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ATPColor DFP Series - ATPColor present the new InkJet Textile

1. E EN i oe E a Close up view of the three way valves ae ii o a i a a a TIAAR Rep shoe ATPColor DFP Series 30 Direct to Fabric Wide format Inkjet Printing 148 Is there a sleep mode Should the machine ever be turned completely off Does this not entail having a UPS unit to guarantee it is on all the time There is a sleep mode With most but not all printers it is advised to leave in sleep mode rather than be ing turned completely off which may entail putting solution in the printheads to replace the ink With the ATPColor printer you have a choice of sleep mode or shut down mode with a cleaner in the heads to replace the ink Cleaner is logically a more aggressive chemical than ink 149 How long can the printer sit unused How should a printer be prepared for sitting unused for a long time This printer can sit unused two or three weeks Cleaning and Maintenance Waste 150 To initiate a purge where is the control or button Is it software generated or do you have to press a button Where is the but ton located Software generated 151 Where is the waste bottle situ ated How much waste ink does it hold The ink waste bottle holds two lit ers 152 How often do you need to empty the waste ink bottle Frequency of emptying depends on how much you print and how often you purge l Ink waste bottle can hold up to two litters ATPColor DFP Series Dir
2. IA VAS Reports December 2012 Direct to Fabric wide format Inkjet Printing Wa SS oe a i o OT hom ATPColor DFP Series Nicholas Hellmuth and Maria Ren e Ayau ATPColor DFP Series Contents Introduction 1 The in person study of the actual printers 2 The Basics 3 Purchasing 6 Set up of the printer 7 Installation of the Printer 9 Installation Instructions and Manuals 9 Installation of the Printer Training 10 Tech Support and Warranty 11 Construction Aesthetics 12 Construction Build Quality 13 Features Media Heaters 15 Media Transport Mechanism 15 Media Roll and Media Feeding 16 Please Note This report has not been licensed to any printer manufacturer distributor dealer sales rep RIP company media or ink company to distribute So if you obtained this from any company you have a pirated copy Also since this report is frequently updated if you got your version from somewhere else it may be an obsolete edition FLAAR reports are being updated all year long and our comment on that product may have been revised positively or negatively as we learned more about the product form end users To obtain a legitimate copy which you know is the complete report with nothing erased or changed and hence a report with all the original description of pros and cons please obtain your original and full report straight from www large format printers org Your only assurance that you have a c
3. e Ergo Soft RIP e Caldera RIP e Colorgate What other costs are involved Realize that the air filtration system can t use active carbon Obviously when you acquire this effective system you will be told what kind of material to utilize Does a complete set of full sized ink cartridges come with the new printer or merely a starter set that is not as full as a regular set You receive two liters per color would assess this as a bit more than a starter set What other equipment is needed to operate this printer For example does this printer include its own power line conditioner Do you need an uninterruptible power supply UPS If your country like ours Guatemala has electricity that is constantly knocked out by monsoon rain storms or severe lightning or earthquakes or volcanic eruptions you might consider an industrial strength power line conditioner and possibly an Uninterruptible Power Supply the latter not to run the printer but to be able to turn it off properly if the main power supply in your city is zapped Otherwise in most countries if your local power is acceptable you do not need to have special electrical equipment Do you need to supply a compressed air source No compressed air source is required for this printer Do you need a coating machine steamer washer calendering machine No the calender is embedded so you can fix the color without using a separate calendering machine This saves cost
4. no way we can afford to have all these makes and models in our facility Thus to learn about models which we do not feature be sure to ask around in other print shops with IT people in other corporations at your local university or community college Go to trade shows but don t use only the booth ask questions of people in the elevator in line at the restaurant anywhere to escape the smothering hype you get in the booth Realize that a FLAAR Report on a printer is not by itself a recommenda tion of that printer In your local temperature in your local humidity with the dust that is in your local air with your local operator and with disorientation of the insides of a printer during rough shipment and installation we have no knowledge of what conditions you will face in your own printshop We tend to inspect a printer first in the manufactur ing plant demo room no disjointed parts from any shipment since this printer has not been lifted by cranes and run over a rough pot holed highway or kept in sweltering heat or freezing cold during shipment Taking into consideration we do not know the conditions in which you may be using your hardware software or consumables neither the au thor nor FLAAR nor either university is liable for liability loss or damage caused either directly or indirectly by the suggestions in this report nor by hardware software or techniques described herein because Availability of spare parts may be a
5. Does the user s manual have a glossary Most user s guides lack a glossary Is there a Service Guide Yes Is the Service Guide available to the end user or only to the service tech engineer When visit printshops around the world some op erators have a service manual and others prefer to let the service tech engineer from the distributor or manufacturer take care of this level of service ATP DFP series User manual Insert the Lexan Cover F745 01 198 ATPColor DFP Series 10 Direct to Fabric Wide format Inkjet Printing Installation of the Printer Training 44 45 46 47 48 Is training included in the purchase price If so what kind of training is offered Training price or inclusion depends on your local distributor Is training necessary Is classroom training available Training is individual not in a classroom Is factory training available Factory training is rare though some companies do welcome factory visits and a few companies do in deed offer training at the factory And yes training at the factory outside Milano is available What on line training is available No on line training though obviously you can ask questions on line What about follow up training after you have had the printer a month and know enough to ask better questions At FLAAR our suggestion is to get original training during installation and then make a list of your ques tions and after the fir
6. The air struts to raise the hoods are from Starbulus so not some low bid miscellaneous locally made system 64 The front hood is it strong or cheap plastic The front hood is of adequate strength as it is made out of heavy gauge metal just like the rest of the printer The best example of a really cheap plastic component is the flap over the ink and a flap on the lower back on the new SureColor series from Epson Many people in the industry are surprised that a wobbly thin plastic component like this would be visible 65 Whatis the solid ness of the inner parts Plastic metal The parts on the inside of the printer are made of metal and look as sturdy and firm as the rest of the printer Close up of the units from Starbulus that raise the hoods ATPColor DFP printer hood ATPColor DFP Series 14 Direct to Fabric Wide format Inkjet Printing 66 Doesthe printer wobble back and forth when printing No the printer does not wobble while printing The construction of the printer is sturdy thus the printer remains steady while printing 67 How many wheels On printer How many on fixation unit The printer has eight wheels in total Even though the heating unit is embedded to the printer the wheels are divided in two groups four for the printer itself and four for the heating unit which it is worth men tioning does not move independently and the wheels are placed there for leveling purposes 68 Is there an Igus e chain
7. and space and labor salary Is it recommended or required to buy a spare parts kit Or extra printheads Does the end user buy the spare parts kit Or is this held by the distributor Most end users don t wish to buy a spare parts kit up front in part because they don t yet have the experi ence to do their own repairs when they are first buying this printer There is a Survival Kit available but usually this is stocked by the distributor 5 ATPColor DFP Series Direct to Fabric Wide format Inkjet Printing 19 20 21 223 23 Where are demo centers located The primary demo center is outside Milano Italy What is the procedure to visit a demo center Potential customers are welcome to visit the demo center It is in a nice area of Italy Simply meet one of the distributors or the ATPColor Managing Director Roberto at a trade show or send them an e mail explaining who you are your background in the world of wide format inkjet printers and the applications you are looking at Are end users welcome to visit the factory and the main headquarters demo center Yes the company is hospitable and potential distributors and potential end users are welcome to visit Are the dealers a national most companies or regional Roland allows a dealer within USA to oper ate only within a limited regional area Do have any choice in dealers with some printers choosing a dealer is as important as the ch
8. box and can t provide much service after the sale Indeed some low bid Internet sales sources may have no technical backup whatsoever If you pay low bid price you can t realistically expect special maintenance services or tech support later on from any other dealer they will tell you to return to where you paid for the product This is why we make an effort to find out which dealers are recommendable Obviously there are many other dealers who are also good but we do not always know them To protect yourself further always pay with a level of credit card which allows you to refuse payment if you have end up with a lemon A Gold American Express card allows you to refuse payment even months after the sale This card may also extend your warranty agreement in some cases check first Most of the readers of the FLAAR Reports look to see what printers we use in our own facilities Readers realize that we will have selected the printers that we like based on years of experience and research Indeed we have met people at trade shows who told us they use the FLAAR web site reports as the shopping list for their corporate purchases Yes it is rather self evident that we would never ask a manufacturer to send a product which we knew in advance from our studies was no good But there are a few other printers which are great but we simply do not have them in our facilities yet So if a printer is not made available by its manufacturer then there is
9. or printers that not enough people ask about tend not to be updated Often we update the web page on a printer rather than the PDF version So be sure to check the web page if you have a PDF of any year prior to 2011 FLAAR still publishes individual reports on solvent printers and on giclee printers but we tend to write about new technologies and in novative inks Please Note This report has not been licensed to any printer manufacturer distribu tor dealer sales rep RIP company media or ink company to distribute So if you obtained this from any company you have a pirated copy If you have received a translation this translation is not authorized un less posted on a FLAAR web site and may be in violation of copyright plus if we have not approved the translation it may make claims that were not our intention Also since this report is frequently updated if you got your 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 If you receive any FLAAR Report from a sales rep in addition to be ing violation of copyright it is useful to know if there is a more recent version on the FLAAR web site because every month new UV printers are being launched So what was good technology one month may be replaced by a much better printer elsewher
10. As a courtesy do not mention this brand But have been to their factory five times have been deep into their R amp D department of this manufacturer so know their engineering experience and resulting quality This is the company which selected the 3 2 meter direct to fabric printer from ATPColor in Milano Italia They have had this printer almost two years This first ATPColor printer had 8 printheads Now a 12 printhead version is available Since the first model pol yester printer functioned fine and produced output that satisfied the clients this growing printshop bought a second ATPColor So now both printers are at work side by side The day visited both printers were busy producing giant soft signage Why ATPColor and not another brand The patient and experienced production manager carefully explained why they did not opt for another brand What counts is the end product quality Client s don t ask what brand To print on transfer paper and then have to have a separate heat transfer press would add too much ex pense and take too much space to have two machines to do what a single ATPColor can produce Here LJ LJ ATPColor DFP Series Direct to Fabric Wide format Inkjet Printing z gn will mention that this printshop has more space than most other printshops around the world But even with abundant space available they don t want to waste space with a heat transfer press plus
11. are available only in the next level higher of that RIP often at considerable extra cost Same thing in the progression of Chevy through Pontiac to Cadillac or the new Subur bans A Chevy Suburban simply does not have all the bells and whistles of the Cadillac Escalade version of this SUV Don t blame us besides that s why we are warning you This is why we have a Survey Form so we can learn when you find products that are inadequate We let the manufacturers know when end users complain about their products so that the manufacturers can resolve the situation when they next redesign the system Most newer printer models tend to overcome deficiencies of earlier models It is possible that our comparative comments point out a glitch in a particular printer that has been taken care of through an improve ment in firmware or even an entirely new printer model So if we point out a deficiency in a particular printer brand the model you may buy may not exhibit this headache or your kind of printing may not trigger the problem Or you may find a work around Just remember that every machine has quirks even the ones we like It is possible that the particular kind of images resolution inks media or other factors in your facility are sufficiently different than in ours that a printer which works just fine for us may be totally unsatisfactory for you and your clients However it may be that the specific kind of printing you need to do may n
12. come in cartridges or bulk How large are the ink containers for replacement ink Ink tends to come either in bottles where you pour the ink into the ink container on the printer or con tainers 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 be used in printers with Epson printheads Since this is a professional industrial printer it uses ink in bottles 173 What is the cost per container What is this cost translated to liters Cost of ink varies depending on the dealer distributor and depends on what country you are in Usually the smaller and cheaper the printer the more the ink costs The larger the printer is and the more ink it uses the lower the ink is priced 174 What is the longevity of your dye ink outside in the sun No lamination no glass Outside in full sun longevity of most disperse dye ink would be three to four months Inside an airport a mall or other shopping center longevity is definitely longer 175 What effect will high humidity have on your dye inks on your pigmented inks Evidently high humidity has some advantages over low humidity 176 Is the ink of itself waterproof Or does water resistance happen only on some kinds of media Yes you can wash the fabric And obviously how many times you wash it and how will affect longevity of the color 177 What about solvents such as cleaning solvents Do they ma
13. get much banding at four passes and above Banding at two passes is normal You can eliminate pass overlap banding by using an interweaving technique which Mu toh developed and now Roland and others have copied You can also use a software solution to remove banding In effect you print in a pattern so that the normal person will simply not notice the banding This solution is provided within the ATPColor firmware How much banding is reported with this particular printhead have not noticed any banding issues on the samples which were printed while observed the machine in action ATPColor DFP Series 42 Direct to Fabric Wide format Inkjet Printing Fixation Unit Calendering System 218 Where is the fixation unit located physically attached out in front separate This calendaring unit is physically attached in the lower half of the printer 219 What are the advantages of having the unit attached to the printer The primary advantage of having the sublimation system attached to the printer is to save space 220 What sensors are associated with the calendaring unit There is an infrared reader on the calendaring system The ATPColor printer system can shut off the heater of the calender if the printer is not printing 221 What kinds of filters can you employ inside the filtration unit Do not use active carbon Applications 222 Does the manufacturer address the overall workflow or do they just try to sel
14. of testing 400 specifications of any printer much less the over 101 different UV printers from more than 46 manufactur ers Same with hundreds of solvent printers and dozens of water based printers and the outpouring of new textile printers We observe as best we can but we cannot take each printer apart to inspect each feature And for UV printers these are too expensive to move into our own facilities for long range testing so we do as best as is possible under the circumstances And when a deficiency does become apparent usually from word of mouth or from an end user it may take time to get this written up and issued in a new release Another reason why it is essential for you to ask other printshop owners and printer operators about how Brand X and Y function in the real world is that issues may exist but it may take months for these issues to be well enough known for us to know the details Although often we know of the issues early and work to get this information into the PDFs access to information varies depending on brand and model Plus with over 300 publications the waiting time to update a specific report may be several months Plus once a printer is considered obsolete it is not realistic to update it due to the costs involved If you received a FLAAR PDF from a sales rep they may give you an early version perhaps there is a later version that mentions a defect that we learned about later For these reasons every FLAAR Re
15. regurgitate corporate PR For example how many manufacturer s PR photos of their products have you seen in our reports or on our web sites Besides it does not take any money to see which printers and RIPs function as advertised and which don t We saw one hyped printer grind to a halt malfunction or otherwise publicly display its incapabilities at several trade shows in a row At each of those same trade shows another brand had over 30 of their printers in booths in virtually every hall each one producing museum quality exhibits Not our fault when we report what we see over and over and over again One of our readers wrote us recently Nicholas last month you recommended the as one of several possible printers for our needs we bought this It was the best capital expenditure we have made in the last several years Just wanted to tell you how much we appreciate your evaluations FLAAR is a non profit educational and research organization dedicated for over 36 years to professional photography in the arts tropical flora and fauna architectural history and landscape panorama photography Our digital imaging phase is a result of substantial funding in 1996 from the Japanese Ministry of Public Education for a study of scanning and digital image storage options This grant was via Japan s National Mu seum of Ethnology Osaka Japan That same year FLAAR also received a grant of 100 000 from an American foundation to do a fe
16. such a press tends to need TWO workers to handle a paper hang up I see this all the time at every printer expo A crucial criteria for selecting ATPColor and their local distributor here in Europe is because with a really large company you never know who when or how service might respond to an issue With a small company as distributor and manufacturer such as ATPColor you can count on more realistic tech support My own comment would be A textile printer created by a big name solvent or UV cured printer manufac turer may have a brand name but not many solvent or UV cured printer manufacturers really have ad equate experience to produce a reliable or innovative textile printer To be polite I will not bring up all these brand names again ATPColor is one of perhaps four companies around the world who have the experience with textile printing would also point out that this printer has features MISSING from most competitor textile printers For ex ample ATPColor has a contact sublimation unit 90 of the competing brands have only heated air Pa gp a y Ho Je The printshop in Western Europe has two ATPColor 3 2 meter printers earlier model left and newest model right AS First posted October 2012 Updated on December 2012 after site visit case study in Germany Direct to Fabric Wide format Inkjet Printing TENA Repo ES Ss ATPColor DFP Series 53 Appendix B Using Print Samples from ATPCol
17. to use the hardware or software Nor is there any warranty or guarantee that the output of these products will produce salable goods since we do not know what kind of ink or media you intend to use nor the needs of your clients A further reason that no one can realistically speak for all aspects of any one hardware or software is that each of these products may require additional hardware or software to reach its full potential For example you will most likely need a color management system which implies color measurement tools and software To handle ICC color profiles you may need ICC color profile generation software and a spectrophotometer since often the stock pre packaged ICC color pro files which come with the ink media printers and or RIPs may not work in your situation Not all RIPs handle color management equally or may work better for some printer ink media combinations than for others Please be aware that our comments or evaluations on any after market ink would need the end user to use customized ICC profiles and not merely generic profiles Be aware that some RIPs can only accept ICC color profiles you quickly find out the hard way that you can t tweak these profiles nor generate new ones So be sure to get a RIP which can handle all aspects of color management Many RIPs come in different levels You may buy one level and be disappointed that the RIP won t do everything That s because those features you may be lacking
18. utilize our own common sense our in house experiences the results from printshop site visit case studies and comments from the more than 53 000 of our many readers who have shared their experi ences with us via e mail the Survey Forms Licensing Information Ifyou wish to distribute this report to other people within your com pany please obtain a site licensing agreement for multiple copies from FLAAR by contacting ReaderService FLAAR org Substantial discounts are available for licensing to distribute within your company we call this a subscription The advantage of a subscription license is that you can opt for automatic updates You may have noticed that FLAAR reports tend to be updated as additional information becomes available In some instances a license would be available to distribute outside your company including in other languages To distribute this report without subscription license violates federal copyright law To avoid such violations for you and your company you can easily order additional copies from www wide format printers NET Licensing Information FLAAR Reports on UV curable roll to roll flatbed hybrid and combo printers are updated when new information is available We tend to up date the reports on new printers on printers that readers ask about the most and on printers where access is facilitated such as factory visits demo room visits etc Reports on obsolete printers discontinued printers
19. your final payment Your ultimate protection is to use a gold American Express credit card so you can have leverage when you ask for your money back if the product fails Images printed at trade show may be in uni directional mode so you may not realize the printer has bi directional curing banding defects until you unpack it in your printshop Bi directional curing banding is also known as the lawnmower effect Many printers have this defect sometimes certain modes can get rid of it but are so slow that they are not productive You absolutely need to do print samples with your own images and the kind provided by your clients Do not rely on the stock photos provided by the printer ink media or RIP manufacturer or reseller They may be using special images which they know in advance will look fabulous on their printer Equally well if you send your sample images to the dealer don t be surprised if they come back looking awful That is because many dealers won t make a serious effort to tweak their machine for your kind of image They may use fast speed just to get the job done this will result in low quality Check with other people in your area or in the same kind of print business that you do Don t rely on references from the reseller or manufacturer you will get their pet locations which may be unrealistically gushy find someone on your own Results you see in a manufacturers or master dis tributors demo room may not be real
20. IJ Technologies 3P Inkjet Textiles ColorSpan Encad HP Nan Ya Pepa Oracal Tara and other companies have provided inkjet media so we can try it out and see how it works or not as the case may be several inkjet media failed miserably one from Taiwan the other evidently from Germany We thank Aurelon Canon ColorGate ColorSpan ErgoSoft HP PerfectProof PosterJet Onyx Ilford CSE ColorBurst ScanvecAmiable Wasatch and many other RIP companies for providing their hardware and software RIPs We thank Dell Computers for providing awesome workstations for testing RIP software and content creation with Adobe Photoshop and other programs We also appreciate the substantial amount of software provided by Adobe As with other product loaned or provided courtesy of ProVar LLC especially the 23 monitors which makes it so much easier to work on multiple documents side by side We thank Betterlight Calumet Photographic Global Graphics Westcott Global Imaging Inc Phase One and Bogen Imaging for helping to equip our archaeological photo studios at the university and its archaeology museum in Guatemala Heidelberg Scitex CreoScitex now Kodak Parrot Digigraphic and Cruse both in Germany have kindly provided scanners for our staff to evaluate We really liked some of the results whereas some of the other products were a bit disappointing Providing samples does not influence the evaluations because the evaluators are students pr
21. LAAR Reports Reliable What trade magazines Applications lo subscribe to laarn more about for Wide format printers Which ink for printing on textiles fabrics This report is not licensed to be distributed by any printer manufacturer on their own web site This report is not licensed to be distributed by any dealer or distributor on their own web site These may be pirated copies or may be earlier versions We may have learned more about the printer and updated our report but the manufacturer distributor or dealer may not have the most recent information from our evaluation Reality Check Being a university professor for many years does not mean we know everything But intellectual curiosity often leads us to enter areas that are new to us So we do not shirk from entering areas where we are obviously not yet expert If in your years of wide format printing experi ence have encountered results different that ours please let us know at ReaderService FLAAR org We do not mind eating crow though so far it is primarily a different philosophy we practice because since we are not dependent on sales commissions we can openly list the glitches and defects of those printers that have an occasional problem FLAAR and most universities have corporate sponsors but FLAAR web sites do not accept advertising so we don t have to kowtow to resell ers or manufacturers We respect their experience and opinion but we prefer to
22. LLTI one Input Foot switch Supply down Supply up Take up down Take up up Fault drive1 Fault drive2 Fuse supply Fuse take up Output Enable calender Clockwise supply Counter clockwise supply Clockwise take up Counter clockwise take up EA PEF e eE AA re sete rr one a Corre belied T TET ATPColor DFP Series 20 m Direct to Fabric Wide format Inkjet Printing 97 What aspects of the printer can you operate from behind the loading area The only thing you can operate from the back is loading the media 98 What controls are at the back of the printer There are no controls on the outside back of the printer Facing the back of the printer ink access is at the left vacuum pipes are at the right 99 What controls are at either end of the printer Air extraction switches are at the left end The air unit is adjacent At the side right are two fans and an Off On switch ON OFF switch Air unit control buttons Air unit and corresponding control buttons at the left of the printer ATPColor DFP Series E Direct to Fabric Wide format Inkjet Printing Safety and Health Considerations 100 How many emergency stop buttons are there and where are they located The printer has two emergency stop buttons located on each end of the printer on the front 101 Is there auto shut down If so what triggers it No auto shut down However the calender will turn off i
23. a may follow the natural laws of nature cheap media often is improperly wound from the factory But if you use acceptable media the feeding path of this printer is frankly remarkable in its ability to wind the material up neatly and trimly at the end p F Te E gt ENN G ER 47 Direct to Fabric Wide format Inkjet Printing Pros for the printer portion As an evaluator tend to be skeptical of a printer manufacturer until can see with my own eyes that the printer is made by a company with experience and a company that does not want to produce just low bid style machines searched around the printer for suggestions that it was sloppily made and did not notice any place where it was jerry rigged could write a history book about stores of other brands from other factories which were actually jerry rigged searched inside and outside to see how much cheap plastic was being used Actually the chassis appears to be entirely of well engineered metal If you want to see flimsy plastic just lift up on the flaps of the new Sure Color models And of course most entry level water based printers nowadays are primarily plastic though HP at least has experience in finding a plastic that holds up at least a few years But you do not want cheap plastic on a grand format printer The absolute best way to evaluate a printer is to find a printshop using the current model We have located a printshop in Europe and will visit the
24. a printer is a basic structure The rest of the printer was designed to handle textiles 75 Is there a moving transport belt or a stationary platen The printer has a stationary platen No transport belt 76 Describe the platen A textile printer usually needs a trough For this printer the trough is cleverly outfitted with a trough 77 Are their edge guards at each side end of the platen At left or at right or both Yes edge guards are available but normally are not needed 78 Can you move the left guard or the right guard or both Yes you can move either or both ATPColor DFP Series 16 Direct to Fabric Wide format Inkjet Printing Media Roll and Media Feeding 79 Howis roll media fed Pinch roller against grit roller Entry level and mid range systems use a row of pinch rollers working against a row of grit rollers High end systems use tension The ATPColor printer uses tension 80 How many drive rollers are there There are four driver rollers two at the front and two at the back of the printer 81 How is the roll held at the feeding position On a spindle On a saddle The media roll is held at feeding position by a spindle 82 Howis the roll media handled at feeding position For example is there a dancer bar At feeding position there is a dancer bar to handle the roll media feeding system 83 At the back is there an extra roller bar s near the platen or transport belt Is it a bar to roll under the
25. al printheads at a time but not one single printhead individually Where is the service station At the right Is the service area the same as the parking area Yes Is there a capping station Yes under the removable plate i E lt 3 a BBAvANe ReDO S gt E ATPColor DFP Series 28 Direct to Fabric Wide format Inkjet Printing 138 Does the manufacturer provide any special cleaning tools Ordinary tools are used 139 Is there an off printer dip station or soaking station that is separate from the parking or maintenance station Yes the dealer will tend to have an ultrasonic head cleaning unit 140 Does this printer spit or weep at regular intervals Solvent inkjet printers spit ink at the end of every pass in order to keep all printhead nozzles open The reason is that if you are printing a banner with an area of pure cyan then the other printheads will not be jetting ink since their colors are not called for In theory these nozzles will clog while not being used So spitting allows all nozzles to eject ink occasionally Another way to allow all nozzles to squirt ink periodically is to have a band of CMYK or a band of six colors CMYK light Cyan light Magenta at one or both edges of the image immediately outside the image area This pattern causes every color to jet even if these colors are not being printed in the image itself The DTP printer spits when this setting is activated 141 Whe
26. antage These also depend on whether you are doing direct to fabric printing or printing on transfer paper since transfer paper also has its several issues The ATPColor grand format series uses water based disperse dye ink You can select two different inks based on price difference Both inks are from known name brands a Swiss company Sensient is identified in a brochure and a company headquartered in USA 158 Ifthere are several kinds of ink available can you switch from one to another In theory yes 159 How long does it take to switch from one ink to another Two to three hours you mainly flush a lot of cleaner through the ink lines and printheads 160 Does the printer itself have a means to keep track of ink usage Is this a guestimate or an actual count of droplets fired The RIP software depending on the brand would keep track of ink us age Normally this is a guestimate 161 How much ink is used to print a square unit 8 to 15 ml per square meter depend ing on what print mode you select 162 Where are the printer s ink contain ers located Front back or sides Access is at the back right when you are at the back then the left of the back 163 What is the ink usage compared with a solvent printer A textile printer tends to use less ink per square meter than a solvent printer 164 How much ink does the ink contain er in the printer hold Two liters per container sd s Ink compartm
27. any things which appealed to me about the opportunity to evaluate this printer was the statistic that most of the end users the printshops who buy this printer this is the first grand format printer they have utilized like this fact because of the people who read the FLAAR Reports many of them have never used a grand format textile printer are also looking at textile printers Other readers perhaps already have a textile printer but are looking for a better one and especially for a system which will produce color with more pop WN A INN Wk AIN y NA ON WY yi y WI IN W 2 ALA LOL DFP Series Direct to Fabric Wide format Inkjet Printing 1 Brand name model ATPColor DFP series The primary model 2 Whatis the nature of the company behind the brand name Is this company the manufacturer distribu tor or rebranding ATPColor is the actual manufacturer of the complete sublimation units for their DFP RSeries This consists of a Roland printer on top and an ATPColor system for handling the fabric There will be a separate FLAAR evaluation of the RSeries printers since they are a totally separate physical system from the grand format The grand format printer chassis is contract manufactured in Asia with the textile handling aspects and especially the sublimation technology based on the acquired knowledge of ATPColor developed in Italy by their manufacturing experience with textile printer sublim
28. are popular and for what reasons For example manufacturers need to know whether to continue designing software for Mac users or concentrate software for PC users So the survey
29. are the same or similar chassis Some printers have an enclosed chassis like the ATPColor DFP printer they don t look exactly the same but are similar D G FabriJet Pro Nassenger Pro 60 JHF Chromo I and SkyJet1800 7 If there are two or three or more widths of this printer what differences exist other than the width The only difference in this series of ATPColor printers is the width Older models have an earlier printhead current models have an even better printhead 8 When and where was this model first introduced The model with Gen eration 3 printheads from Ricoh was launched at FESPA Digital Amsterdam 2009 The model with Ricoh Gen4 heads was launched at the end of that same year 2009 9 Is this printer mature technology or still in alpha stage or beta stage would consider this a second generation for the grand format size ENVASE Repo ES LE ATPColor DFP Series Direct to Fabric Wide format Inkjet Printing How does this model compare with comparable previous printers You now have additional options general improvements and a Gen4 printhead instead of Gen3 printhead List price Wide format models are in the 74 000 Euro price range Grand format models are in the 170 000 Euro price range What accessories are extra charge Are these same or similar accessories included with other printers at no extra cost The additional accessories are the e inline cutting system e jumbo roll for unwinding and rewinding
30. asibility study of digital imaging in general and the scanning of photographic archives in particular The FLAAR web sites began initially as the report on the results of these studies of scanners Once we had the digital images we began to experi ment with digital printers People began to comment that our reports were unique and very helpful So by 1999 we had entire sections on large format printers FLAAR has existed since 1969 long before inkjet printers existed Indeed we were writing about digital imaging before HP even had a color inkjet system available In 2000 FLAAR received an educational grant from Hewlett Packard large format division Barcelona Spain for training for equipment and to improve the design and navigation on the main web sites of the FLAAR Network This grant ran its natural course and like all grants reached its finishing point in this case late 2005 In some cases the sponsorship process begins when we hear end users talking about a product they have found to be better than other brands We keep our ears open and when we spot an especially good product this is the company we seek sponsorship from It would not be wise of us to seek sponsorship from a company with a sub standard or other wise potentially defective printer So we usually know which printers are considered by end users to be among the better brands before we seek sponsorship After all out of the by now one million readers we have heard plen
31. ation and fabric feeding systems over the years Since ATPColor has designed the textile and sublimation procedures it is the sole brand name for these units especially since many of the key features come from ATPColor in Italy We have a site visit case study of this grand format printer scheduled for Munich Germany to document the reliability and effectiveness of the sublimation chemistry and the fabric transport system of ATPColor 3 Does the machine manufacturer also manufacture inks for textiles No there are dozens of good ink manufacturers already not many of whom try to build printers L ae 7 Fe A eS 7 pP pr 4 p E a e 4 TN i E i o 7 I gt y WA a _ F l j ATPColor DFP 1 9 meter printer model a ae a E T gt EL PERAR Repot ooo PU DFP Series J Direct to Fabric Wide format Inkjet Printing ATPColor DFP 3 3 meter printer model l 4 Does the machine manufacturer also make textiles to print on with this machine No there are scores of manufacturers of media am not familiar with any who try to build printers It re ally is best to focus and concentrate on doing one thing well ATPColor focuses on designing textile print ers and sublimation systems 5 What other printers are the same or similar chassis from this manufacturer or distributor ATPColor DFP1320 3 3 meters DFP1000 2 6 meters DFP740 1 9 meters 6 What other printers
32. ble to update old reports it is not realistic to update old reports As always it is essential for you to visit printshops that have the printers on your short list and see how they function in the real world But even when we like a product and recommend it we still can t guar antee or certify any make or model nor its profitability in use because we don t know the conditions under which a printer system might be utilized in someone else s facility For ink and media especially after market third party ink and media it is essential that you test it first under your conditions We have no way to assure that any ink or media will be acceptable for your specific needs in your specific print shop It is also crucial to realize that an ink that we inspect that works well where we inspect it your printer your printhead the heat humidity and dust conditions in your printshop may cause that ink to react dif ferently in your printer And there are different batches of ink Even in the really big multi national billion dollar ink companies occasionally one batch will have issues There are over 100 ink companies six colors per company many flavors of ink per company per color We have no realistic manner of testing each ink The same is true of media and substrates One production run can have a glitch chemical or physical even in the best of companies About six years ago a major Swiss owned media company for example had several
33. cable carrier system a Ml The energy chain is the plastic linked system that q holds all the cables and ink tubing so that it does not get rubbed while being moved back and forth to feed the carriage Most mid range and almost all high end UV printers have an energy chain from the company Igus As expected for ATPColor they also selected an IGUS brand chain Igus energy chain close up Us i Printer carriage pulled by the Igus chain a X AAA REZA LEANAR Reports Bes ATPColor DFP Series fis I Direct to Fabric Wide format Inkjet Printing Features Media Heaters 69 How many heaters are used Only one heater is used the calender 70 What is the purpose of the heater s To dry the ink or to fix the ink The purpose of the heater calender is to fix the color onto the fabric 71 Are the heaters before printing during printing or after printing The heater calender is used after printing 72 Ifthere is more than one heater can they be operated independently No there is only one heater 73 Do you need to buy a separate additional heater No you don t need to buy a separate heater The one on the printer is enough to fix the colors on the tex tiles Structure of the Printer Media Transport Mechanism 74 Was this printer made originally as a textile ink printer or is it retrofitted for textiles If retrofitted what was the original brand or model The chassis of
34. ckage So it s obvious that providing products or even a grant is no shield from having your products fail a FLAAR evaluation The reason is clear the end user is our judge The entire FLAAR service program is to assist the people who need to use digital imaging hardware and software If a product functions we find out and promulgate the good news If a prod uct is a failure or more likely needs some improvement in the next gen eration we let people know If a product is hyped by what an informed user would recognize as potentially false and misleading nonsense then we point out the pathetic discrepancies very clearly This is what you should expect from an institute which is headed by a professor Actually most of our reviews are based on comments by end users We use their tips to check out pros and cons of virtually every product we dis cuss You can t fool a print shop owner whose printer simply fails to function as advertised And equally a sign shop owner who earns a million dol lars a year from a single printer brand makes an impact on us as well We have multiple owners of ColorSpan printers tell us that this printer is their real money earner for example We know other print shops where their primarily income is from Encad printers Kinkos has settled on the HP 5000 as its main moneymaker production machine and so on Yet we have documentation of several print shop companies whose business was ruined by specific brands that faile
35. ct sunlight for more than three to four months outside We will be inspecting this printer out in the real world in five weeks and will update this FLAAR evaluation after we learn why did this printshop in Germany select an ATPColor printer over all potential competing models And how has the printer functioned for this printshop A German printshop will tend to not put up with an inadequate printer Plus a Germanic printshop will have tended to have looked at all other options carefully before making their decision Discussion Points not a deficiency but worth discussing The following is not a negative point but needs to be clearly stated Indeed the fact that ATPColor firmly supports informing potential buyers is a positive feature The point is that a grand format printer of this na ture is not intended for start ups This printer assumes you already have experience with printers hopefully printers over 60 inches in width RIP software and that you already have a good client base a a SES 7 R 3 EE AVANE Reports ES ATPColor DFP Series gg Direct to Fabric Wide format Inkjet Printing Reality check You have more chance that your printer solution for textiles will function well if the company that produces it is dedicated full time to textile printing with inkjet inks This is a polite way to say that a textile printer produced by a UV cured or solvent printer manufacturer may not be as finished as a textile
36. d repeatedly It is noteworthy that it is always the same brand or printer at both locations one due to banding and printheads then simply no longer printing one color the other brand due to pokiness of the printer simply not being competitively fast enough Same with RIPs we have consistent statements of people using one RIP and only realizing how weak it was when they tried another brand which they found substantially better Thus we note that companies which experiment with more than one brand of product tend to realize more quickly which brand is best This is where FLAAR is in an ideal situation we have nine RIPs and 25 printers Hence it is logical that we have figured out which are best for our situation Grant funding sponsorship demonstration equipment and training are supplied from all sides of the spectrum of printer equipment and software engineering companies Thus there is no incentive to favor one faction over another We receive support from three manufacturers of thermal print heads Canon ColorSpan and HP and also have multiple printers from three manufacturers of piezo printers Epson Seiko Mutoh and Mimaki This is because piezo has definite advantage for some applications thermal printheads have advantages in different applications Our reviews have universal appeal precisely because we feature all competing printhead technologies Every printer RIPs inks or media we have reviewed have good points in addition to weaknesse
37. de format Inkjet Printing Wide Format Printer for Textiles Buyer s Guide in FAQs Format Questions to Ask During an Evaluation of a Textile and Dye Sublimation Printer Nicholas Hellmuth assisted by Maria Ren e Ayau Copyright 02012 Ask the following questions before you buy any inkjet printer Introduction This FLAAR Report is based on having seen textile printers from ATPColor at printer trade shows around the world for the past several years During the last four years there has clearly been a rise of interest in textile printers e More signage expos are including more textile printers e Textile trade shows most notably ITMA are including more inkjet textile printers e More manufacturers are offering textile printers e More ink companies are offering textile inks e And more printshops are asking which of all these printers and inks should they consider have been studying textile printers since the days of Encad can still remember the expos a decade ago when Stork DigiFab and other brands can still remember the textile printers of ColorSpan in USA and Compedo in Europe have witnessed the rise and unfortunate termination of the nice Yuhan Kimberly textile printer program and of course neither Encad nor ColorSpan survived have not seen Compedo textile printers for years and there was actually a period of many years when Stork had zero textile printers at signage expos they are now rebranding other models I
38. define what you mean in advance Some textile printers have a moveable control com puter that can be situated at one end or at the feed ing area whichever location the operator prefers But the standard arrangement is that the LCD and keyboard are on the output side call this the front View of the back side of ATPColor DFP Series printer Frontal view of the ATPColor DFP printer se ATPColor DFP Series Direct to Fabric Wide format Inkjet Printing Construction Build Quality 61 What is the solid ness of the construction of the outer body Is it plastic Metal Heavy gauge The printer is made out of heavy steel it looks very sturdy and solid 62 Isthere a front hood and also a back hood There is only a front hood no back hood is needed on this printer The front has three separate hoods which helps reduce the weight per hood 63 Does the front hood lift up high enough to allow full access Yes the front hood lifts high enough for a technician to access the interior of the printer You will unlikely bump your head while working on this printer unless you crawl up inside the printer or do gymnastics Plus the lift up system looks acceptable you do not want to have the hood come crashing down on your head or on your backbone But obviously this depends on how you handle the raising and lowering of the hood If properly installed it should hold up the hood unless it gets damaged or you have bad luck
39. der You can also sublimate against the front with protective paper on Not many and in some cases not any other printer offers these options The original models can receive an upgrade kit so you can switch between sublimating the front or back Downsides No printer is perfect There are thousands of reviews on the Internet which proclaim fabulous benefits of a printer But most of these are sham reviews or pseudo reviews occasionally by the company selling the printer So most are not much more than PR releases In order to document that we care about the end user the printshop owner managers and printer users we list both pros and cons And we actually physically look at the printer most PR agents are advertising agency writers they do not inspect printers in demo rooms and out in real world printshops A review with no mention of a single missing feature is exactly what distinguishes most sham reviews would personally prefer an ink level indicator in the firmware so can see with a clear vertical column the actual ink remaining in each bottle It would also be preferable in the jacket to the advertising brochure to give at least a semblance of indication as to the reality of longevity of disperse dye ink If the brand they use holds up longer than other brands and longer than dye sub via transfer paper this can be stated But most people in the industry would consider a dye based ink as not very strong against dire
40. ducts are discussed Xaar has hosted an informative visit to their world headquarters in the UK You don t get this level of access from a trade magazine writer and can assure you we are provided much more detailed information and documentation in our visits than would be provided to a magazine author or editor Companies have learned that it s a lot better to let us know up front and in advance the issues and glitches with their printers since they now know we will find out sooner or later on our own They actually tell us they realize we will find out on our own anyway Contributions grant sponsorships and project funds from these companies are also used to improve the design and appearance of the web sites of the FLAAR Information Network We thank Canon ColorS pan HP ITNH and Mimaki for providing wide format printers inks and media to the universities where FLAAR does research on wide format digital imaging We thank Epson America for providing an Epson 7500 printer many years ago and Parrot Digigraphic for providing three dif ferent models of Epson inkjet printers to our facilities on loan at BGSU 5500 7600 7800 We thank Mimaki USA for providing a JV4 and then a Mimaki TX 1600s textile printer and Improved Technologies ITNH providing their Ixia model of the Iris 3047 giclee printer We thank 3P Inkjet Textiles and HP for providing inkjet textiles so we could learn about the different results on the various textiles
41. e MSDS sheets for the inks media and laminates that you intend to use Both solvent eco solvent and UV curable inks are sub stances whose full range of health and environmental hazards are not yet fully revealed It is essential you use common sense and in general be realistic about the hazards involved especially those which are not listed or which have not yet been described FLAAR is not able to list all hazards since we are not necessarily aware of the chemical components of the products we discuss Plus there is no realistic way to know if all MSDS sheets are honest to begin with Our reports are on usability not on health hazards Most inks are clearly not intended to be consumed Obviously these tend to be solvent inks and UV curable inks Yet other inks are edible seriously they are printed on birthday cakes Indeed Sensient is a leader in a new era of edible inks Therefore the user must assume the entire risk of ascertaining information on the chemical contents and flamma bility regulations relative to inks media or laminates as well as using any described hardware software accessory service technique or products We have no idea of your client s expectations What students on our campus will accept may not be the same as your Fortune 500 clients In many cases we have not ourselves used the products but are basing our discussion on having seen them at a trade show during visiting a print shop or having been informed abo
42. e can buy if they really want that level of information So it may be best to ask for personal consulting The details of the problems with the ColorSpan 5400uv series are rather complex namely the center row of the Ricoh printheads This would require an expensive graphic designer and consultants to show the details And the design of the printhead would probably be altered by the time we did any of this anyway So it is essential to talk with people with other end users and with FLAAR in person on a consulting basis Acknowledgements With 15 employees the funding has to come from somewhere so we do welcome project sponsorship research grants contributions that facilitate our educational programs scholarships for co op interns and graduate students and comparable project oriented funding from manufacturers The benefit for the end user is a principle called aca demic freedom in this case e the freedom of a professor or student to speak out relative to the pros and cons of any equipment brought to them to benchmark e The freedom to design the research project without outside med dling from the manufacturer Fortunately our budget is lean and cost effective as you would expect for a non profit research institute As long as we are not desperate for money we can avoid the temptation to accept payment for reprinting corporate PR hype So the funding is used for practical research We do not accept nor believe and certainly do not
43. e facilities will not name the specific brands nor model names of their other printers But one aspect which is crucial to state is that this printing company is one of the more sophisticated printing companies which I have visited It is a healthy sized company with ample space and facilities But most notable is that they have top brands their workflow As an example many printshops have a good GretagMacbeth or X rite color spectrophotometer But the printshop visited had the absolute high end spectrophotometer to be polite more sophisticated brand and model than a Gretag or X Rite The brand they do have is from a factory which have visited so know this other brand well And so in each part of their workflow e Their cutter is the most respected brand in Europe e Their older UV cured printers are a top brand from Israel have been to their factory twice so know how sophisticated this brand is especially at the size of the models saw here e Their other UV cured printers are as is typical in this European printing company simply the top brand As the operation manager said it clearly if you buy the wrong printer you may save money up front but you end up paying the price with the headaches you face in the next years because your did not really get an adequate technology They indicated which brand and model of new printer will arrive within a few weeks again the top ranked brand that you could find at Drupa or FESPA
44. e nozzle plate e Some material is like sandpaper to the nozzle plate some papers and metal and the metal edge is another danger to the printhead nozzle plate ATPColor DFP Series Direct to Fabric Wide format Inkjet Printing Printhead Positioning 130 Are printheads at an angle or in a row The normal position for printheads is parallel to each other in a row But there are exceptions and stag gered the positions may have other benefits Each pattern for positioning the printheads has a reason but most printheads are simply parallel to each other in one row For this printer the printhead arrangement is staggered 3 heads per color row four rows Printhead Carriage 131 What brand of guide is used to pull the printhead carriage THK brand OG A yh THK guide close up ATPColor DFP Series Direct to Fabric Wide format Inkjet Printing Cleaning and Maintenance 132 133 134 135 136 137 Capping station situated under the removable plate below the printhead carriage How is head cleaning accomplished Spray vacuum suck manual other Vacuum and pressure then wiping How many levels strengths of printhead cleaning purging and or sucking can be accomplished via the firmware software There is one level of vacuum pressure to clean the heads Can you purge an individual printhead or do you need to purge all at once You can purge an individual row sever
45. e the next month 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 or other pertinent FLAAR web sites 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 Citing and Crediting A license from FLAAR is required to use any material whatsoever from our reports in any commercial advertisement or PR Release Ifyou intend to quote any portion of a FLAAR review in a PowerPoint presentation ifthis is in reference to any product that your company sells or promotes then it would be appropriate to ask us first FLAAR reports are being updated every month sometimes and our comment on that product may have been revised as we learned more about the product from end users Also we noticed that one company cited the single favorable comment we made on one nice aspect of their printer but neglected to cite the rest of the review which pointed out the features of the printer which did not do so well For them to correct this error after the fact is rather embarrassing So it is safer to ask before you quote a FLAAR review on your product The material
46. eck with end users And for inks and media one chemical could be off in one batch There is no way to keep track of every manufacturing run of each ink Even major Japanese corporations have an occasional bad run of ink or a bad series of printers While on the subject of ink realize that even OEM ink factories occasionally have a bad batch of ink What counts is that when this happens that the ink company apologizes and replaces the ink if this is appropriate It is not realistic for us to keep track of every batch of each ink company some ink companies make dozens or even hundreds of different inks every month What we do keep track of however is the long term track record of a company The sources and resources we may list are those we happen to have read There may be other web pages or resources that we missed For those pages we do list we have no realistic way to verify the veracity of all their content Use your own common sense plus a grain of salt for those pages which are really just PR releases or outright ads We are quite content with the majority of the specific printers RIPs media and inks we have in the FLAAR facilities We would obviously never waste our time learning about a hardware software or consum ables that we knew in advance would not be good However even for us a product which looks good at a trade show sounds good in the ad literature and works fine in a factory or distributor demo room may subsequently
47. ect to Fabric Wide format Inkjet Printing Printer Drivers and Software 153 Are the controls mainly manual or are most actions handled in the software Old fashioned printers had most of the controls manually as switches or buttons on the printer front sides and back Nowadays most of the controls for a printer made in a factory which has advanced past the previous generation the controls are in the firmware and in the RIP software FLAAR samples in the computer monitor while printing BI SERA RIP Software Features Is a RIP included in the original price Yes you get a RIP from Amica But you can opt for another RIP if you already have another or wish a main brand at its standard price 154 155 156 Which RIP software is supported Amica ErgoSoft Caldera ColorGate Onyx If more than one RIP are offered what are the pros and cons of each RIP The advantage of Amica is price it comes with the printer The advantage of ErgoSoft is that this com pany started with textile printers many many years before other RIP companies An advantage of Caldera is that it is well known at the high end Every printer has pros and cons ATPColor DFP Series 32 Direct to Fabric Wide format Inkjet Printing 157 How many different kinds of ink are available Sublimation inks come in several flavors including oil based solvent based and water based Each kind of ink has some advantages and perhaps one disadv
48. eed a lift to move media at 3 3 or 3 2 meter widths Media roll on feeding position on the back side of the printer ET AAR Reporte Be ATPColor DFP Series g Direct to Fabric Wide format Inkjet Printing 191 Can the printer print edge to edge Yes 192 Can you manually sheet feed media Does it feed easily No you cannot sheet feed media 193 Can the machine handle two different rolls of media side by side at the same time Yes if diameter of the material on each roll is the same or at least similar 194 Can you adjust the rate of media feed You need to adjust the rate of feed to remove banding lines caused by media feed that is slightly off This is not entirely the fault of the printer but a result of the fact that each different kind of material feeds slightly differently 195 Is printhead height adjustment available Is it manual automatic how much Yes manual 196 Is there a cutter on board Is it manual or automatic Yes the printer has an optional cutting system that uses cold knife technology to make sharp flawless cuts The In line cutting system can be stopped or paused without creating defects in the printed fabric 197 Is there an edge or slot for a hand held X acto blade or knife to cut printed media off the printer No 198 Do you have media length remaining sensors on your printer Is it manually set or automatic Not yet In line cutting system ATPColor DFP Series 39 Direct to Fabric W
49. enclosure not in the actual brochure But would estimate that some inks can potentially hold up longer than other inks General Considerations 233 Is there a User s Group specifically for this printer There is no user s group 234 What will the resale value of your printer be in three to five years Will either the brand name or model specifications cause a knowing buyer three years from now to shy away from your printer or cause a knowing buyer to only want to pay a very low price as compared to the other printers our company is considering A company that is no longer in business may cause printers of that brand to lose value in the used market Or is there some major technological breakthrough in your brand that will result in less value for your current model ATPColor has been in business for many years The owner is dedicated to his business do not expect this company to evaporate Most printers from Chinese manufacturers have a low resale value in part because they constantly change their features so in four years the features of your printer will no longer have spare parts available But a European company is required to keep spare parts for several years Plus this is not really a Chinese printer this is a combination of Chinese experience in manufacturing combined with the experience of ATPColor with textile printing a a SES 7 1 EE AVANE Reports ES ATPColor DFP Series 2e Direct to Fabric W
50. ent located at the back right side of the printer ATPColor DFP Series ee E Direct to Fabric Wide format Inkjet Printing 165 How is new ink added Pouring into the on board container Switching the container to the new ink container Pouring 166 How can you see the remaining ink level Do you have to ask to see the ink mode or is the status avail able at all times Look at the ink bottle Also an InkLow alarm will sound when ink is low 167 Is there an issue with Ink Starvation when you are trying to print at top speeds Ink starvation means that not enough ink can get to the printheads in fast printing modes Ink starva tion is a real issue that affects even some quarter million dollar printers So you need to check with end users to see if they have issues with ink starvation So far we have no report of ink starvation with normal modes on the ATPColor printer 168 Is there an ink low alarm Yes 169 What filters are on the ink system to trap particles There is a 6 micron filter before the sub tank 20 micron filter between sub tank and printhead final filter is inside the printhead 170 How often does the filter need to be replaced Depends on how much you print perhaps once a month 171 What is the cost of a new ink filter 30 Euros is one price quoted Ink pumps detailed view a TFENAR RP A color DFP Series fa Direct to Fabric Wide format Inkjet Printing 172 Does ink
51. eri electronic color management Caldera RIP ColorSpan DEC Durst EFI EskoArtwork Gerber Grapo IP amp l Mimaki USA Mutoh Obeikan Dilli Drytac JETRIX GCC NUR Oce Shiraz RIP Sky Air Ship Sun Teckwin VUTEk WP Digital Polytype Xerox Yuhan Kimberly MTEX Decal DigiDelta Z nd have each brought FLAAR staff to their head quarters and printer factories Sepiax AT Inks Bordeaux InkWin Sepiax Sam Ink Jetbest Hongsam InkTec and Sunflower ink have brought us to inspect their ink manufacturing facilities and demo rooms Notice that we interact with a wide range of companies it is more helpful to our readers when we interact with many different companies rather than just one However each ink company makes many products and merely because we have been to their factory does not automatically mean that we recommend their inks It is important that we also visit end users and this has not been possible with Bordeaux or Sunflower inks We have visited the world headquarters and demo rooms of HP in Barcelona and received informative and helpful technology briefings from HP about every two years We are under NDA as to the subjects discussed but it is important that we be open where we have visited Mi maki Europe has had FLAAR as their guest in Europe to introduce their flatbed UV printer as have other UV curable manufacturers again un der NDA as to the details since often we are present at meetings where unreleased pro
52. erial feed rate Yes you can vary and control the media feed rate Can you increase the carriage speed Yes increasing the carriage speed is one way to affect print quality vs print speed Direct to Fabric Wide format Inkjet Printing SS lt p E se SEEN Gepa ATPColor DFP Series 35 Printhead Life Expectancy 127 How long do your printheads really last Do you have that written in a warranty If your longevity specs are in drops please translate that into liters of ink or square footage of media Epson guarantees their heads for about 7 million drops Ricoh guarantees their heads for 100 billion drops this is what I have been told When first began evaluating printers late 1990 s always had to smile when Epson sales reps tried to claim their heads were permanent Epson people never admitted their heads wore out from the con stant flushing that these finicky heads require Because Epson heads do not really last as long as they pre tend they are not considered an industrial head Dimatix Spectra Konica Minolta Seiko Xaar and Ricoh heads are considered industrial Toshiba Tec heads were very popular with Oce Arizona but had issues and Toshiba did not create enough new generations So today 2012 2013 not many printer manufacturers use Toshiba Tec heads 128 If piezo heads fail who is responsible for paying for replacement heads If thermal heads who replaces the heads if they fail before their
53. erials it adheres for a few weeks but then falls off And on most hybrid and many combo printers some heavy thick or smooth surfaced materials skew badly Since the claim that the printer will print on everything is usually verbal it is tough to prove this aspect of misleading advertising to a jury Not all inks can print on all materials And at a trade show many of the materials you see so nicely printed on the manufacturer may be adding a primer at night or early in the morning before you see the machine printing on this material We feel that the pros and cons of each product speak more than adequately for themselves Just position the ad claims on the left put the actual performance results on the right The unscrupulous hype for some printers is fairly evident rather quickly Be sure to check all FLAAR resources Please realize that with over 200 different FLAAR Reports on UV printers you need to be sure to check the more obscure ones too If a printer has a printhead issue the nitty gritty of this may be in the FLAAR Report on printheads The report on the model is a general introduction if we discussed the intimate details of printheads then some readers might fall asleep And obviously do not limit yourself to the free reports The technical details may be in the reports that have a price to them Our readers have said they prefer to have the general basics and to park the real technical material in other reports that peopl
54. erland is listed by name in one bro chure have been to the headquarters of Sensient ink in Switzerland and can attest to their capabilities ee a a EB ADAN E Reports ATPColor DFP Series qq Direct to Fabric Wide format Inkjet Printing Comparisons with other Printers 228 When people are considering buying this printer what other printer s are they also looking at There are several choices for grand format textile printers VUTEk using a solvent textile ink There are several other local models which are not widely exhibited outside their home area VUTEk obviously is an international brand There are many textile printers using Epson printheads such as Mimaki Roland and Mutoh Many com panies use Mimaki to adapt them to production machines ATPColor has more experience with Roland so prefers to concentrate on their series But Epson printheaded machines are a separate category we will address these in a separate FLAAR evaluation At the expensive end of the market choices would be the several Durst textile printers But these models have not been exhibited widely in the last two years It is unclear whether the impressive capability in producing wide format UV cured printers and in line ceramic printers was able to be transferred to textile ink reality Evidently early adopters had problems with ink and other issues But for UV cured and in line ceramics Durst is still tops in technology The Gand
55. es I am aware that the quality of the media itself affects this But the fact that this printer does practically a flawless job was one of several hints that is is definitely not an average printer 88 Is there a quick unwinding function to get the media off the roll Yes ATPColor offers this extra feature not always found on other printers Media path for the DFP Series printers A P e E Ee JEN A i REDO t S ATPColor DFP Series 48 Direct to Fabric Wide format Inkjet Printing Operating the Printer 89 Can you manage print jobs via the Internet with your printer No 90 Which materials are pre established in the software or do you have to create the settings for each class of material yourself Media for display signage and media for flags are the two main different kinds of media you would tend to handle with this system In the main area for operation is the machine software based touch screen or with physical control buttons Or Both The printer is software based touch screen and also has minimalistic physical control buttons on a tiny touch screen The touch screen is very small since most controls would be handled through firmware or RIP on your computer monitor o A a A y pos a ao AA Sabia q Main area for operation emergency stop button control panel and buttons i a i k we ATPColor DFP Series Ma Jess o JA AA A D
56. es for FLAAR were printed bi directionally p O ree on ee A TTEANR Repo so S ATPColor DFP Series 24 120 121 123 124 125 126 Printhead carriage and minimum and maximum head adjustment control Direct to Fabric Wide format Inkjet Printing Which materials really ought to be printed at the uni directional mode If your media is dusty you might test uni directional printing mode What is the advertised DPI and is it true dpi or apparent dpi How is dpi presented with what ad jectives How is this dpi calculated What is the true dpi of this printhead If the spec sheet uses the concept of perceived dpi or apparent dpi how they calculate perceived dpi instead of true dpi In the printed specifications the DPI is listed as resolution maximum 1200 DPI But when I asked this ques tion verbally was told 600 dpi How many passes can this printer achieve The manual suggests that the printer can achieve 3 passes But asking directly we learned that it can achieve 2 to 8 passes How many print modes are there To achieve your desired finished quality can set the Speed of the carriage The resolution The number of passes 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 Can you vary the mat
57. ever occasion that shortcoming Or it may be that your printer was manufactured on a Monday and has defects that are atypical show up more in the kind of media you use which we may not use as often or at all during our evaluations Equally possibly a printer that was a disaster for someone else may work flawlessly for you and be a real moneymaker for your company So if we inspect a printer in a printshop a site visit case study and that owner operator is content with their printer and we mention this don t expect that you will automatically get the same results in your own printshop In some cases a product may work better on a Macintosh than on a PC RIP software may function well with one operating system yet have bugs and crash on the same platform but with a different operating system Thus be sure to test a printer under your own specific work conditions before you buy And if a printer RIP media or ink does not function return it with no ands ifs or buts Your best defense is to show an advertising claim that the printer simply can t achieve Such advertising claims are in violation of federal regulations and the printer companies know they are liable for misleading the public But before you make a federal case just be sure that many of the issues are not user error or unfamiliarity lt may be that training or an addition al accessory can make the printer do what you need it to accomplish Of course if the printer ads did n
58. f the printer senses it is overheating 102 How much odor is emitted by the ink or heat sublimation process How much subsequent outgassing is there and for how long does the stuff smell All sublimation processes result in a cloud of smoke This is why the exhaust system is absolutely essen tial This extraction of the sublimation smog is taken care of by the exhaust filtration system which sits adjacent to the printer The residual odor is normal for what is expected 103 Is the machine enclosed or exposed The printer carriage and entire printing path is completely enclosed 104 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 The printer comes with a fume box that is connected directly to the printer so it sucks all the gases and fumes produced during sublimation Though it is also recommended that you install the printer on a ven tilated area since the ink odor may cause physical distress There are three manifolds in the air cleaner system so you can decide yourself how many to turn on Views from the front left and back right of the printer s air cleaning system TEIDE ES IS i AN Ga ao ee Direct to Fabric Wide format Inkjet Printing 105 What is the noise level primarily of the fans for the vacuum The fan sounds like you would expect of an industrial fan Otherwise I did
59. g Printhead Technology 110 What is the brand of the printhead and model Ricoh G4 generation four 111 Is the brand and model of printhead clearly identified in the published specifications No The published specifications do not list the printhead brand or model but the brand and model of printhead are openly discussed 112 What other printers use the identical printheads or a model very similar e d gen Teleios GT Grande Ricoh Gen 4L with a fixed drop size at 15 or 27 picoliters e Mimaki TextileJet Tx400 1800D e and Mimaki TextileJet Tx400 1800B Printhead DPI and Features 113 How many printheads are used The original model of this printer uses eight printheads The current model has twelve printheads 114 How many nozzles per printhead The printhead specifications read the Gen3 model has 192 nozzles per head x2 The Gen4 head also has 384 nozzles per head 115 How many printheads per color Two printheads per color in the original for more speed on the 3 2 meter model three printheads per color 116 Can your printhead technology achieve a solid black black Yes the printers from ATPColor can achieve a nice solid black color 117 What is the drop size in picoliters The drop size in picoliters is 7 to 25 118 Is there variable droplet size capability Yes 7 picoliters on up in size 119 Is printing bi directional or uni directional What are the different results in speed in quality The sampl
60. hich printers function and which printers fail to achieve what their advertising hype so loudly claims An evaluation is a professional service and at FLAAR is based on more than 12 years of experience An evaluation of a printer an ink media sub strate a software laminator cutter or whatever part of the digital printing workflow is intended to provide feedback to all sides The manufacturers appreciate learning from FLAAR what features of their printers need improvement In probably half the manufacturers FLAAR has dealt with people inside the company did not themselves want to tell their boss that their pet printer was a dog So printer software and component manufacturers have learned that investing in a FLAAR evaluation of their product provides them with useful return on investment Of course if a printer manufac turer wants only a slick Success Story or what we call a suck up review that simply panders to the manufacturer obviously FLAAR is not a good place to dare to ask for such a review In several instances it was FLAAR Reports that allowed a company to either improve their printer or drop it and start from scratch and design a new and better one And naturally end users like the opportunity to learn about various printers from a single source that covers the entire range from UV through latex through all flavors of solvent We have also learned that distributors often prefer to accept for distribution a printer or other prod
61. ide format Inkjet Printing Comments Know the history and background of the factory in Asia where the chassis is contract manufactured to the specifications developed by ATPColor s years of experience with textile printers from the days of Encad and ColorSpan and now even more experience in the last five years also know the owners am LAO aware that the key aspects of this as a textile printer are based on knowledge of ATPColor in Italy So the physical printer you see today is a combination of experience with manufacturing wide and grand format printers the factory and experience with wide format inkjet printing and inks ATPColor Pros in general If you look around and look at the nice grand format textile printers of other brands you see printers which tripped on themselves since the manufacturers came from other backgrounds The two major brand names who launched textile printers in the past several years both had endless issues The reason is easy to under stand these other companies were very good in producing solvent ink printers and UV printers The other company was good in producing UV cured and printers for in line ceramics They are tops in their field for what they have experience in But neither of these companies really had adequate experience in textile inks or printing on textiles From what understand both these companies had issues getting water based textile inks through the industrial printheads that the
62. ide format Inkjet Printing Media What Materials 199 Can this printer accept non coated fabrics Coated polyester or polyester blend is better than non coated fabrics But some brands and varieties of non coated fabric could work for some applications You would need to try a sample to see 200 Can this printer accept fabrics with no paper backing No need for a paper backing 201 What textiles does the manufacturer list All kinds of normally coated polyester fab rics It helps if the material is 80 polyester 202 What textiles can this printer print on per fectly Polyester fabrics prepared for digital print ing 203 What materials can this printer print on successfully Polyester fabric not stretchable 204 What textiles are a problem but can be handled more or less Fabrics which stretch too much need a sticky belt conveyor belt system 205 What fabrics are best not to try at all Fabrics without polyester base 206 What about rugs and comparable thick materials If you can find thick material with a polyes ter top surface you can always try it have seen many UV cured and also solvent print ers handling rug like material One potential problem with thick material would be if it were stiff stiff material might not curl at the front edge and back edge so would not lie flat across the platen 207 Does the printer manufacturer also make coatings No Media samples at ATPColor headquar
63. in this report is not only copyright itis also based on years of research Therefore if you cite or quote a pertinent section please pro vide a proper credit which would be minimally Nicholas Hellmuth year www FLAAR org If the quote is more than a few words then academic tradition would expect that a footnote or entry in your bibliography would reference the complete title Publisher would be www large format printers org or other appropriate site in the FLAAR network Ifyou intend to quote any portion of a FLAAR review in a PowerPoint presentation ifthis is in reference to any product that your company sells or promotes then it would be appropriate to license the report or otherwise notify us in advance FLAAR reports are being updated every week sometimes and our comment on that product may have been revised as we learned more about the product from end users Also we noticed that one company cited the single favorable comment we made on one nice aspect of their printer but neglected to cite the rest of the review which pointed out the features of the printer which did not do so well For them to correct this error after the fact is rather embarrassing So it is safer to ask before you quote a FLAAR review on your product Legal notice Inclusion in this study by itself in no way endorses any printer media ink RIP or other digital imaging hardware or software Equally exclusion from this study is not intended to discredi
64. incur for the installation such as a fork lift truck or crane to lift the printer off the truck You will need a heavy duty fork lift truck to lift two and a half tons we ATPColor DFP printer assembly TEANA Reporis AR ATPColor DFP Series 9 Direct to Fabric Wide format Inkjet Printing Installation of the Printer 34 35 36 Can you handle the shipping crate with your team or is a fork lift required You need a fork lift truck Does the printer come in one piece Is the printer already put together Yes already assembled Between the day the printer arrives how soon is it realistic to achieve full productivity This time will depend on how much experience you have with printing with disperse dye ink on polyester If this is your first machine two weeks would be expected to acquire full productivity Installation of the Printer Instructions and Manuals 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 How many manuals are available Main manual and an electrics schematic manual Is there a Site Preparation Guide If so is it helpful Yes there is a site preparation guide How difficult is it to obtain the manuals BEFORE you buy the printer If you have an appropriate interest you can look at the manuals up front What is the native language of these guides Is the translation acceptable The native language of the manuals is Italian and the translation is good and easy to understand
65. innovations textile printer was a great idea to move beyond solvent and UV cured inks into tex tile inks Unfortunately the early inks created issues liked the concept but subsequent realty check sug gested that the first generation s had issues would hope the current generation from Agfa Graphics now with its hopefully significantly improved ink is a workable solution The question would be is Agfa are these manufacturers really a textile printer manufacturer or should they more be considered an impressive well known distributor am not convinced that there is a core or people within Agfa most large format companies who come from the world of textile printers The pri mary distributor of Gandinnovations who focused on textiles is no longer an Agfa dealer 229 What features on the other printers turn them off The most common issues that hear about on other printers are inks clogging the printheads and fumes from inadequate ventilation inside the system HP works hard to push their latex ink for textiles But between the issues of cost of the ink and lack of adequate hand on the resulting textile most dedicated textile printer companies would not tend to focus on latex ink Plus latex ink printers are notoriously slow The best advertising for disperse dye advantages would be a user who has an HP latex ink printer but went and bought a textile printer from ATPColor 230 What aspects of the selected printer help decide i
66. inter no matter who the manufacturer or how good is the engineering and electronics will tend to have teething issues Until the firmware is updated you may be a beta tester This does not mean the printer should be avoided just realize that you may have some downtime and a few headaches Of course the worst case scenario for this was the half million dollar Luscher JetPrint so being Made in Switzerland was not much help Counterfeit parts are a problem with many print ers made in China Several years ago many UV printers made in China and some made elsewhere in Asia had counterfeit parts No evaluation has the funding available to check parts inside any printer to see if they are from the European Japanese or American manufacturer or if they are a clever counterfeits So when we mention a brand name this is a brand name this is not a guarantee the part is not counterfeited Be realistic and aware that not all materials can be printed on equally well Many materials don t feed well through hybrid pinch roller on grit roller systems or combo UV systems with transport belts Banding both from poor feeding and from bi directional lawnmower effect are com mon on many UV curable inkjet printers It is typical for some enthusiastic vendors to claim verbally that their printer can print on anything and everything But once you unpack the printer and set it up you find that it requires primer on some materials on other mat
67. irect to Fabric Wide format Inkjet Printing 92 Can you operate this printer from your iPad Operating a printer with your iPad started about 18 months ago and now several brands offer this feature But this printer is still operated by your normal desktop computer 93 How many operators or operator assistants does this printer require One operator normally Two if you have to lift a really large heavy roll of media on or off 94 Whatcan you control as operator e ON OFF line e Feed calibration e Total or partial meter counter e Calender temperature e Forward backward buttons e Set up screen e Supply e Take up e Fault setup e Calender e Advance after print e No heat if no advance e Security code e Quick unwinding e Stop sub e Status screen 95 What is the level of ease of use Can any one use this printer or do they have to be trained and certified You do not want an untrained individual to attempt to operate this machine For a printer of this size and sophistication it is essential that the operator be trained Previous experience with RIP software and grand format printers solvent or UV based is also a help though of course a textile printer has many unique features 96 Where does the operator stand or sit The operator sits at the RIP station com puter and otherwise stands at the front of the printer ATPColor printer operator standing in front of the printer AAA e re weld A a CT AAA
68. istic We are learning that what you see in a demo room may not be what performance you will receive in your own printshop The temperature humidity and air quality in your city may be totally different than the skillfully controlled conditions in a demo room And many printers look great when they are new and in a demo room But once the ink has been flowing through the ink delivery system and printheads for several months you may experience issues that were not observable in the demo room In other words a report based on demo room observations is a first step YOU still need to check with end users to learn the difference between performance in the demo room and performance out in the real world Factors influencing output Heat humidity static dust experience level of your workers whether they are new or have prior years experience these are all factors that will differ in your place of business as compared with test results or demo room results Actually you may have people with even more experience than we do since we deliberately use students to approximate newbies FLAAR is devoted to assisting newcomers learn about digital imaging hardware and software This is why Nicholas Hellmuth is considered the Johnny Appleseed of wide format inkjet printers Therefore this report does not warranty any product for any quality performance or fitness for any specific task since we do not know the situation in which you intend
69. k that passes through the fabric NEE AAs RS e ATPColor DFP Series 41 A Direct to Fabric Wide format Inkjet Printing Media Issues 213 214 What about wheel marks or feeding roller path marks You will not get wheel marks or feeding pinch roller path marks because there are no such rollers Can the media feed without skew The next time you go to a trade show look at how the media winds up at the lower back of the printer Look at the edges of the roll More than half the rolls have the material sticking out irregularly Some brands have re markably sloppy wide up Yes naturally this also depends on the media cheap low bid me dia will tend to wind up a bit more irregularly But when I looked at the edges of the wind up roll on the ATPColor machine it was perfect ly flush So this is one of many reasons why find that the manufacturer and ATPColor have been successful to spec out a system which functions well Image Quality Issues 215 216 217 Can a glossy finish be achieved Media wound up on the back side of the printer as you can see there is no skew If you use a glossy media the finish will be glossy If you use a matte media the finish will be matte so obvi ously not glossy How can banding be avoided More passes tend to get rid of banding on almost any and all inkjet printers Of course it helps if the ma chine is precision engineered so you don t
70. l you the printer and then sort of abandon you If you buy from a generalist inkjet printer dealer you will get the good service for solvent and UV cured printers If you buy from a company which is focused on textiles which has years background in textile printing then you can expect to have help on the entire overall workflow 223 What are the applications listed by the manufacturer Flags and soft signage are the best applications But if you are innovative and if you have clients which are innovative surely you can create novel applications 224 Does the printer allow for perfect registration if printing double sided In past years some other brands of solvent printers offered special expensive options for doing regis tered double sided printing But for printing on thin material the color will be visible from both sides anyway There is no option for registering double sided printing with most direct to fabric printers The sublimation chemical process is not conducive to this kind of process E LCAN Reso Fa LA ATPColor DFP Series 43 Direct to Fabric Wide format Inkjet Printing Productivity and ROI Return of Investment 225 Can you sell the output at the machine s fastest output speed or is the quality at that speed not accept able to most client standards 90 of the different brands of printers can t produce usable output at their fastest claimed speed So call these speeds junk mode It is false ad
71. m as soon as the additional model arrives it is my understanding that they are sufficiently content with their first model from ATPColor that they are buying an additional model This also suggests that the first model is making enough profit so that they can buy the additional model for more production capacity It is rather tough to find anything more convincing than a printshop who finds a brand sufficiently good that they buy even more of the same brand As soon asit is possible to visit this loca tion in Europe we will update this report The manual is in acceptable English would estimate that the Italian version is in good Italian Offers a quick unrolling feature so you can get all the media off the core in case you wish to insepct it cut out a sample from the middle etc In summary on the good aspects of this printer can cite that some customers evidently paid off their ma chine in two to four months But with today s lower prices for finished product this rate of return is not as usual as it was in past years For example finishing the product nowadays is especially time consuming FEA AR Ga AcolorDFP Series ag I Direct to Fabric Wide format Inkjet Printing Pros for the heat fixation sublimation unit The new model allows you to heat the front or back of the inked media Flag medis is best sublimated with the front against the calender Display media is best sublimated with the back against the calen
72. media or over the media or are there both in addition to pinch roller grit roller arrangement On the back of the printer there is a foot feeding pedal to load the media as a single person without the need to jump front amp back of the printer Facing the back of the printer ink access is at the left vacuum pipes are at the right Pinch and grit roller view Zoom in of the grit rollers E ATPColor DFP Series E Direct to Fabric Wide format Inkjet Printing 84 Atthe front is there an extra roller bar s near the platen or transport belt Is it a bar to roll under the media or over the media or are there both in addition to pinch roller grit roller arrangement At the front of the printer there are two bars near the transport belt one that goes over and one that goes under the media 85 Describe the overall path of the media through the system A simple path is neither a major benefit nor a defect A simple path means that it s easier to load and there is less to go wrong A more sophisticated system may have advantages for feeding some kinds of media 86 Is the take up spindle an air core No air core is needed uses an easy block instead 87 Does material roll up evenly on the take up reel was frankly surprised to see a printer roll up the media as evenly as this printer does There was no skew have seen quarter million dollar printers do terrible jobs handling 3 2 meter wide material evenly And y
73. months of media which were almost unusable turned out they were rebranding media from China Yet other kinds of media from the same company are okay though we stopped using that brand and stopped recommending them after all the issues we ourselves experi enced As a result products are described as is and without warranties as to performance or merchantability or of fitness for a particular purpose Any such statements in our reports or on our web sites or in discussions do not constitute warranties and shall not be relied on by the buyer in deciding whether to purchase and or use products we discuss because of the diversity of conditions materials and or equipment under which these products may be used Thus please recognize that no warranty of fitness or profitability for a particular purpose is offered The user is advised to test products thoroughly before relying on them We do not have any special means of analyzing chemical contents or flammability of inks media or laminates nor how these need to be controlled by local laws in your community There may well be hazard ous chemicals or outgassing that we are not aware of Be aware that some inks have severe health hazards associated with them Some are hazardous to breathe others are hazardous if you get them on your skin For example some chemicals such as cyclohexanone do not sound like chemicals you want to breathe every day Be sure to obtain read and understand th
74. n distinction ATPColor has developed and grown during these same years So the following evaluation of current textile printer technology is based on ten years awareness of wide format inkjet textile printers The review in this PDF is dedicated to looking at one specific printer solution There are scores of textile printer applications there are four kinds of textile inks The report here is focused exclusively on direct to fabric with disperse dye inks And the grand format printer discussed here is dedi cated to soft signage and flags Yes you can print curtains and dozens of other applications if you wish but the ATPColor DFP Series is focused on producing colorful signage banners and flags 1 ATPColor DFP Series gt A Direct to Fabric Wide format Inkjet Printing The in person study of the actual printers Nicholas Hellmuth and Sofia Monzon spent two days in Milano Italy after Photokina digital camera equip ment expo in Cologne Their There were four DFP series printers in the facilities At the left the newest model DFP 1320 12G 4 with 12 ink channels The earlier models have eight ink channels At the front left of the demo room is one DFP 740 864 at the right is another The intermediate sized model DFP 1000 is logically the same as the others other than the width There was also a fourth model in the manufacturing hall However spent most of my research time on the 3 2 meter 12 ink channel One of m
75. n its favor For my own judgment as have stated before prefer a textile printer made by a textile oriented com pany do not tend to find a textile printer from a UV cured manufacturer or solvent ink printer manufacturer as the best option In some cases if your solvent or UV cured dealer is great to work with I can understand why a printshop would opt for a textile printer via a solvent or UV cured manufacturer But so far printers AA a EEANN Reports ATPColor DFP Series s 1 Direct to Fabric Wide format Inkjet Printing on for textiles made by the biggest names in UV cured printers have not always been totally successful they are okay every printer is good for many things no matter what But now that I have fifteen years expe rience evaluating printers and now that have several years specifically evaluating grand format textile printers increasingly would tend to opt for a textile printer primarily from a textile focused source Advertising Claims realistic exaggerated or misleading 231 What kinds of printed brochures are available There is a two page brochure on the DFP series plus a folding cover 232 What do these ads claim The only statement that would want to ask about is relative to UV resistance as dye ink in general is not intended for outside If you were not aware of this in advance you might mistakenly think that disperse dye inks can hold up to sun This is in the
76. n that FLAAR accepted the project to evaluate this printer because we know the managing director and his company for many years The final statement is on color saturation Ten years ago at any trade show that attended the best color saturation was noticeably one brand That company simply produced excellent color saturation It is similar today If you go to a trade show with a lot of textile printers one or two stand out as having gor geous color The other brands are okay but not as colorful Obviously a lot of this is the brand and flavor of ink another aspect is whether the fabric is matte satin or glossy And even more depends on the subject matter what colors are in the image as some colors reproduce well yellow red etc and other colors don t turn out well at all most dark colors and or shadow areas About a month ago tested my own photographs on two expensive wide format printer systems The color did not have very much pop was frankly surprised and disappointed brought other files to Milano and these images turned out much better Again it could have been the AT PColor choice of ink their better sublimation system and the choice of media used in their demo room But for grand format size found their color what you need namely COLORFUL ATPColor DFP Series Direct to Fabric Wide format Inkjet Printing Appendix A Site Visit Case Study Inspecting a printing company in Europe with two ATPColo
77. not notice any significant noise made by this printer 106 Do the printer specs list the noise level No it does not list the noise level In most printers noise comes from vacuum pumps which are more com mon in solvent and UV cured printers 107 What moving parts might hit a person if they are standing near the printer None of the parts should hit the person standing nearby because the printer is enclosed 108 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 No the manual is translated accurately This is a huge asset over manuals even from respected Japanese manufacturers The manuals of one otherwise good brand are poorly done and are rarely in acceptable idiomatic English 109 How easy is it to obtain the MSDS of the ink It is rare that the MSDS of the ink is easy to obtain If the MSDS is an auto download from the company website this is how it should be But most companies do not wish the end user to know which brand of ink is being used so hiding the MSDS is not necessarily an attempt to hide the dangers but may be to hide the source of the ink The ink recommended by ATPColor has an MSDS sheet available and also fulfills the requirements of REACH ATA al is RA 4 Ink containers inside of the printer IEA AR Reports A color DFP Series 33 Direct to Fabric Wide format Inkjet Printin
78. ofessors and staff of Bowling Green State University These personnel are not hired by any inkjet printer company they were universities employees as was also true for Nicholas Hellmuth The testing person for the HP ColorPro desktop printer said he frankly preferred his Epson printer When we saw the rest results we did not include this Hewlett Packard ColorPro printer on our list of recommended printers but we love our HP Design Jet 5000ps so much we now have two of them one at each university Sometimes we hear horror stories about a printer The only way we can tell whether this is the fault of the printer design or lack of training of the operator is to have the printer ourselves in house Of course some printer manufacturers don t understand the reasons we need to have each make and model they are used to loaning their demo units for a week or so That is obviously inadequate for a serious review Some of the media provided to us failed miserably Three printers failed to meet common sense usability and printability standards as well HP 1055 one older desktop model HP Color Pro GA and one Epson Yet we know other users who had better results maybe ours came down the assembly line on a Monday or Friday afternoon when workers were not attentive One costly color management software package was judged incapable by two reviewers one from the university second was an outside user who had made the mistake of buying this pa
79. oice of printer brand end users repeatedly suggest that choosing a dealer is crucial to the success or failure of some brands of printers e Distributors are national or regional e Germany e Sweden e Norway e UK e USA e Turkey e And obviously Italy What kinds of leasing or other financing are available You should obtain leasing from your own financial institution if you need financing ATPColor headquarters in Milano Italy ATPColor DFP Series Direct to Fabric Wide format Inkjet Printing Set up of the printer practical considerations 24 What is the delivery time between the time order the printer and it is delivered 4 weeks is normal time 25 What are the electrical requirements of this printer The electrical requirements for this printer are 380 400V 32 Amps 3 phase 26 Are there any special temperature or humidity requirements or preferences of this printing system Temperature and humidity are indeed crucial especially humidity Even more important is that whatever temperature and humidity is present in the work area that it not vary during the day cool in morning hot by 11am Hotter by 2 pm While printer is on Temperature 18 to 25 C 64 to 77 F relative humidity 40 to 60 no condensation While printer is off Temperature 15 to 35 C 59 to 95 F relative humidity 20 to 80 no condensation The printer itself has its own filtration system But for any grand format printer would
80. omplete 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 O Copyright FLAAR Reports 2012 Direct to Fabric Wide format Inkjet Printing Operating the Printer Safety and Health Considerations Printhead Technology Printhead DPI and Features Printhead Life Expectancy Printhead Positioning Printhead Carriage Cleaning and Maintenance Cleaning and Maintenance Waste Printer Drivers and Software RIP Software Features Ink Ink Cost Ink Longevity Ink Color Gamut Media Size Media What Materials Media Issues Image Quality Issues Fixation Unit Calendering System Applications Productivity and ROI Return of Investment History and Relationships of the Manufacturer Comparisons with other Printers Advertising Claims General Considerations Comments Pros in general Pros for the printer portion Pros for the heat fixation sublimation unit Downsides Discussion Points Reality check The final statement is on color saturation Appendix A Site Visit Case Study Appendix B Using Print Samples from ATPColor 21 23 23 25 26 26 27 30 31 31 32 34 34 35 37 39 41 41 42 42 43 43 44 45 45 46 46 47 48 48 48 49 49 50 53 ATPColor DFP Series Direct to Fabric Wide format Inkjet Printing ATPColor DFP Series Direct to Fabric Wi
81. or FLAAR assists many museums and local non profit organizations es pecially in Guatemala Last month we donated a set of prints from AT PColor to a local cacao chocolate growers association in the Pacific Ocean piedmont zone of Guatemala They used these prints to decorate their annual festival We appreciate ATPColor sending us these prints by FedEx as they were too bulky to fit in my suitcase This use for an expo decoration is one of a hundred typical applications that a printshop can provide to clients di 2 i Dr Nicholas Hellmuth handing a set of cacao prints printed by ATPColor to Jorge Estrada for the National Cacao Festival e a ENT TENAS R ReDo E 3 SS ATPColor DFP Series 53 Direct to Fabric Wide format Inkjet Printing _ a An R Delta GEA y ATPColor prints exhibited at the National Cacao Festival in San Antonio Suchitepequez Guatemala sr dl PRODUCTIVOS q Textile Printer Reports from 2012 prm amp FLAAREEES Exhibitor List Textile Wide format Printers 6 FLAARE TLAAR Repons AAR i Esa ica Textile qs Wide format luja Inss Te si le NS Textile Printer amp Media sboru rinsed Buor AS at Graphics PB the Americas Sears Sign Future sign Atrica E ma ll E cat dl Textile eN n APPPEXPO 2012 APPPEXPO 2012 Sao Paulo Brazil gt 7017 Introductory Textile Printer Reports li E AS lt amp FLAAR Reports 4S F
82. ot warn you that you had to purchase the additional pricey accessory that is a whole other issue Our reviews do not cover accessories since they are endless as is the range of training or lack thereof among users The major causes of printer breakdown and failure is lack of mainte nance poor maintenance spotty maintenance or trying to jerry rig some part of the printer The equally common cause of printer break down is improper use generally due from lack of training or experience Another factor is whether you utilize your printer all day every day Most solvent and UV printers work best if used frequently If you are not going to use your printer for two or three days you have to put flush into the system and prepare it for hibernation even if for only four or five days Then you have to flush the ink system all over again Also realize that the surface of inkjet prints are fragile and generally require lamination to survive much usage Lamination comes in many kinds and it is worth finding a reliable lamination company and receiv ing training on their products Also realize that no hybrid or combo UV printer can feed all kinds of rigid materials precisely Some materials feed well others feed poorly others will skew Although we have found several makes and models to work very well in our facilities how well they work in your facilities may also depend on your local dealer Some dealers are excellent others just sell you a
83. pany in some cases the worse these particular problems may be When a distributor drops distribution you may get no more tech support If your distributor has issues with the manufacturer you may be aban doned if that distributor drops the product If another distributor takes up that product they may not provide you tech support because you did not buy the printer from them Occasionally even the manufacturer goes bank rupt Even major Swiss printer manufacturers have had issues and gone out of business for their wide format printers THREE Swiss manufacturers are in this list actually There are also companies in Canada USA and Europe which had corporate meltdown Gandinnovations is the best example but there are many others Neolt recently went into reogniza tion July 2012 a polite way of saying downsizing after filing a court case which would be roughly comparable to Chapter 11 in the USA Most companies studiously avoid using the word pleading bankruptcy but to a lay person it s very close to the same In some cases the company continues Neolt we hope is in this cat egory Or sometimes a manufacturer simply runs out of money They avoid publically announcing this but the effect is similar to Chapter 11 or banktuptcy downsizing and technical support may drop Plus you may not get much innovation from a company which can t afford to pay its bills Any printer may take a few months to break in Any new pr
84. personally sug gest a room ambient temperature and humidity control system plus an air exhaust or filtration system 27 What is the connectivity Network SCSI FireWire USB Ethernet or other USB 28 Realistically how much surrounding and support space will the equipment need in addition to the ma chine s own footprint Besides the machine s own footprint an extra 1 5 meters all around the machine is required And an extra space of the same width of the machine is required to install the lamp 29 What is the size and weight of the printer The approximate weight of this printer is 1500 kg i Ne aT i ATPColor DFP printer assembly Direct to Fabric Wide format Inkjet Printing TT AR G ATcolor DFP Series 30 Does the printer come in one piece Does this mean you have to remove a wall to get the printer this size into your office The printer comes in one piece in one box A second box has anything else that is needed Whether your building entrance allows this printer to enter is probable You would need a restricted entrance to require a breaking through a wall many large UV cured printers do actually require breaking down the wall 31 How many boxes arrive You can normally expect that two crates will arrive One has the assembled printer inside The other box has everything else which is needed 32 What is setup of the printer like At least two days is needed 33 Realistically what expenses must you
85. port tries to have its publication date on the front outside cover if we updated everything instantly the cost would be at commercial rates and it would not be possible to cover these expenses At the end of most FLAAR Reports there is addition ally a list of how many times that report has been updated A report with lots of updates means that we are updating that subject based on availability of new information If there is no update that is a pretty good indication that report has not been updated With 101 models of UV printers several hundred solvent printers and scores of water based printers we tend to give priority to getting new reports out on print ers about which not much info at all is available elsewhere So we are pretty good about reporting on advances in LED curing But glitches in a common water based printer will take longer to work its way through our system into an update especially if the glitch occurs only in certain circumstances for example on one type of media With several hundred media types we may not yet have utilized the problem media While on the subject of doing your own research be sure to ask both the printer operator and printshop owner or manager you will generally get two slightly different stories A printer operator may be aware of more glitches of the printer than the owner If a printer is no longer a prime model then there is less interest in that printer so unless a special budget were availa
86. printer which is well thought out by an individual who has all his assets men tal and financial deep into the world of textile ink chemistry and fabrics Each manufacturer has some advantage but am still convinced that textile printing is complex enough that merely labeling a printer as a textile printer is not an adequate solution Two of the biggest brand names in the world of UV cured printing had countless issues when they tried to produce a textile printer One over came the majority of issues Actually there is a third brand of solvent printer manufacturer who also attempted to produce a textile printer They had millions of investment dollars from a textile ink partner and from their home government Their printer was exhibited once or twice and never appeared again not at drupa 2012 or ITMA China 2012 or anywhere else in 2012 and hardly anywhere visible in 2011 When you buy any printer any ink be sure you comprehend the full workflow It is normal that you will be sold the printer as the focus You will rarely be told about the other equipment you may need for the workflow Here you will not likely be bamboozled by ATPColor brought a client printshop to them once and this client printshop had zero experience in printing The managing director of ATPColor suggested they not jump into textile printing first that they acquire experience first This is very rare of amanufacturer to be honest in this manner This is one reaso
87. r dull or wash away the ink or change the surface quality You would need to test each cleaning solvent to know 178 What happens if you seal your prints behind glass to protect them Will the ink outgas and smear the glass Since the calender is set at 200 degrees it is expected to sublimate all the ink Thus to seal your prints behind glass will not automatically engender outgassing Naturally all this depends on climatic conditions and ink load 179 What is the shelf life of the ink 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 Shelf life of the ink supplied by ATPColor is one year y Ss B it ATPColor DFP Series Direct to Fabric Wide format Inkjet Printing 180 Do you have to shake the ink to get the pigments out of being settled No this is not a pigmented ink some of which has to be shaken You do not need to shake dye based ink 181 Does the ink rub off Under normal conditions you would not expect the ink to rub off Obviously this depends on the chemical situation Ink Color Gamut 182 How many colors are used in the ink set being evaluated here CMYK 183 What colors print best Color gamut will depend on the color of the material on which you are printing on your experience with color management and whether you a
88. r printers Printshop in Western Europe that has the ATPColor 3 2 meter printer FLAAR site visit j To learn the facts about whether a printer really functions adequately it is essential to visit a printshop What you see in the printer factory what you see in the demo room of the distributor are helpful first steps in evaluating a printer But the final truth comes when you speak with the operation manager who has to deal with the printer every day every month all year Thus it was helpful when it was possible to visit a printshop in Germany which had the ATPColor 3 2 meter printer have been visiting printshops and printer factories and demo rooms and R amp D labs for over fourteen years So am already familiar with the fact that perhaps a third of all printshop owners do not wish the full range of their installed printer brands to be identified by name When a printshop is the local leader in suc cessful signage market the owners have noticed that competing printshops who are not yet as successful will copy the printers that the 1 printshop owns ATPColor DFP Series 51 Direct to Fabric Wide format Inkjet Printing Thus the owner politely asked that we not identify the brands of printers which he had in addition to the ATPColor textile printer We need to identify the dye sub printer since this is the printer we are evaluating As a courtesy to the company who provided access and hospitality in their frankly remarkabl
89. rated lifespan What does each printhead cost to replace Distinguish price for the printhead and also price for the service technician to come and do the installation if it is not user replaceable If a piezo head fails it is usually considered the fault of the end user unless the head is DOA Dead On Ar rival 129 How often can you expect head strikes What causes them Who will replace the printheads and at whose cost e A head strikes is the most common cause of premature head failure another cause is constant flush ing the flushing seemingly wears out the nozzle system A single head strike may wipe out only a few nozzles or may kill the entire printhead Head strikes may be occasioned by a diverse variety of situa tions e Improper loading of the media which make cause buckling because the media is caught or not going through the printer properly e Thin media can curl thereby causing a head strike on the curled part e Edge guards which work on thin materials may be raised too high e If media is absorbent too much ink can make the material bubble up e If media is curled or bubbled by heat the head can hit the raised part e If media is defective to begin with or uneven the head can hit the raised part e If adhesive pulls off the material the adhesive may get stuck on the nozzle plate of the head e Fora textile printer an additional cause of printhead failure is the fuzz of the threads which may stick up and rub th
90. re does the spit ink go How do you eventually dispose of the spit ink All excess ink goes into the service station and then into the bottle below 142 What part s of this printer need the most attention to avoid breakdown You have to pay attention to keeping the printheads cleaned 143 What maintenance issues should be noted Be sure to keep the linear guide clean Ink compartment for containers and waste tanks Ea Direct to Fabric Wide format Inkjet Printing AS A lt sa R EL TERAR Reno a ATPColorDFP Series ag 144 What part s of this printer tend to break down the most often The part that may wear out is the 3 day valve it gets clogged 145 What is the most delicate or complex or time consuming cleaning or maintenance chore Cleaning the calender is a tough assignment So avoid sticky media or any other act that would tend to leave residue on the surface of the calender 146 If you change ink how much hands on work is required to set up the ink system Is hand priming or sucking the ink down the tubes required of the operator Is head priming automatic or operator initi ated Changing from one ink to another ink is technically possible in some printers but is rarely recommended 147 How much time media and ink are used during regular cleaning calibration and maintenance Most cleaning aspects are automatic when you tell the system to clean itself So regular cleaning takes just a few minutes
91. re using canned ICC color profiles or custom profiles that you made yourself Yellow green turquoise black all print well was pleased with the color pop of what was printed for me as samples These were my own photos these were not samples pimped by a manufacturer to show an unrealistic color gamut a Printed FLAAR samples before passing through the heating unit even at this point you can see the great color gamut thile printer can achieve i Dr Nicholas Hellmuth holding FLAAR cacao samples ATPColor DFP Series 37 Direct to Fabric Wide format Inkjet Printing 184 What widths can be printed ATPColor DFP1320 3 3 meters DFP1000 2 6 meters DFP740 1 9 meters Media core diameter 185 Is the width enough for target applications Yes and probably no more is needed 186 What core diameter s of media will this printer accept Standard 3 187 Are there core adapters to accept other sized cores Not at present 188 What is the maximum roll diameter 36 cm normal If you purchase the optional large roll system you can take rolls with a diameter up to 66 cm 189 What thickness media is accepted Up to 4 cm but unless you were printing a rug that thickness would not be needed And this is not made to be a rug printer 190 What length of media tends to be on a roll of material Flag media can be up to 500 meters in length on the roll Display media can be 200 250 meters long You will tend to n
92. s What is the native language of the tech support person Italian Spanish and English out of the factory What tech support is available and for how long What is the wait time on the phone Depends on the day and hour and who the dealer is Can you provide an extended hardware warranty This can be discussed Who provides the service The dealer or the manufacturer First level would be the dealer Second level would be directly with the manufacturer truthfully Do spare parts come from a foreign country If so what is the wait time for such parts Some spare parts would come from Europe other parts from Asia From our experience even for parts for printers from Fortune 500 companies there is wait time a Eu 7c0r DEP Series 1 Direct to Fabric Wide format Inkjet Printing Construction Aesthetics 59 How can you describe the design of the printer The printer is a working machine So it is not de signed to look like a pinball machine Also it is not painted garish colors instead it is a nice neutral color so it does not conflict with your company d cor Can you easily tell which is the front and which is the back 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
93. s Both X Rite and competitor GretagMacbeth provided spectrophotometers Again when all sides assist this program there is no incentive to favor one by trashing the other Printer manufacturer ad campaigns are their own worst enemy If a printer did not make false and misleading claims then we would have nothing to fill our reviews with refuting the utter nonsense that is foisted on the buying public It is not our fault if some printers are more user friendly print on more media than other brands It is not our fault that the competing printers are ink guzzlers are slow beyond belief and tend to band or drop out colors all together We don t need to be paid by the printer companies whose prod ucts work so nicely in both our universities on a daily basis The printers which failed did so in front of our own eyes and in the print shops of people we check with And actually we do try to find some redeeming feature in the slow ink gulping brands they do have a better dithering pattern they can take thick media that absolutely won t feed through an HP So we do work hard at finding the beneficial features even of printers are otherwise get the most critique from our readers Over one million people will read the FLAAR Information Network in the next 12 months 480 000 people will be exposed to our reports on wide format printers from combined total of our three sites on these themes You can be assured that we hear plenty of comments from our readers about w
94. significant issue Chinese printers tend to switch suppliers for spare parts every month or so So getting spare parts for a Chinese printer will be a challenge even if the distributor or manufacturer actually respond to your e mails at all Fortunately some companies to have a fair record of response Teckwin is one based on a case of two problematical hybrid UV printers in Gua temala The distributor said that Teckwin sent a second printer at their own expense and sent tech support personnel at their expense also But unfortunately both the hybrid UV printers are still abandoned in the warehouse of the distributor they were still there in January 2009 But Teckwin has the highest rating of any Chinese company for interest in quality control and realization that it is not good PR to abandon a client or reseller or distributor all together Recently we have heard many reports of issues of getting parts from manufacturers in other countries not Asia So just because you printer is made in an industrialized country if you are in the US and the manu facturer is X thousand kilometers or miles away the wait may be many days or weeks Lack of Tech Support Personnel is increasing The recession resulted in tech support issues some manufacturers may need to skimp on quality control during a recession or switch to cheaper parts suppliers Plus they are not hiring enough tech support during a recession So the bigger and more successful the com
95. st month get more advanced training Yes this follow up training is available While the printer is being installed it is recommended that people make a list of questions for an advanced training session Se DREAN ooo CC ATPColor DFP Series y Direct to Fabric Wide format Inkjet Printing Tech Support and Warranty 49 50 51 52 gt gt 54 gt 56 57 58 What is the original warranty period 12 months warranty for the printer 36 months warranty for the calendering system Does it include parts labor printheads Almost all warranty of printheads any brand and any printer are based on what caused the issue with the printheads If the printhead is at fault it is normally replaced If the printhead was damaged by a head strike or lack of cleaning the manufacturer will tend not to replace it What sort of technical assistance do you actually offer We mean serious technical assistance Do your tech support people who answer the phone read from a script and only get a real technician later on Most manufacturers are cutting back on tech support and or have people answering the phones who do not themselves actually use or know the equipment first hand They just attempt to read from a script This depends on the dealer Can the manufacturer remotely diagnose the printer The manufacturer can access the print log file Do the tech support people understand fabrics and textiles Ye
96. t any printer ink media or product A printer may change components since we first reviewed it A com ponent may be defective in the specific machine you buy which is obviously not the specific machine we evaluated And in some factories they may have forgotten to screw a particular part in correctly So that component may break or wear out and cause downtime or injury to the printer operator There is no realistic way even an evaluation can offer protection from such normal issues with one manufacturing run Advisory We do our best to obtain information which we consider reliable But with hundreds of makes and models of printers dozens of kinds of ink and sometimes when information about them is sparse or conflicting we can only work with what we have available Thus you should be sure to rely also on your own research especially asking around Find a trustworthy end user of the same make and model you need to know about If you are thinking of an after market ink be sure you speak with another printer operator to find out how this ink has worked for them Do not make a decision solely on the basis of a FLAAR report because your situation may be totally different than ours Or we may not have known about and hence not written about one aspect or another which is crucial before you reach your decision It is not realistic to update all the old reports so if the report was written before 2011 it is all the more essential to ch
97. ters ATPColor DFP Series 40 Direct to Fabric Wide format Inkjet Printing 208 Can the manufacturer toll coat for an end user who needs a significant amount of one or two coated fabrics ATPColor is a textile printing system developer and manufacturer not a manufacturer of ink or media 209 How much acclimatization time is needed for the media Depends on material and temperature of storage area compared with temperature of the print room But usually not an issue 210 Is there a trough to catch the ink that goes through the weave of the fabric Yes there is an ink trough with sponge and pad to absorb any ink that passes through the fabric 211 How do you clean the trough Can ink drain down and out of the trough into a waste bottle To clean the trough you pull up the sponge pad and throw it away And wipe down the edges of the trough Then cut out and put in a fresh sponge 212 How does this printer handle ink that goes through the weave but gets stuck as droplets on the back of the weave How does it keep these ink drops from getting on the rollers or soiling another part of the fabric when it reaches the wind up reel There are two issues with printing on fabrics first the ink goes through the weave and ends up on the table or transport belt or platen Second the fibers from fabrics or mats can get onto the printhead nozzle plate and sometimes up into the nozzles d j Here you can see the sponge and pad to absorb the in
98. that part of Austria In other words a university as an educa tional institution but functioning in the real world as an actual business This is a sensible model especially when FLAAR staff need to be on the road over a quarter of a million miles per year roughly over 400 000 km per year total for the staff Obviously this travel is hosted since unless money falls from heaven there most realistic way to obtain funding to get to the demo rooms for training is direct from the source It has been helpful when companies make it possible for us to fly to their headquarters so we can inspect their manufacturing facilities demo rooms and especially when the companies make their research engi neering and ink chemistry staff available for discussions When received my education at Harvard was taught to have a desire to learn new things This has guided my entire life and is what led me into wide for mat digital imaging technology it is constantly getting better and there is a lot to learn every month Thus actively seek access to improving my understanding of wide format printer technology so that we can better provide information to the approximately quarter million readers of our solvent and UV printer web site www large format printers org and the over half a million who read either our wide format printers org site or our roughly half million combined who read our digital photography org and www FineArtGicleePrinters org sites Barbi
99. turn out to be a lemon under real world conditions out in a printshop Plus whether or not the end user is trained to properly utilize the product effects whether the product works acceptably or not So the end user we inspect may later learned to be atypical due to being really well trained or have inadequate training Or the product may indeed have a glitch but one that is so benign for us or maybe we have long ago gotten used to it and have a workaround And not all glitches manifest themselves in all situations so our evalua tor may not have been sufficiently affected that he or she made an issue of any particular situation Yet such a glitch that we don t emphasize may turn out to be adverse for your different or special application needs Equally often what at first might be blamed on a bad product often turns out to be a need of more operator experience and training More often than not after learning more about the product it becomes pos sible to produce what it was intended to produce For this reason it is crucial for the FLAAR team to interact with the manufacturer s training center and technicians so we know more about a hardware or software Our evaluations go through a process of acquiring documentation from a wide range of resources and these naturally include the manufacturer itself Obviously we take their viewpoints with a grain of salt but often we learn tips that are worthy of being passed along FLAAR has no way
100. ty about every single printer out there We thank MacDermid ColorSpan now part of HP Hewlett Packard Parrot Digigraphic Color DNA Canon Gandinnovations and other companies for providing funding for technology training for the FLAAR staff and our colleagues at Bowling Green State University in past years and for funds to allow us to attend all major international trade shows which are ideal locations for us to gather information We thank ATP Color Sun LLC EFI Rastek EFI VUTEk Drytac DigiFab Seiko II Hongsam ink InkWin ink and Dilli for providing funds so that we can make more of our publications free to end users During 2000 2001 we had grants to cover all the costs of our publications and all FLAAR Reports were free in those early years As that early grant naturally expired after a few years we had to begin charging for some of our reports to cover costs Now in 2012 2013 we are seeking corporate sponsorship so we can gradually make another 20 of our publications free to our readers Since 2006 we do a major part of our evaluations at the factory and headquarters demo room Since the university does not fund any of these trips it is traditional for the manufacturer to fund a research spon sorship In the US this is how most university projects are initiated for decades now and it is increasing In fact there is a university in Austria that is not an edu but is a GmbH funded by the chamber of com merce of
101. uct on which a FLAAR Report already exists We turn down offers of funding every year These offers come from PO Box enterprises or products with no clearly visible point of manufacture Usually the company making the offer presumes they can buy advertising space just by paying money But that is not what our readers want so we politely do not accept such offers of money Contributions grants sponsorships and funding for surveys studies and research is however open to a company who has an accepted standing in the industry It is helpful if the company has a visible presence at leading trade shows and can provide references from both end users and from within the industry Where possible we prefer to visit the company in person or at least check them out at a trade show Obviously the product needs to have a proven track record too Competing companies are equally encouraged to support the FLAAR system We feel that readers deserve to have access to competing information Competition is the cornerstone of American individualism and technological advancement FLAAR also covers its costs of maintaining the immense system of 8 web sites in three languages and its facilities in part by serving as a consultant such as assisting inkjet manufacturers learn more about the pros and cons of their own printers as well as how to improve their next generation of printers It is especially useful to all concerned when manufacturers learn of trends what applications
102. ut a product via e mail or other communication Results you see at trade shows may not be realistic Be aware that trade show results may not be realistic Trade shows are idealized situations with full time tech support to keep things running The images at a trade show may be tweaked Other images make be faked in the sense of slyly putting on primer without telling the people who inspect the prints Most UV inks don t stick to all materials many materials need to be treated Or the UV prints may be top coated so that you can t do a realistic scratch test Booth personnel have many standard tricks that they use to make their output look gorgeous In about half the cases you will not likely obtain these results in real life in most cases they are printing uni directional which may be twice as slow as bi directional Trade show examples tend to be on the absolutely best media When you attempt to save money and use economy media you will quickly notice that you do not get anywhere near the same results as you saw in the manufacturer s trade show booth or pictured in their glossy advertisement Five years ago we noticed Epson was laminating prints to show glossy output because their pigmented inks could not print on actual glossy media The same equipment inks media and software may not work as well in your facility as we or you see it at a trade show All the more reason to test before you buy and keep testing before you make
103. vertising in probably half the spec sheets will need to test 3 pass mode This produces 510 sq meters and hour The samples printed for FLAAR were in mode 6 and produced at 35 square meters per hour The results were fully satisfactory and had brighter color than two other direct to fabric printers we tested the previ ous month History and Relationships of the Manufacturer 226 What is the recent history of the manufacturer have seen the owner of ATPColor around the world at pertinent expositions for many many years He has now expanded beyond wide format textile printers into the world of serious grand format production for signage primarily though you can use the output any way you desire 227 What partners does this manufacturer have The manufacturer has worked with Splash of Color in USA for several years The manufacturer also has ex perience with Roland for many years And in the days of ColorSpan he knew their textile printer inside out Today he has experience in China see him at the key Chinese expos It is interesting to note who you do see at most expos the owners of the several really leading textile brands and who is missing the owners and managers of the companies that have textile printers in their inventory but that is clearly not their focus ATPColor logically has the two ink companies as devel opment partners It is worth noting that the two are both major names in textile inks Sensient Switz
104. y selected Here is the immediate difference with ATPColor This company is dedicated to textile printers They do not make UV cured printers They do not make solvent ink printers They concentrate on doing well in their field of knowledge printing on polyester fabrics with disperse dye ink A benefit of ATPColor is also that you are allowed to select which of two inks you prefer The primary differ ence is in price know each brand and can say that they are European and American companies when we do an evaluation we go into the R amp D labs so we are told the actual ink brands but it is tradition to sign an NDA Non Disclosure Agreement So we know the inks but the actual brand names are not placed in the reports Once you have the printer yourself you will learn which ink is which and you can make your own decision have seen the output of both inks over many years have been to the R amp D labs of one of the manufactur ers the one in Europe So have some knowledge that the inks being used are appropriate to the high end Cheap low bid inks are available worldwide This is not the goal of most companies to offer low bid prod ucts whose components no one knows The best example of the quality of the factory who made this printer and the engineer who designed it AT PColor is that the media winds up evenly would estimate that if the media itself is badly wound onto the original and if that media core is inaccurate the medi

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