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EFI VUTEk GS3200 - Large-format

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1. 52 What moves 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 What moves is basically transport belt and printhead carriage For example on the Inca Columbia the flatbed itself moves in and out for every line of print The 3M Leggett amp Platt machine is unique in that it has two options for movement both the material and the head assembly in X Y directions Most traditional combo style UV printers move rigid materials with the transport belt and move roll fed materials through a combi nation of the transport belt and the roll feeding and take up rollers Versatile Wide Format UV Inkjet Printer FLAAR Re ports For Rigid and Flexible Materials EPO aces 53 Is there a light inside when you open the hood Not at the moment A light would be appreciated OPERATING THE PRINTER 54 Can the operator manage print jobs via the Internet with this printer Not normally Sending jobs via internet is a function that implies not being present in the printer room which is not recommended 55 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 The printer is easy to use A person can be trained quickly to have the GS3200 printing However full training is necessary to perform more complex pro
2. To clear clogged nozzles you must use the Poly urethane wipe provided in the disposables kit If you use other type of material to clean the heads voids the printhead warranty 100 Who does repairs Dealer manufacturer distributor or third party The distributor In case of issues the sign shop in South Africa calls Antalis the dealer The owner has never had to call EFl VUTEk CLEANING amp MAINTENANCE NEEDS 101 How easy is it to access the area where you have to clean the heads Internal parts are very accessible because The area to service heads is closed by cabinet doors eee crached When you open the doors you are right in front of Besides once you open the left cabinet door the printhead carriage Besides the red caps are de you are in front of the printhead carriage tachable Versatile Wide Format UV Inkjet Printer BAVA Re ports For Rigid and Flexible Materials EP UE S S08 A Nozzle test pattern 102 How is head cleaning accomplished purge suction manual other Heads are cleaned by suction However if clogged nozzles are detected in the nozzle test you must clean the heads with the Polyurethane wipes that come in your disposable kit 103 To what degree is head cleaning automatic once you press a button and to what degree is it manual The suction is automatic in the sense that you control it via software As stated in the previous question clogged nozzles are cleaned manual
3. EFI VUTEK GS3200 9 a ma m i a ar aTi i T nl E Harnas iha Power of Cregital tried Work tere T E DE T a bo a rh 2 a Ge peat ri Ay A The MediaMaster is a very solid structure located at the back in this photo and a similar structure at the front One of the advantages of an auto matic feeding system is that your production times are shortened and less personnel is needed EFI Fiery XF Optimized Harness the Power of Dinias i il efi Y D Take up table The similarity between the rear and front tables can sometimes make it difficult to distinguish which is the front and which is the back of the printer A Versatile Wide Format UV Inkjet Printer FLAAR Re P O rts For Rigid and Flexible Materials ER OMENS Goaan i Similar pieces make it possible to stack the boards perfectly aligned at the front Versatile Wide Format UV Inkjet Printer AVAN Re ports For Rigid and Flexible Materials EP UE Se S Each suction vent is con nected to a valve to modify the strength according to the nature of each substrate The system of vents uses suction to lift the boards Each of these can be moved in X and Y axis The tables of the MediaMaster are based on conveyor strings moved by the rotating rollers The rear table receives the boards and transports them into the printing area Versatile Wide Format UV Inkjet Printer BAVA Re ports For Rigid and Flexible Materials EP UME Snan ye
4. l Versatile Wide Format UV Inkjet Printer FLAAR Reports EFI VUTEK GS3200 For Rigid and Flexible Materials 41 How to you fasten roll fed media to the take up reel You tape it down 42 What about the take up reel Does it work unattended Yes it works unattended But in general it is not recommended to leave the printer unattended 43 How much media is wasted during loading and feeding You don t waste much media because the edge is held with the vacuum function This is an advantage of combo with transport belt printers compared with roll to roll printers With some brands of printers you suspect that they are deliberately designed to waste ink and media since this is how those companies get their profits Media is moved too far out before you can cut it resulting in media being wasted before and after cutting etc The amount of waste also depends on whether you need to attach the leading edge of the media to the take up spool or whether you can simply leave the leading edge up on the platen or up on the conveyor transport belt as is possible on the Grapo Octopus II and some other combo printers There is less waste on a dedicated flatbed printer because there is no material used in loading or feeding up to the point it is printed upon There is almost no waste of media because the front end of flexible materials can be held down and tensed with the vacuum system 44 Can you print on more than one roll of substra
5. cedures such as working with the RIP maintenance etc 56 Is the printer user friendly Yes 57 Do you get an LCD screen in the printer or other real computer monitor How big is the screen or monitor Yes You get a real computer with the printer 58 Is the position of the LCD screen or monitor user adaptable The monitor is fixed to the control area base but it can be rotated to some degree 59 Can the keyboard be moved or is it fixed The printer comes with a real computer which is not mounted in the printer In other words it can be rotated to some degree into the structure of the printer The keyboard is not fixed into the ledge The CD ROM is located at the right very accesible to the operator 60 Is there a drawer under where the computer keyboard is a drawer for storing odds and ends Yes there is a hollow area in the ledge to put tools Besides at the right of the monitor there is a cavity for mugs or tools 61 Where does the operator stand or sit Operation area is at right 62 What aspects of the printer can you operate from behind the loading area Other than loading media there are only a few buttons to control transport belt movement plus the emergency stop buttons 63 What controls are on either end There are no controls at the ends TA AVAN A Gael elelais 64 Is a foot pedal included for operating aspects of the printer No There is no foot pedal 65 Can you do unattended
6. 131 Is the Operator Manual so poorly translated that you might make a mistake a mistake that could be damaging to your health or otherwise dangerous for your printshop Manuals are written in English by people whose mother tongue is English However literature does get translated to different lan guages In my desk I have a brochure of the EFI VUTEk GS3200 in German which I got at FESPA Munich 2010 An engineer from a European printer manufacturer explained that in the European Union manuals take longer to be released because manufacturers are required by law to publish manuals in several languages Should a trainee need assistance regarding language at EFI VUTEk a translator is brought in for training 132 How easy is it to obtain the MSDS of the ink It can be obtained online but you need to create an account and to create an account you have to enter the serial number of your printer 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 133 Which brand printhead is used During the evaluation at EFI factory in 2010 was told the brand and model was Seiko 508 printhead At FESPA Hamburg 2011 was told the printheads were Seiko 2
7. A camera 1 the rear table 13 F L A TAN R Re ie O rts Versatile Wide kek a ep ee The MediaMaster comes with a mid sized computer monitor around 17 wide The registration code can be seen through the software The operations are performed in part through physical buttons located in the main control area and in part through the computer 4 FLAAR Reports Versatile Wide Format UV Inkjet Printer EFI VUTEK GS3200 For Rigid and Flexible Materials After being printed on media is received by the take up table which drives boards under the front suction vents could be running another printer while the VUTEk GS3200 is printing Each of the vents has a suction regulator connected to a small pump The whole system is based on DC direct current motors which are often used in robotics As explained earlier the MediaMaster is an option available for US 125 000 Currently this mechanism is only available for the EFl VUTEk GS3200 Versatile Wide Format UV Inkjet Printer BAVA Re ports For Rigid and Flexible Materials BE sE ee At In the near future EFI will release a second version of the MediaMaster which will be able to load media directly from the pallet There will be a narrower distance from board to board 31 What kinds of raised guide bars alignment bars along the side of the table exist Left or right How long There are no guide bars However the gantry has an align
8. It holds 5 gallons 109 Where is the parking area home Parking area is at right 110 If you need to wipe yourself manually is it a dry wipe or a wet wipe with a solvent or clearning material To clean the printheads in case of detecting clogged nozzles you need to use the wipe that comes in your disposables kit with the head conditioning fluid MAINTENANCE 111 What daily procedure is required at start up in the morning You should do a start up purge put solvent on vacuum pads and oil the rail every 8 hours The head conditioning fluid bottle 1 and waste ink tank 2 are located at i i vod j the back in the binet to the right 112 What daily maintenance is required if you print a a the entire day long At Artone Press the sign shop in South Africa the printer is often put to print all day long Every 12 hours the printer receives the main tenance procedure 113 What other periodic maintenance is required by the operator Changing filters Also every 2 hours you should purge and wipe printheads 114 How do you clean the transport belt You don t really need to clean the transport belt It can be removed but it requires a field technician 115 What part s of this printer need the most attention to avoid breakdown Printheads are the most delicate part of the printer 116 What is the most delicate or complex or time consuming cleaning or maintenance chore The most complex task is cleaning
9. 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 212 How many lamps does the printer use Two Most normal UV printers have two lamps one for each direction of printing 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 The new model EFI VUTEk GS3250 LX with LED lamps was introduced at FESPA Hamburg 2011 According to the printer spec sheet the LED lamps last the life of the printer which would mean there is no expenses regarding lamp replacement i Versatile Wide Format UV Inkjet Printer FLAAR Re ports J EFI VUTEK GS3200 53 For Rigid and Flexible Materials 213 What shuts the lamps off
10. ly Ik 2W But according to an operator at a sign shop we visited recently printing in CMYK configuration is less cost and less time than printing with eight colors 193 Other than white how many spot colors are available What about metallic colors Currently there are no spot colors available 194 What is shelf life of the ink CMYK 1 year Shelf life of the ink depends on storage temperature plus on how honest the company was that delivered the ink If the company bought too much ink and could not sell it fast enough they might be tempted to back date the shelf life 195 What company makes the inks Choices include DuPont who could be considered as cheating by claiming the ink is theirs it prob ably comes from Triangle Jetrion now Ink Ware VUTEk Hexion now owned by Collins Sericol Sun Triangle KonicaMinolta Toyo AT Inks and several others Ink for EFl VUTEk printers is designed and manufac tured by EFI InkWare 196 How often do ink formulas change What are the implications for color management EFI tries not to change ink formulas VUTEk is the division of wide format inkjet printers InkWare is the division that manufactures the inks Both brands are part of the EFI corporation INK White amp Varnish 197 To use white ink does that require not using light colors in order to make space for the white ink No You can use light colors at the same time you are using white It is claimed th
11. 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 updated 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 98 What is the original warranty period At FESPA Munich 2010 was told the warranty was for 13 months 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 99 Does it include parts labor printheads The warranty includes one jet pack for free per color Printhead warranty restrictions e A wrong setting of lamps when printing on unknown materials is the major cause of media deformation and therefore head strikes The war ranty is voided in such case That is why the Basic Operator s Manual clearly advises to start with a low cure energy level and gradually increase cur ing energy as needed
12. scratch resistance How susceptible is the ink to abrasion Inks are guaranteed for 2 years Conclusions Pros With its 321 3 cm 126 5 the EFI VUTEk GS3200 is the widest UV cured combo printer considering that most other combo printers have a print width of only 250 cm 98 4 Other UV cured inkjet printers such as the Durst Rho 800 Rho 900 and Rho 1000 the HP Scitex FB950 the Polytype Virtu RS35 48 and Agfa Anapurna L and XL have a print width that does not exceed the 250 cm The printer was designed as a very versatile machine and as such several aspects were taken into account regarding the handling of rigid and flexible media For example for roll fed media the waste is minimized because you don t need to fix the front end of the media up to the take up roll since tension is created between the vacuum system and the feeding roller The MediaMaster is a very sophisticated mechanism that acceler ates production times although the investment is considerable another US 125 000 On the subject of the MediaMaster the de velopment has not stopped at its current stage and there will be a second generation of this mechanism which will be able to take the boards directly from the pallet The safety aspects have been carefully thought and implemented For example this is one of the printers that have the smallest UV light leakage in the industry Perhaps the printers that have less light leakage are the Inca and the
13. 19 Is the vacuum too weak for some materials Does this mean you have to waste your time and tape materials down to the top of the flatbed table The vacuum will not hold a board if it is warped This is not a failure but a practical reality This is a technical aspect you are warned about Versatile Wide Format UV Inkjet Printer y FLAAR Reports EFI VUTEK GS3200 For Rigid and Flexible Materials STRUCTURE OF THE PRINTER Media Transport Mechanism amp Media Path 20 Is there a moving transport belt combo style or a stationary platen hybrid style This is a combo printer In other words rigid media is moved forward with a conveyor belt So this printer can handle both rigid and roll fed media From the Agfa Anapurna M printers 158 cm print width up to the Durst Rho 1000 250 cm print width you notice that most combo printers are in this range of print width If you take on account its 321 cm print width the EFI VUTEk GS3200 is the widest UV combo printer in the market people call these type of printers hybrid FLAAR classifies the printers with moving conveyor belts as combo 21 Are there edge guards at each side end of the platen At left or at right or both No There are no edge guards 22 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 model was built from the ground up to be a UV curabl
14. DISTRIBUTORS amp DEALERS FEATURES OF THE PRINTER Vacuum STRUCTURE OF THE PRINTER Media Transport Mechanism STRUCTURE OF THE PRINTER if a combo style Transport Belt LINING UP FLAT MATERIAL to help it feed straight ROLL FED STRUCTURE Miscellaneous UPGRADES Future Improvements Miscellaneous OPERATING THE PRINTER CONSTRUCTION BUILD QUALITY AESTHETICS SET UP OF THE PRINTER PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS INSTALLATION OF THE PRINTER INSTALLATION OF THE PRINTER INSTRUCTIONS amp MANUALS TRAINING TECH SUPPORT amp WARRANTY CLEANING amp MAINTENANCE NEEDS MAINTENANCE SAFETY amp HEALTH CONCERNS PRINTHEAD TECHNOLOGY PRINTHEAD DPI amp Features Bi DIRECTIONAL VS Uni DIRECTIONAL PRINTING PRINTHEAD Positioning PRINTHEAD Associated Features PRINTHEAD Life Expectancy PRINTHEAD CARRIAGE and GANTRY SUBSTRATES LOADING MEDIA SUBSTRATES Materials Applications and Issues SUBSTRATES Cleaning Priming Preparation SUBSTRATES General Concerns WHAT IS THE INTENDED MARKET FOR THIS PRINTER APPLICATIONS INK INK White amp Varnish INK Cost INK Supply System Tubing Filters etc INK Color Gamut THE UV CURING LAMPS UV LAMPS Cooling RIP SOFTWARE amp Printer Software COLOR MANAGEMENT FEATURES PRODUCTIVITY amp ROI Return on Investment GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS COMPARISONS WITH OTHER PRINTERS SUMMARY Image Quality Issues Banding SUMMARY Image Quality Issues General Conclusions EFI VUTEK GS32
15. Smoothing is the technology by which banding issues are eliminated through blending the ink drops as they are fired by the printheads 237 Is text sharp or fuzzy What is the smallest text that you can easily read It is sharp 4 point text is perfectly readable Five years ago the dot pattern was like sand This is because each ink droplet is cured as a physical bit of ink on top of the substrate UV ink is not supposed to sink into the sub strate water based ink goes deep into the media to interact with the chemicals in the coating that are made specifically for water based ink Today in 2010 the better UV cured print ers have a texture that is not as sandy or textured as in past years But the printing mode speed and other factors may influ ence what the surface texture is really like This sample was printed with the No Smoothing setting Banding is noticable mostly in black ma FLAAR Reports bo xyz1234S567890 Grstuvwxyz 123456798900 ijkimnopgq rstuvwxyz 1234567890 OV e ghiikimnopqrstuvwxyz1234567 Se ae Zabcdefghijk Color mode De PORSTUVWE Zabedetgh fe MNOPQRSTUVWXY o we HIJKLMNOPQR Ta yz 1 790567890 Rata AQ Aee FAO 567 ingpa stuVv vxyz123 DE ghijk mi 4 Gefghijkimno parstu P Q Tt U VWXYZabcdefgh MNOPQRSTUVOT HIJKLMNOPO ae m z gt a O es Small text is tested with bl k over white background and white over black background to see the differ
16. a smaller version the an optional heavy duty unwinder GS2000 The MediaMaser includes front and rear structures The price is US 125 000 8 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 aregular set You get a starter set one box of each color 9 Is it recommended or required to buy a spare parts kit Or extra printheads Yes a spare parts kit is very helpful in serious production a 3 EFI MUTER GERBI and Automated Material Comreyor Rails wudersateed aa ed cepa ote em a ebe pirka carne yee proche sear aie eet wini ba Gaig eet e id papiri ih ee y t poore m US aL Biarea Wi ar ll Cpl be pa PY ge Pipe a u amai z P i j a F r ae ge a E i r z er aa es 3 y ot er ee ll The MediaMaster is the automatic board feeder discussed in detail further on It was first exhibited at ISA 2010 6 FLAAR Reports Versatile Wide Format UV Inkjet Printer EFI VUTEK GS3200 For Rigid and Flexible Materials PURCHASING DISTRIBUTORS amp DEALERS 10 Does the manufacturer have distributors in all continents Or only a few dealers and missing key world areas EFI has distributors in most major cities in the world 11 Are dealers national most companies or regional Roland allows a dealer to operate only within a limited regional area Does a buyer have any choice in dealers The co
17. are the printer s ink containers located Front back or end Up on top or lower down Color ink containers are located at the front The white is located at the back INK Color Gamut 209 Is the color gamut what your clients need for their logos and products How about red Does it turn out more or ange Is red bright enough in saturation to satisfy clients Or are the colors overall a bit dull EFl admits that the orange of Home Depot has been difficult to match Because the EFI VUTEk GS3200 uses eight inks plus two whites the color gamut is wide and most colors are accurate THE UV CURING LAMPS 210 How many different sets of lamps are there Is there pinning first and then curing later The lamps have a number of settings e Single cures with trailing lamp only e Double cures with both lamps e Post cures with the leading lamp only The lamp settings are user adaptable Also for multi layer printing you can increase the curing time and reduce the intensity of UV light i Versatile Wide Format UV Inkjet Printer FLAA R Re ports For Rigid and Flexible Materials BA UIE EAS In addition to these lamp settings the cure energy can also be varied To minimize head strikes with unknown substrates you are ad vised to start with a low curing energy and raise cure energy gradually as needed The cure energy can be set at e Low 20 e Medium 40 e High 60 e Maximum 100 e Custom User defined percentage 95 of UV
18. 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 203 How many liters of ink does the on board ink container hold in the main tank Each container holds 5 liters 204 What is the cost per container What is this cost translated to liters 165 per container So the price per liter is 33 Cost of ink varies depending on the dealer dis tributor 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 205 Does the printer itself have a means to keep track of ink usage Is this a guesti mate or an actual count of droplets fired Yes you can see the ink usage through the soft ware Ink comes in 5 liter cardboard containers What is the cost in ink per square unit 15 sq ft Versatile Wide Format UV Inkjet Printer D BRAVAS Re ports For Rigid and Flexible Materials EROUL JES aat 206 How can you see the remaining ink level Do you have to ask to see the ink mode or is the ink status available at all times You can see the ink levels via software 207 Can you hot swap the ink refill with ink while the printer is running Yes you can just connect the new containers INK Supply System Tubing Filters etc 208 Where
19. 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 Polyethylene and in general any thin film might be difficult to handle to the lamp s heat Heat sensitive materials for mercury arc UV lamps would include polyethylene polypropylene shrink wrap very thin and thermal sen sitive papers plastic coated cartons 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 applications and materials 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 especially 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 because 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 f
20. of boards The media fence has a number of metal blocks 3 that can be slid wherever needed AVN Reports Versatile Wide Format UV Inkjet Printer For Rigid and Flexible Materials EFI VUTEK GS3200 16 ROLL FED 36 How is media held flat Vacuum table Pinch rollers Media is held flat by a vacuum system There is also a media input hold down roller at the back the loading area At the front there is a similar system called the outfeed hold down roller but the latter has a knob to be manually adjusted 37 How is the roll held at the feeding position On a spindle On a saddle Yes on a spindle For wider printers like the EFI VUTEk 5000r the roll of material lays on a saddle because a spindle that wide might sag Roll fed media goes from the spindle straight to the conveyor belt There is no intermediate roller that creates tension because tension is created by the spindle and the vacuum system The hold down media roller 1 helps the system to keep media flat A saddle is formed of two rolls with a slight space between them You rest your roll of substrate on the saddle created by the two adjacent rolls You don t need to run a spindle through the roll You don t need to fumble loading the end of the spindle into two holders one at each end Loading a saddle is quicker as a result But a saddle is primarily used on heavy duty industrial printers 3 2 meters or wider where the weight of a roll may cause a s
21. printer prior to installation TRAINING 94 Is training included in the purchase price If so what kind of training is offered Yes training is included for two people 95 Is training necessary Yes Even when the printer is easy to use operators must be trained The preparation is oriented as a trouble shooting training to make operators capable of solving any basic problem that might come up 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 experience are a factor in about a third of the problems that people have with UV printers Another third is often inad equate 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 96 Is classroom training available Yes Training can take place in several locations e Classroom e Factory e On site 97 Between the day the printer arrives how soon is it realistic to achieve full productivity No more than one week The average time is 5 days Versatile Wide Format UV Inkjet Printer FLAA R Re ports For Rigid and Flexible Materials EE TE eae 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
22. printing For how long How about overnight You can do unattended printing especially with the MediaMaster However it is not recommended to leave the printer unattended for a long period while printing 66 How many operators or operator assistants does this printer require One operator is enough especially with the MediaMaster After initial setup there is not much the operator needs to do CONSTRUCTION BUILD QUALITY 67 Is there a hood Yes there is a hood at the front and one at the back 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 ex haust 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 manufactur er 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 that not to have a hood would be too risky for possible future law suits Yet in the real world most printshops run their printers with the hoods completely off or opened There is a hood at the front and at the back 68 The hood opening is it strong or cheap plastic The hood is strongly built You need to apply strength to either open it or close it 69 Does the hood opening have a frame Yes Also the hood windows are tinted so that the less light reflection pos
23. the quartz lenses It used to be more complex on the QS series 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 would list printhead cleaning as delicate SAFETY amp HEALTH CONCERNS 117 How is safety treated in the printed literature The first four pages of the Operator s Manual are dedicated to safety aspects It is good that this section talks about residual risks situations that might cause some damage in spite of all the security components built in the printer An manual that is honest about risks is always better than a document that tries to present a product as totally safe Versatile Wide Format UV Inkjet Printer BAVA Re ports For Rigid and Flexible Materials BE sE eA 118 How is safety treated in the printed literature The first four pages of the Operator s Manual are dedicated to safety aspects It is good that this section talks about residual risks situ ations that might cause some damage in spite of all the security components built in the printer An manual that is honest about risks is always better than a document that tries to present a product as totally safe GCC s StellarJet 250 UV manuals have among the best treatment of safety aspe
24. there 166 What about edge to edge printing borderless Yes it is possible Print width FLAAR Reports Versatile Wide Format UV Inkjet Printer EFI VUTEK GS3200 For Rigid and Flexible Materials LOADING MEDIA 167 If roll to roll what core diameter s will this printer accept The ideal for this printer is 3 cores 168 How about maximum roll diameter or weight The maximum weight is 400 pounds 181 44 kg across the length of the spindle 169 What about minimum size that can either be load ed or handled by the system The minimum recommended size is 12 170 What thickness can this printer handle 2 5 08cm The height of media is read by the infeed roller located at the back 171 Can you measure the height of the material with a sensor or is it manual The thickness of the material is measured with a roller located at the feeding area Media height data is sent to the software according to how high the roller is lifted 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 printhead 172 Is roll fed media loaded from the rear top or front Roll fed media is loaded from the rear 173 Ifyou have to load a really long roll are there clamps or any other system to allow you to secure the first por tion so the first portion won t undo itself while you are several meters away trying to load the other
25. 00 Contents OV COON OW RA 21 22 23 24 25 25 28 29 29 30 30 33 33 37 39 40 40 41 41 42 42 43 44 45 46 46 47 47 48 49 50 50 50 53 55 55 55 55 56 56 57 60 TFLAAR Reports Versatile Wide Format UV Inkjet Printer For Rigid and Flexible Materials EFI VUTEK GS3200 1 Brand name model EFI VUTEk GS3200 2 If there are two or three or more widths of this printer what differences exist other than the width There is only one width 321 3 cm 126 5 but the GS family has a smaller version the GS2000 which accepts media up to 203 2 cm 80 As of 2011 there are new models based on the GS3200 the GS3250LX with LED lamps and the GS3250r not really the same chassis since it is a dedicated roll to roll This evaluation is based on notes taken at EFl demo room in Meredith NH plus notes from several trade shows around the world ISA in Orlando FESPA in Munich APPPEXPO in Shanghai etc wi 3 What is the nature of the company Is this company the manufacturer distributor or rebranding a machine made by someone else EFl VUTEk is the manufacturer of these printers the company is based in the United States have noticed that the brand is one of the most known in the wide for mat industry around the world kn a T e F _ D Saa 4 What is the philosophy be hind the development of this printer What did the manu facturer seek to achie
26. 55 The VUTEk printers are one of the few UV printers using Seiko heads Most UV printers use either Spectra high end price range Konica Minolta mid range printers or XAAR mainly entry level printers Toshiba Tec and Ricoh are other less common brands It is reported that one downside of Seiko heads circa several years ago is that they must spit which waste expensive ink It would be useful to undertake a site visit case study to learn whether the spit ting is still necessary or not If not but if we learn this from the print er operator on site we would update our comments in this section 134 Is the printhead identified in the spec sheet brochure by brand or also by model or not at all Printhead specifications are not commonly published However it is open knowledge that this model uses Seiko printheads 135 Is only the printhead used by itself or is an entire elec tronic assembly also from the printhead manufacturer The electronic assembly related to printheads is designed by EFI pA VUTEk but assembled by another company FLAAR has an archive of a number photographs of Seiko printhead models exhibited at different trade shows This is possibly the model used in the EFI VUTEk GS3250 printer Versatile Wide Format UV Inkjet Printer FLAAR Reports EFI VUTEK GS3200 For Rigid and Flexible Materials 136 How many other printers utilize the same printhead Have they shown any problems The only other wi
27. For example after so many minutes of not being used or if they overheat The hood and cabinet doors are interlocked If opened the whole printer will cease working and therefore lamps go off If there is a head crash the lamps will also go off This is a crucial question and one seldom asked elsewhere if your UV lamps need to be turned off after the printer being unused for 5 to 10 minutes then your lamps life gets used up quickly if they are mercury arc Each strike turning the lamp off and on one time can lower the life of the lamp by one or two hours So ideally you want a kind of UV lamp system where the lamps can stay on as long as possible to avoid having to turn them off and on all day long Another downside of having to turn the lamps off is that you then have to let them cool down and then have to let them heat up again Most of these issues are with mercury arc lamps due to their intense heat You don t have these problems with LED lamps 214 How long does the lamp last in terms of hours of operation Each lamp lasts an average of 800 to 1000 hours One of the safety aspects designed in the EFl VUTEk GS3200 is related to UV lamps whenever a door in the printer is opened the shutters close and the printhead carriage stops This prevents the operator from suffering eye damage with UV light UV LAMPS Cooling 215 How often do the shutters stick It has only happened once in a QS 3200 The shutters on the Gandin
28. Gerber printers which are to tally enclosed On the aspect of safety it is worth to point out that the manual is very honest with the potential risks At the end of the Safety chapter there is a section that discusses residual risks which are risks that still remain in spite of all the safety mecha nisms integrated in the printer find the position of the printheads very clever By this mean the mirroring of light colors relative to the full colors EFI VUTEk deserves recognition for being honest in calling their printer a 3 2 meter machine It is embarrassing how many other printers or other brands can handle only 3 1 meters but are loud ly labeled as 3 2 meter printers Cons Although the possibilities with this printer are wide EFl has been rather conservative regarding the type of substrates used with the GS3200 All of the applications exhibited at trade shows and at the demo room are printed on media especially manufactured to be printed on with inkjet printers This is not necessarily bad but there has not been any other application outside traditional signage advertised for this printer No glass no tiles no wood just foamboard Styrene vinyl or similar inkjet media Potential issues not serious enough to be a fully negative point Except for the position of the monitor it is somewhat difficult to know which is the front and which is the back This is even more difficult when the MediaMaster is placed in front o
29. a AVN Reports Nicholas Hellmuth and Jose Melgar October 2011 Versatile Wide Format UV Inkjet Printer For Rigid and Flexible Materials HII MULLAST HII ill Il ll HH EFI VUTEk GS3200 With the MediaMaster an automatic Media Transport System AVAE 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 from 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 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 printers NET Copyright 2010 Versatile Wide Format UV Inkjet Printer For Rigid and Flexible Materials THE BASICS PURCHASING
30. acilitated by the printer design and firmware amp FLAAR Reports 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 180 What about build up of static electricity What kind of materials 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 There are static dissipaters which are bars placed between the printhead carriage and the UV lamps 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 Grounding 0 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 main tain a high humidity They admit that the static electricity situation var ies depending on each site s situation Nonetheless some UV printers already have anti static systems care fully built into their printers When these work it documents that the investment is well spent However i
31. at if you have variable droplet heads 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 Poster Shop RIP that causes the noticeable dithering pattern this RIP is renowned for this issue 198 What is the sequence of printing the white ink Can you print all white and then print colors on top You can do e Colors White Colors e White Colors e Colors White 199 How many ink lines or printheads are dedicated to white ink One or two Two Versatile Wide Format UV Inkjet Printer TAVANA Re ports For Rigid and Flexible Materials EEs E eA 200 What is the shelf life of white ink compared with CMYK colors It is the same one year 201 Is the white ink tank situated in the same area as the other inks No It is at the back because the white ink has a recirculation system INK Cost 202 Does the refill container of ink come in cartridge bottles or bulk How large are the ink containers for this replacement ink Ink comes in 5 liter containers Each container is a bag that comes in a cardboard box 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 the old one out throw it away and place the new container in its place Cartridges tend to only
32. ce Technician 88 Is installation included in the purchase price Yes 89 How many people come for the installa tion Most of the times one person is sent for installation a Field service Technician but you can also have an If you rent a fork lift truck keep in mind that the weight of the printer with the crate is Applications Technician around 4 25 Tons FLAAR Reports INSTALLATION OF THE PRINTER INSTRUCTIONS amp MANUALS 90 How many manuals are available There are at least three documents e Basic Operator s Guide VTS 00066 efi e Pre Installation Guide an aaa my spo ones e Customer Support Information Guide na Basic Operator s Guide 652000 and 653200 e Basic Printer Safety Guide efi wT Introduction 91 Which manuals are hard copy Pore rey Ee ef egy Which manuals are only on CD jie a Most manuals are in PDF version and avail Uncrated able online Table 1 G 2000 Printer only no Pallet or Pallet Sides a e L Co e e 92 Is there a Site Preparation Guide Yes the Pre Installation Guide Table 2 653200 Printer only h Pallet or Pallet Sides 93 Is there a Service Manual Yes Printer Specifications PDF version Basic Operator s Guide PDF version 12 pages This document provides brief 113 pages This document explains in detail information about the printer dimensions about parts procedures and warnings to and technical requirements to be met operate the
33. cts in other words they tell you point blank some of the reality of UV ink and UV lamps If the warnings do not make you cringe they are not realistic 119 How many emergency stop buttons are there Where are they located Four There is one near each end of the transport belt There is one emergency stop button at each corner of the conveyor belt 120 Have you employed an emergency stop yet Only when media comes warped 121 Is there auto shut down If so what triggers it The hoods cabinet doors and red caps are interlocked If opened the printer stops If you remove the red caps the printer will stop ez Az VUTEL The printer will not work if any of the hoods or cab inet doors are opened If the printer is running and any of these doors are opened the printer will cease to work 6 rLAAR Reports Versatile Wide Format UV Inkjet Printer EFI VUTEK GS3200 For Rigid and Flexible Materials 122 Is the machine enclosed or exposed The machine is totally enclosed 123 Does the hood close down completely to seal the system or are there a few inches open at the bottom Being a UV printer for rigid and roll fed substrates the hood has a gap to let boards come off at the front The printer handles rigid boards with a thickness up to 5 08cm The hood on any hybrid or combo system must allow space for boards to pass through so it s hood can never close down tightly onto the platen area The design must allo
34. 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 211 What technology is used in curing lamps microwave continuous mercury arc LED or flash pulsed Xenon Mercury arc lamps The new model GS3250LX uses LED lamps instead of traditional mercury arc technology The advantages of using LED lamps are mainly two First LED lamps are said to last the productive life of the printer whereas traditional mercury arc UV lamps need to be changed every certain time The second advantage is LED UV lamps do not emit as much heat as mercury arc technology allowing you to print on heat sensitive materials that would be impossible with mercury arc UV lamps This aspect has the subsequent advantage that the printer uses less energy However not many printer manufacturers have been successful with LED curing technology Even the new Fujifilm Acuity LED 1600 UV printer launched recently has curing issues the ink still feels tacky after printing which hardly ever occurs with mercury arc UV lamps In spite of the industrial size of the UV curing lamps there is minimum light leaking a FLAAR Reports Versatile Wide Format UV Inkjet Printer EFI VUTEK GS3200 For Rigid and Flexible Materials 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
35. de format inkjet printers can think of that use Seiko heads are solvent printers Before 2011 thought EFI VUTEk printers were the only wide format UV inkjet printers using this brand But after D PES Dongguan trade show in China I learned there are at least 4 other UV Chinese models using Seiko heads All components used to build the printer are evaluated and compared Seiko met the specifications of what VUTEk engineers conceived for this printer 137 What are the benefits of this printhead The printhead s native resolution and number of nozzles were the aspects that inclined the balance towards Seiko 138 How many nozzles per printhead 508 139 Can asensor s detect clogged nozzles and can software provide backup nozzles to cover that missing area on the next pass There is no sensor that detects blocked nozzles but a nozzle print test is one of the daily procedures before starting production 140 How many total number of printheads 20 heads Seiko printheads are a unique feature of VUTEk printers FLAAR Reports PRINTHEAD DPI amp Features 141 What is the drop size in picoliters The printheads produce two sizes of drops which are directly related to the resolution 24pl or 12pl This is one of the reasons why the printer reaches such detailed prints Most other printers in this price range use Spectra heads that produce 50 or 80pl This does not necessarily mean that Seiko is better than Spectra but in gen
36. dimensions given in the Printer Specifications document based on using 4 x 8 1 2m x 2 4m boards If you print on larger boards you will need more space at all sides WD PrZ 96 81 What is the size and weight of the printer The following data is information of the printer uncrated Width Length Height Total Weight AA JAR AS A JIS yc JU 7A TO O VL aU iW De i 6 FLAAR Reports These are the dimensions of the printed including the crate 82 How many boxes arrive You get one crate of course unless you order the MediaMaster 83 What comes in the box The printer already put together The crate adds about 10 to each side of the printer INSTALLATION OF THE PRINTER 84 Realistically what expenses must you incur for the installation such as a fork lift truck or crane to lift the printer off the truck You need to consider a fork lift truck and a crew to a move the printer All these aspects are detailed in the Po lt e Pre Installation Guide eo 85 Does the printer have lifting hooks on the top or elsewhere The printer is lifted from the bottom 86 What size and kind of forklift truck do you need Or do you need a crane You need a huge fork lift truck not a normal one Keep in mind that the printer weights 2 815 Kg More than 6 000 pounds 87 Can you install this printer yourself ae ower gyus No Installation needs to be done by an EFI Field Ser vi
37. does the printer manufacturer made This 3 2 meter wide flatbed and roll to roll UV printer extends your printing capabilities with the highest image quality fastest pro duction speeds and the best color gamut This statement is true to some degree A sign shop operator says the printer is in fact very fast It might not be the absolute fastest printer but it is definitely more production oriented than some other UV printers of which a few are infamous for being slow As for the color gamut UV cured ink of most brands of ink is not the same gamut as full solvent or mild solvent ink But in the last several years colors produced by UV curing have improved and clearly UV cured colors today are considered acceptable on most materials for most clients What FLAAR would include in the advertising is a statement about good edge definition Too many cheap UV cured printers cause spray or poor dot placement position so letters have a shadow of tiny droplets on one side Even the entry level EFl Rastek H652 had good edge control considering its under 130 000 price and the edge control of a higher level VUTEk printer would also be worth mentioning here 229 Can this printer hold up to two or three shifts per day all week In the sign shop at South Africa this printer is used in 2 shifts of 8 hours so 16 hours a day but often it is printing 24 hours GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 227 How many printers of this model are in use in the USA in the r
38. duction is sur prised 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 77 Are there any special temperature or humidity requirements or preferences of this printing system Temperature needs to be in a range 68 F to 85 F 20 C to 30 C Humidity range is 30 to 80 non condensing fo Pa The EFI VUTEk GS3200 printer at ARTONE Press You can see the two exhaust pipes on top FLAAR Reports 27 78 What is the connectivity Network SCSI FireWire USB or USB 2 or other Sending files can be done via Network USB and CD or DVD 79 What air pressure is required to be provided to the printer Is this for a vacuum table or other purposes such as ventilation 95 to 150 psi 6 7 kgf cm2 to 10 2 kgf cm2 Dry air only 80 Realistically how much surrounding and support space will the equipment need in addition to the machine s own footprint The following diagram explains the space requirements for the GS3200 Floor Space required for the EFI VUTEk GS3200 297 754 cm 48 122 cm 48 122 cm lt _______ lt ___ gt WD PZ 96 Note These are the minimum
39. e opposite direction would thus consider the ability of the GS 3200 to move backwards as well as forwards a useful feature and one possibly not found on all competing brands a j W i nN h l ff il The transport belt can be moved forwards or backwards Versatile Wide Format UV Inkjet Printer FLAAR Reports EFI VUTEK GS3200 For Rigid and Flexible Materials 27 How many rollers control the belt is the path of the belt horizontal or triangular The front roller has a servo motor at the right This is the drive roller The path of the belt is horizontal You should expect at least one drive roller and one driven roller one at the front the other at the back In between is a rectangular horizontal vacuum bed essentially the same kind of bed you get on a dedicated flatbed printer The IP amp l Revo has three rollers as does the new Shark from Grapo The IP amp l Cube260uv has four rollers that control the transport belt This adjustment and alignment control system on the IP amp l Cube UV printers is the most sophisticated have yet noticed 28 How well does this belt hold up to heavy use Does it skew There haven t been any reports of a belt skewing so far EFI VUTEk has plenty of experience building printers with this type of media feeding mechanism You can check this yourself to some degree by looking at the transport belt from either side Have the lighting shine on the belt so that you can see the horizonta
40. e output side call this the front Front of the printer left and back of the printer right are indeed very similar This similarity increases with the MediaMaster SET UP OF THE PRINTER PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS 74 What is the delivery time between the time I order the printer and it is delivered Delivery time depends on the region and the dealer but the GS printers have an average delivery time of 8 to 12 weeks However at Artone Press we were told their GS3200 took 2 weeks to assemble plus 1 week overseas plus one in South Africa before actual installation 75 What are the electrical requirements of this printer This means will the building have to be rewired 3 phase 60 amps 4 wire Delta or 5 wire Y 200 240 VAC 50 60 Hz A power cable is not included with the printer because each city has differences in the nature of the power service Therefore a cable should be supplied by the customer To ensure that the printer s dedicated power source meets the requirements for this printer it is strongly recommended that a local licensed electrician handles electrical installation in your facility l Versatile Wide Format UV Inkjet Printer FLAAR Re ports For Rigid and Flexible Materials PUE SE Ae 76 Do you need to budget installing a ventilation or room exhaust system Yes it is recommended All UV printers need room ventilation for everything from ozone to misting ink to general odor Increasingly ozone pro
41. e printer However EFI does require a ventilation system installed to extract ozone ink mist solvent fumes and heat from the enclosed area The hoses of the ventilation system are attached to the openings of the fans located on top of the printer 128 What is the noise level primarily of the fans for the vacuum The printer is pretty quiet The only perceptible sound is the hum of the vacuum 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 129 What moving parts might hit a person if they are standing near the printer There is practically no moving part that might hit a person because as explained earlier the hoods door cabinets and red caps are interlocked The printer will not start any movement if any hood or door is opened In addition the ends of the drive roller the roller that generates the movement of the transport belt are covered There is no rotating part left uncovered amp FLAAR Reports 130 Are any other safety or health issues involved Does the operator need to be concerned with any other safety precautions Safety was an important aspect in the design stage Changing ink containers does not involve physical contact with the ink because of the design of the containers There are no light leaks from UV lamps because the hood has only small windows which are tinted
42. e printer but EFI VUTEk has experience as a manufacturer of several tech nologies including solvent UV and textile printers rLAAR Reports Versatile Wide Format UV Inkjet Printer EFI VUTEK GS3200 For Rigid and Flexible Materials STRUCTURE OF THE PRINTER if a combo style Transport Belt 23 Describe the transport belt The transport belt is controlled by two rollers at the front and at the back Belts that are solid may track well but may be especially difficult to replace 24 What is the kind of material out of which the transport belt is made The belt is made out of nylon 25 What exists in front of the belt At the front In front of the belt at the back If the accessory table is not in front of the belt then there is nothing in front 26 Can the belt move forwards and backwards or only forwards Yes you can enter a value of transport belt movement either forward or backward There are two functions to move the belt e Stepping moves the belt a set distance either forwards or backwards e Jogging moves the belt continuously either forwards or backwards only began to ask this question when learned that the transport belt of the Sun Neo LED Evolution could go either forwards or back wards The reason on that printer is because the white ink heads are set behind the others So if you want to do a pre flood coat you print in one sequence if you need to do a post white ink layer you move the material in th
43. e s ae em ee ce hs a a pot A iy ae i E ri T LAF Lei a ly ta E EAR A i A ie PE E i FE p5 gt z Most ink tubes are black except for the ones connecting with the secondary ink tanks 1 Notice that the secondary ink tank tubes for white 2 are a little bit higher than the rest of the tubes for other inks 162 Where are all the electronics situated Above the heads behind the heads On the back side of the carriage The AC power and other electronics are located at the back in the lower left cabinet SUBSTRATES 163 Can this printer handle printer rigid material only or roll to roll only or both interchangeably The GS3200 handles rigid and roll to roll substrates 164 What sizes of material can be printed on As mentioned earlier this printer handles up to 3 21m 126 5 165 What is the difference between media width and actual print width The real print width is actually one centimeter wider than the advertised print width in the model designation Material nA ONR We have this entry because some printers are called 3 2 because they a He SR Vhs accept substrates that are 3 2 wide but the printer can actually print only IRA model is named 3 1 meters In such a case the model name is misleading and incorrect in a sense have even seen some model designations claiming 3 3 when 3 21m 3 21m 3 2m they only hold media 3 2 meters So there is a bit of misleading advertis ing out
44. end Since roll fed media can be held flat with the vacuum there is no need of any gripping accessories Flexible media and rigid media is loaded at the back With the MediaMaster boards are also loaded at the back Versatile Wide Format UV Inkjet Printer FLAAR Re ports For Rigid and Flexible Materials SAUTE cA SUBSTRATES Materials Applications and Issues 174 What materials does the manufacturer list Mainly signage materials e Foamboard e Styrene e Sintra e Coroplast e PE e Plexiglas e Vinyl etc Being an industrial printer the GS3200 can print on most reasonably flat mate rials under 2 thick but realize that most combo printers are susceptible to suffer ing belt damage with sharp materials 175 What materials can this printer print on perfectly PVC Sintra Foamboard Dybond Poly carbonate Vinyl 176 What materials can this printer print on sort of okay but where you have to overcome problems Acrylic can be printed but the final output might present adhesion problems 177 Can you print on mirrors Yes it is possible but it is recommended Most of the substrates listed by EFI are especially manufactured for inkjet printers In other to check heads more often words EFI is conservative in the applications advertised for the GS3200 178 What feeding issues are there with some materials There have not been any feeding issues complaints so far 179 Heat concerns will the
45. ent results 238 What about satellite drops which cause edge splatter Splatter of ink means droplets outside the intended area Learning about satellite drops gets technical quickly The ink the ink delivery system the printhead and the selected printing mode may all affect whether or not you have satelliate drops 239 What causes edge splatter in addition to satellite drops Ink splatter is visible either where a dark color adjoins a lighter area or with black text against a lighter background You see this on all text or wherever one color changes to another color One tech support person suggested splatter was caused by satellite drops Evidently a high firing frequency develops more satellite droplets It was also suggested that splatter could come from mis registration between heads or simply bad ink 240 Is text sharp or fuzzy What is the smallest text that you can easily read It is sharp 4 point text is perfectly readable Five years ago the dot pattern was like sand This is because each ink droplet is cured as a physical bit of ink on top of the substrate UV ink is not supposed to sink into the substrate water based ink goes deep into the media to interact with the chemicals in the coating that are made specifically for water based ink Today in 2010 the better UV cured printers have a texture that is not as sandy or textured as in past years But the printing mode speed and other factors may influence what the surface
46. eral the smaller the drop size the better the print quality 142 Is there variable droplet capability The printhead s own literature explains that the drop size can be varied in multiples of 12pl up to 7 times but a drop size bigger than 48 pl 12pl x 4 would tend to decrease the print quality 143 What is the advertised DPI and is it true dpi or apparent dpi How is dpi presented with what adjectives How is this dpi calculated With the two optional drop sizes there are two corresponding resolutions 600 dpi with 24pl and 1000 dpi with 12p 144 Does the software use passes or modes to describe quality levels Quality levels are described in terms of smoothing which is the technology used to get rid of print issues such as banding 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 comparing 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 o
47. est of the world Around 100 in the world amp FLAAR Reports FLAAR visited RGB Digital Wide Color a sign shop near Seoul and the owner had recently bought a VUTEk QS3200 he liked it and bought a Rastek H650 He uses his VUTEk to print on glass 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 COMPARISONS WITH OTHER PRINTERS 230 When people are considering buying this printer what other printer s are they also looking at Potential buyers are also looking toward Durst and HP The Polytype Virtu RS series might also be a competitor but the Swiss company is not as strong in the market as Durst and HP 231 What features on the other printers may be issues Reportedely the EFI VUTEk GS3200 prints in 4 minutes the same amount printed with the Zund 215 in 1 hour 15 minutes This is not only a spec sheet comparison but a statement of a printer operator who handles both printers in a sign shop However their Zund might have been purchased several years ago since Zund stopped manufacturing printers a number of years ago whereas the GS3200 was bought in October 2010 H ey cae HE This sign shop has an EFI VUTEk GS3200 and a Zund 215 UV printer According to the operator the EFI VUTEk is significantly faster than the Zund model Although Durst specializes in combo printers with conveyo
48. f speed the time required to print is twice as much in bi directional mode 149 Which materials really ought to be printed at the uni directional mode Uni directional mode is there just in case very rare situations but it is almost never used 150 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 151 Are the printheads in a straight row or staggered Printheads are staggered as shown in the diagram Position of Printheads in the EFI VUTEk GS3200 Notice that each color is placed in a mirrored position relative to its corresponding light color The normal position for printheads is parallel to W each other in a row But there are exceptions and staggered the positions may have other benefits W Each pattern for positioning the printheads has a reason but most printheads are simply parallel to each other in one row 152 How complex is the procedure to align the printheads When you add a new head how long does it take to align it It is rare to have the User Manual explain the process to align the printheads 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 s
49. f 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 satisfactorily One economical 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 wast ing time with those materials which do not have a static issue And be aware that the amount of cleaning liquid you put onto a mate rial can cause after effects when that same material is heated by the There is one static dissipater bar at each side of the printhead UV lamps carriage SUBSTRATES Cleaning Priming Preparation 181 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 182 What liquid cleaning material should you use to clean your materials Which kind of cleaner and which kind of materials per cleaner Isopropyl alcohol is recommended Versatile Wide Format UV In
50. f the printer Experienced operators will know how to service Spectra or Koni caMinolta printheads But Seiko heads are not common in UV printers In fact the only other printer know that uses Seiko print heads is the 3 meter Challenger solvent printer Authorship The FAQ question format is by Nicholas Hellmuth Editing is also by Hellmuth The day after day inspection of the printer in the demo room and the detailed inspection of the GS3200 printer at trade shows all around the world is by Jose Melgar He is one of the sev eral Technical Writers of FLAAR trained for many years at printer manufacturers in many countries He has been at the factories of L amp P Digital in Florida Gandinnovations in Toronto IP amp l in Korea Sky Air Ship in China and at ISA SGIA FESPA year after year FLAAR has so many requests for evaluations of printers but in creasingly especially of inks media flatbed cutters laminators etc that there are now many more individuals at FLAAR besides Dr Hellmuth who have the experience to undertake evaluations Most Recently Updated October 2011 First Issued December 2010
51. heet it would be ascertainable sooner or later anyway commend HP for being ethical in listing this aspect of maintenance up front in their spec sheet The reason HP does this is because MEMS heads may be prone to spontaneous failure So you may need to replace one of the hundreds of heads several times a week not the same head but if there are 365 heads it may be almost one a day at least that was the failure rate in 2007 hopefully the failure rate in 2011 is not that high Fortunately Seiko heads are not MEMS so you don t have to replace one a day Versatile Wide Format UV Inkjet Printer BAVA Re ports For Rigid and Flexible Materials EA UIE AS 153 Can you vary the gap the distance from the printhead to the media which is the distance the ink droplets must fly Yes the printhead carriage height can be varied PRINTHEAD Associated Features 154 Is ink heated in a buffer or elsewhere before arriving near the printhead Ink is heated in the carriage 155 Is there a heater associated with each printhead Yes the temperature for each printhead can be adjusted if desired Since ink is heated in the secondary ink tanks there is a heater associated with each printhead 156 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 pr
52. hough the range of applications is wide high quality POP signage is the specialty of the GS3200 190 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 It is the same ink A number of printer manufacturers advertise two types of ink for their UV printers Downside of this is that changing from one ink to another is complicated you have to clean the whole ink system install calibrate and print A Manager from another company men tioned that the engineering team at her company decided to have only one type of ink because you lose an average of half liter of ink every time you change of ink for different applications 191 Is an extrudable or thermal formable ink available from the printer manufacturer Not currently In the past only Hexion and Gandinnovations offered a special heat formable UV cured ink The Mimaki heat formed samples are simply a basic generic flexible UV ink that they can stretch a bit as of summer 2008 Mimaki was not yet using a real dedicated thermo formable ink Mimaki heat formable ink may come from 3M At DRUPA 2008 if remember correctly Durst announced that a heat formable ink would be available for their Rho printers Versatile Wide Format UV Inkjet Printer FLAAR Re ports For Rigid and Flexible Materials EA UGEN coe 192 How many colors are used to produce out put four six or eight CMYK lc Im
53. igned to be a versatile printer capable of reaching several markets In late 2009 FLAAR visited a sign shop in South Korea that was printing applications on glass with the EFI VUTEk QS3200 the previous model In general the VUTEk printers are aimed to sign shops looking for industrial production with a high print quality iI f Wi ia l alal B i iza a i A J Ls E Ti i Pa m EFI VUTEk QS 3200 at RGB Digital Wide Color a few kilometers away of Seoul Korea The owner liked so much his EFI Rastek T660 printer foreground that he decided to purchase the larger EFI VUTEk printer Versatile Wide Format UV Inkjet Printer BAVA Re ports For Rigid and Flexible Materials EE sE eA 186 Are other markets buying this printer that were unexpected Besides traditional sign shops this model has been bought by printers dedicated to the fashion fine art and POP signage industries 187 What markets that printshops aim for might be prospective buyers of prints from this printer Again the printer can cover several markets The only market that would be better with the GS5000r is billboard signage 188 What kinds of companies have bought this printer models in the last two years Screen printers digital printers commercial print ers photo labs APPLICATIONS 189 What are the applications listed by the manufacturer Advertising material like POP banners outdoor sig nage photographic applications Alt
54. ing bar the media fence that goes up and down along the belt 32 Is there a registration gate that is lowered across the back printing area Yes there is a media fence at the back to align rigid boards 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 33 Does the drop down gate have moveable features to assist in registering materials Yes the media fence has a number of media alignment blocks that can be slid along the media fence and placed wherever needed 34 Can you be feeding or aligning new material at one side of the printer while the previous job is still printing out the other side Yes it is possible Feeding new material will be more efficient when the automatic feeding mechanism goes out of beta stage 35 Is two sided printing realistic Is there a mechanism for registering the position of the image on the second side Yes it is possible Since the earlier QS models you can print one side flip the substrate over and instead of aligning it to the left you align it to the right edge Take on account that the best way to print both sides on a combo with perfect registration is to have registration pins like does the IP amp I 1606 the HP Scitex FB950 There is a media fence 1 at the back that is lowered to align boards There is a metric strip 2 for a more accurate alignment
55. inters did their heating Today GRAPO is one of the few serious UV curable inkjet printer manufactur ers outside China that uses a heated plate to heat their ink but with 45 manufacturers there are always surprises GRAPO has plenty of experience since they are themselves a signage printshop so they would not use any system that was not successful 157 Does any other part of the printer have heat such as the platen No with the Seiko 508 heads ink is heated externally 158 What is the firing frequency voltage of the printheads in KHz 18 kHz 159 Is negative pressure required to maintain the ink without the ink dripping out the printhead when the machine is turned off Yes negative pressure is needed PRINTHEAD Life Expectancy 160 How often can you expect head strikes What causes them Who will replace the printheads and at whose cost As mentioned earlier the Basic Operator s Guide states clearly that an inadequate lamp setting e g High or Maximum may cause the media to deform This is the major cause of head strikes The text warns that the warranty does not cover printheads in such case Versatile Wide Format UV Inkjet Printer BAVA Re ports For Rigid and Flexible Materials PA UIE SSB 0 PRINTHEAD CARRIAGE and GANTRY 161 Describe the carriage box that carries the printheads The printhead carriage is a little bit too boxy Not that it needs to be trendy but the design is 100 functionality i fi
56. kjet Printer FLAAR Re ports For Rigid and Flexible Materials BE sE eee At SUBSTRATES General Concerns 183 Although this printer prints on almost all materials what is the adhesion rate with most materials Does the ink easily scratch off certain materials EFI is upfront about the issues with acrylic Therefore polycarbonate is suggested as replacement for acrylic Realize that all statements must be judged based on how long the ink has been on the material and the surface nature of the material Not all fluted plastic material is the same and six months later the adhesion could theoretically be different based on conditions of display and the nature of the surface of the material Adhesion may be difficult on polypropylene and Lexan Some UV ink does not work well on Coroplast or prints well but begins to fall off after several months You need to test each material yourself before you promise your client you can do a job that will hold up six months or a year 184 Is feeding the substrate manual or automatic Feeding rigid materials is manual Roll fed materials is automatic The MediaMaster the automatic rigid board feeder is still in alpha stage although it has already been exhibited since ISA 2010 WHAT IS THE INTENDED MARKET FOR THIS PRINTER 185 What is the market that the manufacturer has designed this printer for Although EFI is rather conservative with the applications at trade shows the GS3200 was des
57. l sections What you want to see is whether the woven aspect of the belt remains straight or whether it has shifted from stress and strain Several other UV printers have an infamous record of belts that may be so unstable that they wander But with even the combo belts that are considered acceptable some materials will skew depends on belt usage wear and tear on material weight and surface characteristics etc LINING UP FLAT MATERIAL to help it feed straight 29 How is rigid media fed Media is fed manually at the back 30 Is a feeder stacker option available At ISA 2010 this model was exhibited with a sophisticated automatic feeding mechanism called the MediaMaster based on adjustable vents which lift the boards from the stack you can set up to three piles of boards and place them on top of a table This table consists in a series of rotating strings that transport the boards up to the printer s transport belt The position of each rotating string is adjustable within the table Also the table and the whole feeding mechanism is not physically attached to the printer which means you can roll it away if you don t need it oe ane ee i ae n n The MediaMaster at EFI VUTEk factory Meredith New Hampshire You can stack up to three piles of boards which are fed and printed simultaneously AVAN e4 Re ports Versatile Wide Format UV Inkjet Printer For Rigid and Flexible Materials
58. ly Versatile Wide Format UV Inkjet Printer AVA Re ports j EFI VUTEK GS3200 32 For Rigid and Flexible Materials Heads are cleaned with suction blocks 1 There is one block per printhead Pi L i kj ww E a i p j K In this sequence you can see that the vacuum purge tray 2 goes up until suction blocks are in contact with printheads The vacuum purge tray moves up and also backwards and forwards 104 How many levels strengths of printhead cleaning purging and or sucking can be accomplished via the firm ware software Rather than levels cleaning is measured by time So it is the same strength but applied during different periods of time 105 How often should you purge Does the User s Manual honestly indicate how often you should purge As needed The frequency depends on the usage of the printer and when clogged nozzles are detected 106 Is purging done with ink or with a flush solution It is done with ink but you could solvent flush 107 Can you select which ink lines printheads to purge or can you only purge in clusters or all or nothing Yes each printhead can be cleaned individually If a system limits the operator to flush only all of the printheads and not individual heads this would waste substantial amounts of ink amp FLAAR Reports 108 The ink that is purged where does it go Into a drain waste bottle or into a drip tray It goes to a waste container
59. novations printer are pneumatic so don t stick as often as mechanical shutters DuPont Cromaprint 22uv printer seemed to have issues with its shutters getting stuck either stuck open or stuck shut So DuPont had to switch to another solu tion We 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 6 FLAAR Reports Versatile Wide Format UV Inkjet Printer EFI VUTEK GS3200 For Rigid and Flexible Materials 216 How are the lamps cooled Air Fans Water cooled Lamps are cooled by fans 217 How many fans are there per lamp There are two fans per lamp 218 Are there fans elsewhere in the printhead carriage area No 219 What other fans are there in the printer or exhaust ports The only other fans are on top of the printer the exhaust outings 220 How long does it take to cool the lamps down before you can touch them to change them No more than 5 minutes The operator s instructions for the Durst Rho 800 Presto is the firs
60. onsidering a cutter is only possible for flexible media 47 Is there a knife guide a slot where you can draw your knife down and across the width of the substrate Most combo style printers have no area to put such a knife slot UPGRADES Future Improvements 48 What features have been added or changed since the printer first appeared The MediaMaster was developed months after the printer s official launch 49 What features have been added in the last six months In the most recent version the printhead carriage has been redesigned to eliminate degassers Degassing ink is now achieved by heat ing ink in secondary ink tanks i Versatile Wide Format UV Inkjet Printer FLAA R Re P O rts For Rigid and Flexible Materials BAR MIE SERA In the most recent model degassers for each ink line have been eliminated because gas is eliminated by heating ink in the secondary ink tanks The model evaluated at Artone Press sign shop in South Africa had just been upgraded with new hardware Before upgrading lamps overheated But after the upgrade things are better in that respect 50 What features are being added or changed further out in time There will be bigger fans for more extraction 51 What firmware upgrades have been made available The firmware has been recently upgraded The price of upgrades is still not clear at the moment We will update this report again with specific details about upgrade costs Miscellaneous
61. pindle to sag Plus it s a headache to thread a spindle through a 5 meter long core 38 Is there an air pressure core system Yes roll cores are held by an air pressure system in the spindle Air core spindles tend to be used only on grand format printers costing over a quarter of a million dollars 39 After the feed roller or spindle is there a set of two fixed bars one above either other a tension set The heavy duty unwinder has a dancer bar Otherwise in the standard model media goes directly from the transport belt to the spindle 40 If this is a dedicated flatbed or a combo design is the roll fed mechanism an option or is it included Since the model exhibited at ISA 10 was meant to print on rigid materials it did not have the spindle installed However the spindle does come with the printer FLAAR Reports EFI VUTEk GS 3200 at ARTONE Press a sign shop in Johannesburg South Africa The advantage of a combo printer based on a transport belt is the ability to print on both rigid and roll media FLAAR Reports vrsattewide Fomat Vinge erivureKsaz00 1 Feeding and take up spindles hold the roll media core with an air pressure system i Versatile Wide Format UV Inkjet Printer BAVA Re ports For Rigid and Flexible Materials PR UIE EAS Z a TE 1 aaant Feeding and take up media rolls have a small control panel at the right end to control tension and direction of rotation
62. r belt the GS3200 is the widest combo printer in the market Even the Rho 1000 is 2 5m wide whereas the GS3200 is 3 2m wide SUMMARY Image Quality Issues Banding 232 Is there banding in areas of solid black Yes you can notice some minor banding if you look close to a print sample but there is a system to handle this issue Between 50 to 75 of all UV printers at a typical trade show exhibit at least bi directional banding Some printer booths cheat and set their printer on uni directional mode Normally this gets rid of bi directional banding But you may also have banding from a nozzle being out Or there may be banding from inaccurate feeding of the material or movement of the gantry between passes 233 What causes banding in this particular system See above but there may be other causes Versatile Wide Format UV Inkjet Printer W FLAAR Re ports For Rigid and Flexible Materials EE ANS CTD eke 234 How can banding be avoided EFI VUTEk printers have a bi directional print mode called Smoothing to avoid these kind of problems The disadvantage of using the smoothing mode is that print soeed goes down a 50 but it totally gets rid of banding More passes tend to get rid of banding on almost any and all inkjet printers Of course it helps if the machine is precision engineered so you don t get much banding at four passes and above Banding at two passes is normal You can eliminate pass overlap banding by using an interweaving
63. sible escapes the enclosed area 70 How would you describe the overall workmanship of visible parts Clean Swiss made or flimsy and uneven several Chinese made printers The GS3200 is well made The workmanship is clean Even the ink containers area is clean have evaluated other UV printers whose ink containers are all dripped and dirty 71 Does the printer wobble back and forth when printing No The machine is solid enough and there is no vibration AT Versatile Wide Format UV Inkjet Printer TAVAN Re ports For Rigid and Flexible Materials BE E ee AESTHETICS 72 How would you describe the design of the printer The printer has a professional industrial look The design is not trendy but it is not boring 73 Can you easily distinguish which is the front and which is the back Front and rear faces are very similar At first sight you only tell which is the front by the position of the monitor 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 loca tion the operator prefers But the standard arrangement is that the LCD and keyboard are on th
64. t 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 These are some of the components of the UV lamp assembly High voltage connector 1 Connector to fan speed controller board 2 UV lamp fans 3 Fan power connectors 4 Lamp air filters 5 FLAAR Reports RIP SOFTWARE amp Printer Software 221 Which RIPs are featured All EFI printers come with Fiery XF RIP but Colorburst is also available as an option Caldera and Onyx can also be ordered ii Fo TCO ey he ree i LAT 4 133 E rere Bry i oe f 222 Does the price of the printer include a RIP Yes suwon 223 Is a computer and monitor included to run the RIP An extra computer is not included 224 What is the operating system of the RIP software The Fiery XF RIP can be run on Mac OS 10 or Windows Vista 32 bits Caldera is Linux based SS 225 Is your printer and or RIP Pantone certified efi a nae Yes both the printer and RIP are Pantone certified ef Toate C EFI VUTEk printers come with Fiery XF RIP However COLOR MANAGEMENT FEATURES other renowned RIPs are also available 226 What color management sensors or measuring tools are on board There are no external color management tools Instead the RIP handles color management tasks PRODUCTIVITY amp ROI Return on Investment 228 What productivity claims
65. te simultaneously Yes Depending of the width of your rolls you can print two rolls simultaneously The MediaMaster feeds up to three boards at a time Being able to print on several different rolls of material simultaneously is common on grand format solvent based printers but almost unknown and unavailable on printers less than 104 inches The Durst Rho 351R offers an option to allow printing on two different rolls simultaneously A Versatile Wide Format UV Inkjet Printer FLAA R Re P O rfs For Rigid and Flexible Materials SEE oa STRUCTURE Miscellaneous 45 For handling ink that passes through the weave of fabrics or mesh is there a trough Or other mechanism to catch the ink No There is no system to capture ink that passes through materials like fabrics or mesh A trough is possible most easily on a printer with a fixed platen A trough for mesh or fabrics tends to be present only on a printer cost ing a quarter of a million dollars or more There is no easy way to put a trough on a combo style printer If you need to print on fabric or mesh with a UV combo printer you need a liner or you need to put an intermediate sheet onto the surface of the conveyor belt or clean up the ink that passes through the weave 46 Is there a cutter Is it manual or automatic No There is no cutter because the printer handles both rigid and roll to roll substrates so a cutter would be useful only for half the substrates printed with the GS3200 c
66. technique which Mutoh developed and now Roland and others have copied This matrix in the demo room shows the output quality in the different print settings The samples below are printed at 600 dpi The upper samples are printed at 1000 dpi The first column at the left is printed with High Smoothing the middle column is printed with Low Smoothing and the last column to the right is printed with No Smoothing setting SUMMARY Image Quality Issues General 235 What about satellite drops which cause edge splatter Splatter of ink means droplets outside the intended area Learning about satellite drops gets technical quickly The ink the ink delivery system the printhead and the selected printing mode may all affect whether or not you have satelliate drops 236 What causes edge splatter in addition to satellite drops Ink splatter is visible either where a dark color adjoins a lighter area or with black text against a lighter background You see this on all text or wherever one color changes to another color One tech support person suggested splatter was caused by satellite drops Evidently a high firing frequency develops more satellite droplets It was also suggested that splatter could come from mis registration between heads or simply bad ink 6 FLAAR Reports Versatile ioeo UV ges PAE EFI VUTEK GS3200 For Rigid and Flexible Materials ms a OPERETO TAHT RARE TIW 4 ie poi nt aa E SHUKLMNO POR As explained earlier
67. texture is really like 241 What about the dot pattern Is the image grainy like sand or is the image smooth as you would expect of a pho tograph Five years ago the dot pattern was like sand This is because each ink droplet is cured as a physical bit of ink on top of the substrate UV ink is not supposed to sink into the substrate water based ink goes deep into the media to interact with the chemicals in the coating that are made specifically for water based ink Today in 2010 the better UV cured printers have a texture that is not as sandy or textured as in past years But the printing mode speed and other factors may influence what the surface texture is really like 242 Can the system produce glossy finish No 243 Are their issues with gloss differential or bronzing We answer this question together with the following two questions FLAAR Reports 244 Do you need Pantone markers to do touch ups If you use Pantone markers or other markers for touch ups you run the risk that these areas will fade faster than the original UV ink How good is the adhesion of the ink To what degree can we expect cracking of the resultant image if on a flexible substrate will answer the adhesion abrasion and chipping all at once problematic materials with some inks such as some recent versions of Sericol may have issues of one kind or another with DiBond Plexiglas Coroplast Sintra and Styrene 245 What about abrasion
68. ther There is a difference between 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 create modes that are a combination of passes and possibly other features that result in a specific quality level 145 If modes what are the modes called e Heavy Smoothing 8 passes e Light Smoothing 4 passes a A e l A e No Smoothing 2 passes gt Ma hpe ce re ee es Date ie E a hi wre The print samples at the demo room used Color mode DPI Smoothing HL specify the level of Smoothing which is the I technology to get rid of banding 1 10008 l LO to show the different printing modes ED 600 E 4 Carriage Speed Cure Matrix amp FLAAR Reports Bi DIRECTIONAL VS Uni DIRECTIONAL PRINTING 146 What is the direction of uni directional printing From right to left or left to right or both Right to left 147 Is printing bi directional or uni directional Printing can be done both uni directional and bi directional but practically all of the times the print jobs are done in bi directional mode 148 What are the different results in speed in quality In terms o
69. untries that are not directly covered by a distributor are covered by the distributor in a neighboring or close country For ex ample the EFI VUTEk distributor in Scandinavia region also covers the Eastern European countries 12 What kinds of leasing or other financing are available There is a financing program available You find online the eligibility form for financial options ant l s lust ask Antalis ae SS 20m ab m j Antalis is one of the several distributors in the world Here at SignAfrica 2011 This company covers South Africa but operates also in Europe 6 rLAAR Reports Versatile Wide Format UV Inkjet Printer EFI VUTEK GS3200 For Rigid and Flexible Materials FEATURES OF THE PRINTER Vacuum 13 Is there a vacuum function There is a vacuum function to hold media flat 14 Is the vacuum created by simple fans or by an air pump Vacuum is created by two pumps 15 In how many sections Vacuum is divided in three sections 16 Are the vacuum areas size and position user definable Yes there are no fixed sections The pumps are located below the flatbed area 17 Can you turn one or the other section s off and on Yes you can have only the area covered by your material and the rest turned off 18 Just Off and On Or variable The level of vacuum is user definable You enter the percentage via software Usually a 75 is used to avoid an imprint in the sub strate
70. ve This model was designed to be a r A gt Va gt versatile high quality printer able EFI VUTEk GS3250 LX printer launched at FESPA 2011 The light inside the printer is blue because this model has LED to reach as many markets as pos technology UV lamps d Versatile Wide Format UV Inkjet Printer BRAVAN Re O rts For Rigid and Flexible Materials EFIVUTEK G53200 This report has been updated with notes gathered by Dr Hellmuth center at ARTONE a sign shop in South Africa It is a good learning experience to get to talk with the printer operator left and the owner of the sign shop left ARTONE is a sign shop in Johannesburg South Africa VUTEK GS3200 FLAAR Reports sible from POP to outdoor applications display images interior d cor fine art traffic signage etc 5 When and where was this model first introduced The printer was exhibited for the first time at ISA 2009 The printer plus the MediaMaster was exhibited for the first time at ISA 2010 6 ls this printer mature or still in alpha stage or beta stage This printer is already in a mature stage Reportedly EFI has sold an estimated 100 units of this model 7 What accessories are extra charge Are these same or A similar accessories included with other printers at no ex tra cost The MediaMaster is not incl in the purch rice There is also RRF j edia anter ISOL cluded HIE PUNE NaSE PICE During APPPEXPO Shanghai 2010 EFI exhibited
71. w space this space should be closed off with a skirt Some printers use flaps or rubber like material other printers use skirts of brush like material Most large dedicated flatbed printers have no hood at all Oce Arizona 250 is the worst offender Some gantry structures are enclosed Teckwin TeckStorm for example 124 What keeps UV lamp light from leaving from the space between the bottom of the hood and the platen or trans port belt The hood has a skirt 125 What kind of skirt exists along the bottom of the hood to prevent light leakage The skirt is formed by non translucent plastic flaps Each of these units has a small roller at the end so as to not impede the movement of the board as it comes off the print area 126 Is there a skirt at the back as well as at the front Yes but the skirt on the rear hood is formed by rubber flaps Unlike other brands of printers the flaps of the GS3200 are black and non translucent Another brand of UV cured printer uses white translucent flaps which fail to shield UV light properly Versatile Wide Format UV Inkjet Printer BAVA Re ports For Rigid and Flexible Materials EEDU Lae 127 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 There are two fans on top These are mainly to get rid of heat mostly A ventilation system does not come with th

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