belt e Dedicated flatbed really flat and dedicated only to thick rigid material e Dual structure flatbeds a dedicated flatbed with a roll to roll option at one end e Dedicated roll to roll Several years ago hybrids and combos were very popular but increasingly printshop owners are realizing that for some jobs especially to print glass ceramic tiles wood metal MDO board and any large heavy rigid materials that these are best handled by a real flatbed what we call a dedicated flatbed This report is based on inspecting this flatbed over the last several years at various trade shows and then spending two days in the factory and demo room in Shen
100. s PVC and aluminum foil www dotprint com fgen prod1297 htm Oce lists several other common signage materials as sensitive to the heat of UV lamps For these reasons we have a separate FLAAR Report on ap plications and materials J PL AVA R Re exe rts SkyJet UV FlatMaster Printer Heat can build up when the printhead carriage hovers over a small area to print a narrow job Heat can build up inside the printer as materials es pecially metal absorb heat and hold it and then radiate it out for a long time So heat is not only an issue from the obvious and immediate heat of the UV lamps Residual heat can be an issue as well You can in effect lower the heat that reaches the material by raising the entire printhead carriage However this results in noticeably less quality be cause the ink is flying through the air a longer distance while the material is moving away from it You can also set the printhead carriage to move further away from the printing area at the end of each pass in those cases that the media is less than the maximum and in those cases where these settings are facilitated by the printer design and firmware One way to dissipate heat is to have good ventilation drawing the hot air up and out of the enclosed printer There are two exhaust tubes at the top for this purpose These are not only to suck out the odor and ink mist but to remove some of the heat too 196 What about build up of static electricity What kind of mat
101. s discussed but it is important that we be open where we have visited Mimaki Europe has had FLAAR as their guest in Europe to introduce their flatbed UV printer as have other UV curable manufacturers again under NDA as to the details since often we are present at meetings where unreleased products are discussed Xaar has hosted an informative visit to their world headquarters in the UK You don t get this level of access from a trade magazine writer and can assure you we are provided much more detailed information and documentation in our visits than would be provided to a magazine author or editor Com panies have learned that it s a lot better to let us know up front and in advance the issues and glitches with their printers since they now know we will find out sooner or later on our own They actually tell us they realize we will find out on our own anyway Contributions grant sponsorships and project funds from these companies are also used to improve the design and appearance of the web sites of the FLAAR Information Network We thank Canon ColorSpan HP ITNH and Mimaki for providing wide format printers inks and media to the universities where FLAAR does research on wide format digital imaging We thank Epson America for providing an Epson 7500 printer many years ago and Parrot Digigraphic for providing three different models of Epson inkjet printers to our fa cilities on loan at BGSU 5500 7600 7800 We thank Mimaki USA
102. ster3018 1830mm 3000mm 1370mm SKYJET UV FlatMaster2418 1830mm 2440mm 1370mm SKYJET UV FlatMaster2412 1220mm 2440mm 1370mm SKYJET UV GlassMaster3022 2200mm 3000mm 1370mm 81 How many boxes arrive You receive one wooden crate 82 What comes in the box The printer 3 vacuum pumps and 2 boxes of parts INSTALLATION OF THE PRINTER 83 Realistically what expenses must you incur for the installation such as a fork lift truck or crane to lift the printer off the truck If the machine is bought by a dealer for the first time of installation or trade show SKYJET pays the airfare The hotel and meals are paid by the dealer 84 What size and kind of forklift truck do you need Or do you need a crane At the factory you could see many industrial sized forklift trucks Heli AC5 and AC15 85 Does the printer have spaces for the forks of a forklift truck to get a balanced hold on the bottom of the printer Most sophisticated UV printers of most brands have rectangular brackets built into the underside of the printer usually both front and back so you can use a forklift truck J PL AVA R Re exe rts SkyJet UV FlatMaster Printer 86 Can you install this printer yourself No There are some installation procedures that are not intended to be done by an end user For example the gantry needs to be mounted and tested 87 Is installation included in the purchase price Yes All installation expenses are included in the purchase pr
103. tMaster a solid and reliable industrial printer Pros Sky Air Ship is a solid company that has been developing this Skyjet flatbed printer for years Many improvements have been made since it first ap peared The machine is strongly built and if you make a list of all the components used in the printer Konica Minolta Integration Technology Igus Caldera etc you realize the manufacturer has invested in reliable components to assemble a high quality UV printer One of the most frequent complaints of buyers and distributors of other brands of Chinese made UV printers is when they use home made UV lamps The problem is because there is no way to repair or replace these anywhere else in the world The second problem is that it is traditional in China to change components in mid stream so the printer you buy in February 2009 may not have the same UV lamps that you buy in July 2009 So it is a positive feature that Sky Air Ship recognizes this issue and they spec and use Integration Technology UV lamps from the UK J BAVAN AS Reports SkyJet UV FlatMaster Printer The distributorship system is well organized There are dealers in many regions and printers have been delivered in many countries as far as Ecuador and Peru With 150 units sold in China I would estimate that Sky Air Ship has sold more flatbed UV printers than most other manufacturers put together Company by company the Chinese manufacturers are learning that merely produci
104. th no roll to roll capability Or is this a true flatbed or just add on feeder platforms at front and back The FlatMaster is a dedicated flatbed without roll to roll system However roll to roll system is one of the improvements being planned for the near future Just realize that the best machine to print on flat material is a dedicated flatbed and the best printer to print on roll fed is a dedicated roll to roll The advantage of a combo printer is that it can print on both flat and rigid and roll fed material But no joint use printer can print on all materials perfectly irrespective whether it is a 80 000 entry level or 300 000 VUTEk or other brand 30 Is there a moving transport belt combo style or a stationary platen hybrid style The first generation was a transport belt system but SkyJet decided to go flatbed 31 Are their edge guards at each side end of the platen At left or at right or both There is no need to have edge guards on a dedicated flatbed because the substrate is not transported it is fixed in the same place 32 Was this printer made originally as a UV curable ink printer or is it retrofitted with UV curing If retrofitted what was the original brand or model This printer was designed from the ground up to be a UV curable printer LINING UP FLAT MATERIAL to help it feed straight 33 What kinds of raised guide bars alignment bars along the side of the table exist Left or right How long Ther
105. ther users who had better results maybe ours came down the assembly line on a Monday or Friday afternoon when workers were not attentive One costly color management soft ware package was judged incapable by two reviewers one from the university second was an outside user who had made the mis take of buying this package So it s obvious that providing products or even a grant is no shield from having your products fail a FLAAR evaluation The reason is clear the end user is our judge The entire FLAAR service program is to assist the people who need to use digital imaging hardware and software If a product functions we find out and promulgate the good news If a product is a failure or more likely needs some improve ment in the next generation we let people know If a product is hyped by what an informed user would recognize as potentially false and misleading nonsense then we point out the pathetic discrepancies very clearly This is what you should expect from an institute which is headed by a professor Actually most of our reviews are based on comments by end users We use their tips to check out pros and cons of virtually every product SkyJet UV FlatMaster Printer we discuss You can t fool a print shop owner whose printer simply fails to function as advertised And equally a sign shop owner who earns a million dollars a year from a single printer brand makes an impact on us as well We have multiple owners o
106. to provide support We have received information of several instances in Australia of poor tech sup port for various brands of printers probably because of the time and expense of sending tech support people to a factory in Japan Europe or the USA for training on each model An inadequate dealer or distributor is a good recipe for endless headaches Choosing a distributor is as important as selecting a brand and model of printer 110 Can the manufacturer remotely diagnose the printer Remote diagnosis is rare and not available on any mid range UV curable inkjet printer 111 What is the native language of the tech support person Chinese but it is a requirement that he speaks English During the several days that we visited the Sky Air Ship booth at APPPEXPO in Shanghai and during the several days we were in Shenyang where the factory is we had no language issues CLEANING amp MAINTENANCE NEEDS 112 How easy is it to access the area where you have to clean the heads It is very easy Once you open the door of the printhead carriage you can access the printheads 113 How is head cleaning accomplished purge suction manual other Purging 114 To what degree is purging automatic once you press a but ton and to what degree is it manual Yes purging is activated by a button Recently the buttons to initiate the purge were moved to the front of the carriage 115 To initiate a purge where is the control or butt
107. to refuse payment if you have end up with a lemon A Gold American Express card allows you to re fuse payment even months after the sale This card may also extend your warranty agreement in some cases check first Most of the readers of the FLAAR Reports look to see what print ers we use in our own facilities Readers realize that we will have selected the printers that we like based on years of experience and research Indeed we have met people at trade shows who told us they use the FLAAR web site reports as the shopping list for their corporate purchases Yes it is rather self evident that we would never ask a manufacturer to send a product which we knew in advance from our studies was no good But there are a few other printers which are great but we simply do not have them in our facilities yet So if a printer is not made available by its manufacturer then there is no way we can afford to have all these makes and models in our facil ity Thus to learn about models which we do not feature be sure to ask around in other print shops with IT people in other corporations at your local university or community college Go to trade shows but don t use only the booth ask questions of people in the elevator in line at the restaurant anywhere to escape the smothering hype you get in the booth Realize that a FLAAR Report on a printer is not by itself a recommen dation of that printer In your local temperature in your local hum
108. ufacturers of piezo printers Epson Seiko Mutoh and Mimaki This is because piezo has definite ad vantage for some applications thermal printheads have advantages in different applications Our reviews have universal appeal precisely because we feature all competing printhead technologies Every printer RIPs inks or media we have reviewed have good points in addition to weaknesses Both X Rite and competitor GretagMacbeth provided spectrophotometers Again when all sides assist this pro gram there is no incentive to favor one by trashing the other Printer manufacturer ad campaigns are their own worst enemy If a printer did not make false and misleading claims then we would have noth ing to fill our reviews with refuting the utter nonsense that is foisted on the buying public It is not our fault if some printers are more user friendly print on more media than other brands It is not our fault that the competing printers are ink guzzlers are slow beyond belief and tend to band or drop out colors all together We don t need to be paid by the printer companies whose products work so nicely in both our universities on a daily basis The printers which failed did so in front of our own eyes and in the print shops of people we check with And actually we do try to find some redeeming feature in the slow ink gulping brands they do have a better dithering pattern they can take thick media that absolutely won t feed through an HP So we
109. us generations the printhead position was aligned to each other In the current models the printheads are staggered J BEDAVAYA Re ports SkyJet UV FlatMaster Printer 147 Is this a printhead adapted from solvent ink or a new design made especially for UV ink chemistry Konica Minolta has a version of this printhead for solvent printers and another version for UV printers 148 How many other printers utilize the same printhead Have they shown any problems GCC StellarJet 183UV K72UV K100UV Agfa Anapurna M Dilli Neo Titan Grapo Manta Sun Neo UV LED Sun Neo Evolution All of these printers produce output at very good quality The Konica Minolta heads has been an important factor in reaching this quality 149 What are the benefits of this printhead The price is lower than Spectra heads It offers 720dpi x 360dpi and has different levels of grayscale The alignment is done easily Another important advantage is that this Konica Minolta head has a heater sensor integrated inside the printhead This is an advantage over Seiko printheads for example that have a heat sensor outside the printhead and the readings are not accurate Because the Konica Minolta printheads offer better quality SkyJet wants to achieve sellable one pass printing 150 How many nozzles per printhead 512 nozzles 256 in 2 lines 151 How many printheads per color Currently you may have up to two heads per color but in the future there will be the
110. vice area is at the right 123 Are there wipers You need to decide if a wiper is as effective as a well trained operator doing a manual wipe with a special cloth Also if you don t clean and maintain an automatic wiper it can do as much harm as good Wipers are not recommended by KonicaMinolta for their printheads Mimaki made the mistake to feature wipers for their Toshiba Tec printheads These wipers and those heads in general are one of the causes for issues with the Mimaki JF 1631 flatbed UV printer Wipers were also an issue with Ricoh printheads on the ColorSpan 5440uv 124 Where is the parking area home Parking station is at the left The same place of the capping area 125 Is the service area the same as the parking area No The service area is at the right and the parking area is at the left 126 Does this printer spit or weep flash ink at regular intervals Solvent inkjet printers spit ink at the end of every pass in order to keep all printhead nozzles open The reason is that if you are printing a banner with an area of pure cyan then the other printheads will not be jetting ink since their colors are not called for In theory these nozzles will clog while not being used So spitting allows all nozzles to eject ink occasionally Another way to allow all nozzles to squirt ink periodically is to have a band of CMYK or a band of six colors CMYK light Cyan light Magenta at one or both edges of the image
111. y cited the single favorable comment we made on one nice aspect of their printer but neglected to cite the rest of the review which pointed out the features of the printer which did not do so well For them to cor rect this error after the fact is rather embarrassing So it is safer to ask before you quote a FLAAR review on your product The material in this report is not only copyright it is also based on years of research Therefore if you cite or quote a pertinent section please provide a proper credit which would be minimally Nicholas Hellmuth year www FLAAR org If the quote is more than a few ma BVAVAN DG lt lolol ais words then academic tradition would expect that a footnote or en try in your bibliography would reference the complete title Publisher would be www FLAAR org If you intend to quote any portion of a FLAAR review in a PowerPoint presentation if this is in reference to any product that your company sells or promotes then it would be appropriate to license the report or otherwise notify us in advance FLAAR reports are being updated every week sometimes and our comment on that product may have been revised as we learned more about the product from end users Also we noticed that one company cited the single favorable com ment we made on one nice aspect of their printer but neglected to cite the rest of the review which pointed out the features of the printer which did not do so well For them to correct t
112. y of this anyway So it is essential to talk with people with other end users and with FLAAR in person on a consulting basis Acknowledgements With 12 employees the funding has to come from somewhere so we do welcome project sponsorship research grants contributions that facilitate our educational programs scholarships for co op interns and graduate students and comparable project oriented funding from manufacturers The benefit for the end user is a principle called academic freedom in this case e The freedom of a professor or student to speak out relative to the pros and cons of any equipment brought to them to benchmark The freedom to design the research project without outside meddling from the manufacturer Fortunately our budget is lean and cost effective as you would expect for a non profit research institute As long as we are not desperate for money we can avoid the temptation to accept payment for reprinting corporate PR hype So the funding is used for practical research We do not accept nor believe and certainly do not regurgitate corporate PR For example how many manufacturer s PR photos of their prod ucts have you seen in our reports or on our web sites Besides it does not take any money to see which printers and RIPs function as advertised and which don t We saw one hyped printer grind to a halt malfunction or otherwise publicly display its incapa bilities at several trade shows in a row At each
113. y work better on a Macintosh than on a PC RIP software may function well with one operating system yet have bugs and crash on the same platform but with a different oper ating system Thus be sure to test a printer under your own specific work conditions before you buy And if a printer RIP media or ink does not function return it with no ands ifs or buts Your best defense is to show an advertising claim that the printer simply can t achieve Such advertising claims are in violation of federal regulations and the printer companies know they are liable for misleading the public But before you make a federal case just be sure that many of the issues are not user error or unfamiliarity It may be that training or an additional accessory can make the printer do what you need it to ac complish Of course if the printer ads did not warn you that you had to purchase the additional pricey accessory that is a whole other issue Our reviews do not cover accessories since they are endless as is the range of training or lack thereof among users The major causes of printer breakdown and failure is lack of main tenance poor maintenance spotty maintenance or trying to jerry rig some part of the printer The equally common cause of printer breakdown is improper use generally due from lack of training or experience Another factor is whether you utilize your printer all day SkyJet UV FlatMaster Printer every day Most solvent and UV
114. yang It is essential to undertake a site visit case study of an actual printshop A full recommendation should not be issued until we can inspect how this printer holds up out in the real world But something we can document is that the company that designs and manufactures this flatbed printer is deserving of being evaluated Sky Air Ship is medium sized so more agile than a larger company and more experienced than a small manufacturer SkyJet UV FlatMaster printer at APPPEXPO Shanghai 2009 SkyJet UV FlatMaster printer at Sky Air Ship demo room 2009 UV Curable printer for Glass and other rigid materials E FL AVAN R Re exe rts SkyJet UV FlatMaster Printer Even as recent as a few years ago most printshops in North America and Western Europe would not consider most brands of printers if they were made in Asia But gradually the Chinese manu facturers are realizing that the past and recent history of lack of tech support low bid compo nents counterfeit parts and inadequate tech support is not the way to insure long range success Chinese engineers are fully capable of designing and manufacturing a printer that is fully func tional and that will hold up a reasonable period which for a printer would be at least three years and ideally for five years FLAAR is curious as to which of the 16 manufacturers have reached this stage So far there are only two Chinese manufacturers which have significant presence outside China RTZ and Teckwin At

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