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HP Designjet L65500 - Wide Format Printers

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1. a Most recent UV Printers b LAAR Reports Roll to Roll UV Printers for Billboards amp Banners Gandinnovations Jeti 3348 UV JetSpeed These are some of the most Recent FLAAR Reports 2008 2010 You can find these and more reports at www wide format printers NET FLAAR Reports Resin ink or UV cured Ink Latex ink True Pros amp Cons With Sepiax resin amp HP latex inks available is it viable to use full solvent eco solvent mild solvent bF LAAR Reporis Roland LED UV Curing amp Varnish VersaUV Print amp Cut LEC 300 amp FLAAR Repon Clascifications of more than 60 UV Cured Printers TLAAR Reports UVLamps for flatbed Inkjet Printers LAAR Reports Entry Level Hybrid UV Roll to Roll LED cuna Mimaki UJV 160 amp FLAAR Reports How to Buy a UV Cured Soosi Flatbed Printer p A ar a Phi EA FAQs for UV Printers 6 FLAAR Report Introduction to UV Cured Inks including Cationic UV Ink LAAR Reports Flatbed UV Printer Teckwin TeckStorm Primary Flatbed Prinsa FLAAR Reports Tips Info Help Documentation on Piezo Printheads Used in UV Cured Inkjet Printers l LAAR Reports Combo UV Printer for Architectural Materials OL A AVAN AG lt sje e ja HP Designjet L65500 Latex Ink Printer Evaluation These are some of the most Recent FLAAR Reports 2008 2010 You can find these and more re
2. Licensing Information If you wish to distribute this report to other people within your company please obtain a site licensing agreement for multiple copies from FLAAR by contacting ReaderService FLAAR org Substantial discounts are available for licensing to distribute with in your company we call this a subscription The advantage of a subscription license is that you can opt for automatic updates You may have noticed that FLAAR reports tend to be updated as additional information becomes available In some instances a license would be available to distribute out side your company including in other languages To distribute this report without subscription license violates federal copyright law To avoid such violations for you and your company you can easily order additional copies from www wide format printers NET Update Policy Starting in 2008 updates on UV curable wide format inkjet printers are available for all individuals and companies which have a sub scription or to companies who are research project sponsors If you are a Subscriber or manager in a company that is a research sponsor you can obtain the next update by writing ReaderService FLAAR org If you are neither a Subscriber or a research sponsor simply order the newest version via the e commerce system on www wide format printers NET Please realize that because we have so many publications and many are updated so frequently that we have no realistic
3. ll Nicholas inspecting the HP L65500 at ISA 2009 i 2 N x m E a 4 A A Nicholas was E the HP L65500 several times Aning his two weeks at DRUPA fortunately no other trade show orga nizer has anything as unrealistic as DRUPA s excessive two weeks 6 FLAAR Reports Latex Ink Printer Evaluation 7 Is this mature or still in alpha stage beta stage The HP L65500 is now mature the L25500 is still new but was launched during autumn 2009 The HP Scitex LX600 is primarily a change of name for the same structure though obviously some aspects are improved now The wider version 3 2 meters the LX800 is still new 8 What other costs are involved Two other costs are involved rewiring your building since this printer requires sophisticated electrical power Then the other cost would be your electrical bill to cure the ink and then your air conditioning bill to cool down the room 9 Do you need an uninterruptible power supply UPS In some countries a UPS unit may be useful Just realize that it may take an industrial strength UPS unit to handle the needs of this printer but you would certainly not want to run the printer s heaters with any UPS unit even an industrial strength one WHAT IS THE INTENDED MARKET FOR THIS PRINTER 10 What is the market that the manufacturer has designed this printer for This printer is designed for signage but dla the guality is good enough fo
4. Has HP influenced my comments Yes of course HP flew me to Israel to be trained in this technology months before it was even mentioned elsewhere was deep in HP world headquarters R amp D rooms again long before the printer was readily available Then there was a second trip to Barcelona world headquarters of HP wide format to learn how the printer was doing out in the real world Two managers of large printshops were flown in to speak with us will compliment HP in that these two managers were not scripted They answered from their own experience They did not read some silly PR release But equally obviously you Knew before they appeared that they would like this printer And that is the core of the message of this evaluation HP latex ink is great if this is precisely the range of ink and range of media that you and your customers are interested in But is this an appropriate printer for a general printshop Can this replace solvent ink much less even consider replacing UV cured ink These were the crucial questions the last 18 months But since recently there has arisen a totally unexpected dilemma the advent and advance of another completely different resin ink Sepiax And on this aspect ran into the owner who had bought the HP 104 latex printer early on He likes HP equipment and has almost a million dollars worth Did he like the latex ink And after he bought the HP latex printer did he switch to Sepiax ink This will b
5. 30 Is there a cutter Is it manual or automatic A cutter on board would not be expected on this kind of a production printer 31 Is there a knife guide a slot where you can draw your knife down and across the width of the substrate In general detritus from cutting anywhere near the platen can be a factor in printheads clogging Back part of the HP Designjet L65500 at Sign and Graphic Imaging Dubai 2009 HEATERS amp DRYER 32 What about heater or dryer Is there a pre heater platen heater and post heater all three or just one or two How many heaters does this printer have This printer has two integrated heaters 33 Where are the heaters located Is heater on top of or under the media Front and print area 6 FLAAR Reports Latex Ink Printer Evaluation 34 What is average monthly electric bill It would be helpful if there were a before and after figure on the electrical bill 35 What about fans There are 21 fans across the front 36 Is an auxiliary heater or fan offered or needed No extra heater is needed at the front HP and Scitex have engineered plenty of curing temperature within the printer itself Fans on the HP Designjet L65500 photograph taken at FESPA Amsterdam 2009 TLAAR Reports ee E UPGRADES Future Improvements 37 What features have been added or changed since the printer first appeared The model that most people have is the original model At ISA
6. TLANR Reports HP Scitex LX600 LX800 i 7 z x Pe ri p 4 _ s i ET parsi NL a k i sm B 2 1i May 2010 HP Latex Ink Printer Evaluation OL AT AVAN p dl lt sfe e ja HP Designjet L65500 Latex Ink Printer Evaluation HP Designjet L65500 at ISA 2009 Please Note This report has not been licensed to any printer manufacturer distributor dealer sales rep RIP company media or ink company to distribute So if you obtained this from any company you have a pirated copy Also since this report is frequently updated if you got your version from somewhere else it may be an obsolete edition FLAAR reports are being updated all year long and our comment on that product may have been revised positively or negatively as we learned more about the product from end users To obtain a legitimate copy which you know is the complete report with nothing erased or changed and hence a report with all the original description of pros and cons please obtain your original and full report straight from www large format printers org Your only assurance that you have a complete and authentic evaluation which describes all aspects of the product under consideration benefits as well as deficiencies is to obtain these reports directly from FLAAR via www wide format printers NET Copyright 2010 FLAAR Contents Introduction THE BASICS WHAT IS THE INTENDED MARKET FOR THIS PRINTE
7. So it is essential to talk with people with other end users and with FLAAR in person on a consulting basis Acknowledgements With 19 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 amp LAAR Reports HP Designjet L65500 Latex Ink Printer Evaluation and graduate students and comparable project oriented funding from manufacturers The benefit for the end user is a principle called academic freedom in this case e The freedom of a professor or student to speak out relative to the pros and cons of any equipment brought to them to benchmark The freedom to design the research project without outside meddling from the manufacturer Fortunately our budget is lean and cost effective as you would expect for a non profit research institute As long as we are not desperate for money we can avoid the temptation to accept payment for reprinting corporate PR hype So the funding is used for practical research We do not accept nor believe and certainly do not regurgitate corporate PR For example how many manufacturer s PR photos of their prod ucts have you seen in our reports or on our web sites Besides it does not take any money to see which printers and RIPs function as advertised and which don t We saw one hyped printer grind to a halt malfunction or otherwise publicly display its
8. you get the FLAAR reports in exchange for your survey form Second your comments bring hopefully change and improvement in the next generation of printers When we do survey statistics then the names addresses and telephone numbers are removed completely A survey wants only aggregate numbers not individuals However if you ask about a specific brand of printer and do not opt out we for ward your request to a pertinent sponsor so you can obtain follow up from that brand since we ourselves do not have enough personnel to respond to each reader by telephone But we do not provide your personal information to outsiders and our survey form has an opt out check off box which we honor FLAAR also serves as consultants to Fortune 500 companies as well as smaller companies and individuals who seek help on which printers to consider when they need digital imaging hardware and software A modest portion of our income comes from our readers who pur chase the FLAAR series All income helps continue our tradition of independent evaluations and reviews of inkjet printers RIPs media inks cutters laminators and color management systems OL LAAR Reports HP Designjet L65500 Latex Ink Printer Evaluation Introduction to UV Curable Inkjet Flatbed Printers b LAAR Reports How a UV Curable Flatbed Works Anatomy ofa UV Curable Printer LAAR Reports Brief History of the Development of UV Cured Inkjet Printing 10
9. 104 model origi nally cost over 100 000 In distinction the 42 and 60 are a retrofitted HP Z6100 chassis so quite different this keeps their cost down significantly 14 If there is a vacuum function Yes 15 In how many sections All sections are controlled as one section 16 Can you turn one or the other section s off and on No all one series 17 Just Off and On Or variable Adjustable 18 What are the features of the platen area This is a unique platen has ridges across the vacuum area to prevent media from sticking Probably in case of heat Platen heat is 60 degrees C it is post heading that is 93 to 100 degrees C In the platen area 50 to 70 is the usual range 60 is average 19 Are their edge guards media clamps At left or at right or both Yes and yes 20 Can you move the left guard or the right guard or both Yes but the operator seemed to struggle a bit when moving them 6 TLANR Reports Latex Ink Printer Evaluation 21 Does the printer have leveling supports How many and how strong was told there are three leveling stands That is an unusual number Usually a big printer will have four or six or eight But HP knows engineering so if there are only three there is good reason 22 Does the printer have wheels Are they robust Four wheels Wheels on the HP Designjet L65500 ROLL FED ASPECTS 23 How is roll media fed Pinch roller against grit roller The User M
10. 2010 there were additional features so clearly HP has a forward path for this platform OPERATING THE PRINTER 38 Can the operator manage print jobs via the Internet with this printer If you have Onyx RIP you can manage jobs through the Internet or at least see what the printer status is 39 What is the level of ease of use Can anyone use this printer or do they have to be trained and certified What about daily and periodical routine maintenance Is the printer user friendly Simple to run But tough to set up new media This requires skill Learning how to test new media takes the longest of any task with this printer 40 Do you get an LCD screen in the printer or a real computer monitor How big is the screen or monitor As with all old fashioned water based and solvent printers you get a tiny LCD monitor fixed into the front panel ColorSpan was one of the few companies to have a nice sized LCD monitor on their printer But you will tend to run other functions from your RIP and for that you will need a separate computer anyway and this will have its own separate monitor which hopefully will be a reasonable size 41 Is the position of the LCD screen or monitor user adaptable Not really 42 How many operators or operator assistants does this printer require Needs only one operator except to load and unloada complete roll For that two people would normally be required unless there were a wheeled loading system to r
11. cheap uncoated material Indeed most solvent printers can print on the absolute cheapest Chinese PVC But cheap junk from Asia would probably melt or deform inside an HP Scitex LX600 or LX800 printer None of these problems with HP latex ink would have been noticeable if the spec sheets and brochures had not exaggerated so much The HP Scitex latex printers are great Just that their greatness is limited They do many things fine but by no means whatsoever do everything perfectly nor does any other printer or any other ink 6 TLANR Reports Latex ink Printer Evaluation 111 How would end user describe this printer Easy to use takes care of itself does not require you to personally become a repair or maintenance technician HP makes sure that their printers are easy to use and that the printers have their own mechanism to take care of themselves within reason 112 How often do people return this printer and say they want their money back have now heard of two cases of buyers who were very disenchanted One said it was a disaster The other was upset that the 60 version was not adequate for producing giclee but frankly you would have to be pretty naive to think this kind of ink could do giclee In both cases the dissatisfaction was because the millions of dol lars in PR have mesmerized people about the eco green message Like people In some religious cult they have not thought things through on their own They buy the printe
12. for polyester fabric However the feed and take up system of the HP latex printers is a basic system not made for fabric Downsides can understand PR release kind of happy claims in a PR release but once you have the printer in your print shop it would be best to abandon PR claims and stick with the reality that the printer operator manager and printshop owner will find out very quickly Claiming the printer prints on lots of materials is weak at best and is the most disputed aspect of latex ink Frankly this claim merely invites counter arguments so in the User Manual would suggest this claim be removed And in the User Manual is the place to list with justifiable pride what media and materials the latex ink can print on and be up front and open about what media and substrates the latex ink is not appropriate on Every solvent UV curable and eco solvent printer manufacturer is already at SGIA 2009 already loudly singling out the restricted media as something their eco solvent printers are not subjected to Personally feel if this reality were faced head on it would have removed the incentive for every single mild solvent lite solvent and eco solvent printer manufacturer from warning ev ery single solitary person who came into their booth also got lambasted about this at VISCOM Duesseldorf where the popular smaller sizes of HP L25500 were launched the week before SGIA Electrical requirements are a bit intimidat
13. get their pet locations which may be unrealistically gushy find someone on your own Factors influencing output Heat humidity static dust experience level of your workers wheth er they are new or have prior years experience these are all factors that will differ in your place of business as compared with test results or demo room results Actually you may have people with even more experience than we do since we deliberately use students to approximate newbies FLAAR is devoted to assisting newcomers learn about digital imaging hard amp I LAAR Reports HP Designjet L65500 Latex Ink Printer Evaluation ware and software This is why Nicholas Hellmuth is considered the Johnny Appleseed of wide format inkjet printers Therefore this report does not warranty any product for any quality performance or fitness for any specific task since we do not know the situation in which you intend to use the hardware or software Nor is there any warranty or guarantee that the output of these products will produce salable goods since we do not know what kind of ink or media you intend to use nor the needs of your clients A further reason that no one can realistically speak for all aspects of any one hardware or software is that each of these products may require ad ditional hardware or software to reach its full potential For example you will most likely need a color management system which implies color measurement tools a
14. is the front and which is the back Yes NSS EES 6 TLANR Reports Latex Ink Printer Evaluation SET UP OF THE PRINTER PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS 53 What are the electrical requirements of this printer This means will the building have to be rewired Three phase 200 to 220 VAC 10 380 to 415 VAC 10 6 50 60 Hz 32 max single phase 115 to 127 VAC 10 200 to 240 VAC 10 6 Japan 200 V 59 60Hz 10 A max 54 What is the size and weight of the printer WxDxH 5 17 x 1 66 x 1 66m 16 98 x 5 45 x 5 43 ft INSTALLATION OF THE PRINTER 55 Is there a Site Preparation Guide If so is it helpful There is a six page site prep manual And then there is a 17 page version so am confused why there are two However the question about adequate ventilation seems to contradict rather curiously claims in PR about the lack of need for ventilation The questions about electrical fire prevention also would raise questions in most countries where wiring is most politely put rather jerry rigged The fact that the site preparation manual raises questions actually documents how good it really is After all print shop owners will find out the reality sooner or later and might as well be properly informed up front So give good marks to the author of the Site Preparation Guide 56 What is the rating of usefulness of the User s Manual and other associated materials The User Manual is a mode
15. on the manufacturer may be adding a primer at night or early in the morning before you see the machine printing on this material We feel that the pros and cons of each product speak more than adequately for themselves Just position the ad claims on the left put the actual performance results on the right The unscrupulous hype for some printers is fairly evident rather quickly Be sure to check all FLAAR resources Please realize that with over 200 different FLAAR Reports on UV printers you need to be sure to check the more obscure ones too If a printer has a printhead issue the nitty gritty of this may be in the FLAAR Report on printheads The report on the model is a general introduction if we discussed the intimate details of printheads then some readers might fall asleep And obviously do not limit yourself to the free reports The technical details may be in the reports that have a price to them Our readers have said they prefer to have the general basics and to park the real technical material in other reports that people can buy if they really want that level of information So it may be best to ask for personal consulting The details of the problems with the ColorSpan 5400uv series are rather complex namely the center row of the Ricoh printheads This would require an expensive graphic designer and consultants to show the details And the design of the printhead would probably be altered by the time we did any of this anyway
16. 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 ask for hardware software or consumables that we knew in advance would not be good However even for us a product which looks good at a trade show sounds good in the ad literature and works fine for the first few weeks may subsequently turn out to be a lemon Or the product may indeed have a glitch but one that is so benign for us or maybe we have long ago gotten used to it and have a work around And not all glitches manifest themselves in all situations so our evaluator may not have been sufficiently affected that he or she made an issue of any particular situation Yet such a glitch that we don t emphasize may turn out to be adverse for your different or spe cial application needs Equally often what at first might be blamed on a bad product often turns out to be a need of more operator experience and training More often than not after learning more about the product it becomes pos sible to produce what it was intended to produce For this reason it is crucial for the FLAAR team and their university colleagues to interact 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 fr
17. sooner or later on our own They actually tell us they realize we will find out on our own anyway Contributions grant sponsorships and project funds from these companies are also used to improve the design and appearance of the web sites of the FLAAR Information Network We thank Canon ColorSpan HP ITNH and Mimaki for providing wide format printers inks and media to the universities where FLAAR does research on wide format digital imaging We thank Epson America for providing an Epson 7500 printer many years ago and Parrot Digigraphic for providing access to their digital equipment also for providing three different 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 Technolo gies ITNH providing their Ixia model of the Iris 3047 giclee printer We thank 3P Inkjet Textiles and HP for providing inkjet textiles so we could learn about the different results on the various textiles IJ Tech nologies 3P Inkjet Textiles ColorSpan Encad HP Nan Ya Pepa Oracal Tara and other companies have provided inkjet media so we can try it out and see how it works or not as the case may be several 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 a
18. unique and very helpful So by 1999 we had entire sec tions on large format printers FLAAR has existed since 1969 long before inkjet printers existed Indeed we were writing about digital imaging before HP even had a color inkjet system available In 2000 FLAAR received an educa tional grant from Hewlett Packard large format division Barcelona Spain for training for equipment and to improve the design and navigation on the main web sites of the FLAAR Network This grant ran its natural course and like all grants reached its finishing point in this case late 2005 In some cases the sponsorship process begins when we hear end users talking about a product they have found to be better than other brands We keep our ears open and when we spot an espe cially good product this is the company we seek sponsorship from It would not be wise of us to seek sponsorship from a company with a sub standard or otherwise potentially defective printer So we usu ally know which printers are considered by end users to be among the better brands before we seek sponsorship After all out of the by now one million readers we have heard plenty about every single printer out there We thank MacDermid ColorSpan now part of HP Hewlett Pack ard 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 yea
19. LAAR 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 Report tries to have its publication date on the front outside cover if we updated everything instantly the cost would be at commercial rates and it would not be possible to cover these expenses At the end of most FLAAR Reports there is additionally a list of how many times that report has been updated A report with lots of updates means that we are updating that subject based on availability of new information If there is no update that is a pretty good indication that report has not been updated With 101 models of UV printers several hundred solvent printers and scores of water based printers we tend to give priority to getting new re ports out on printers about which not much info at all is available elsewhere So we are pretty good about reporting on advances in LED curing But glitches in a common water based printer will take longer to work its way through our system into an update especially if the glitch occurs only in certain circumstances for example on one type of media With several hundred media types we may not yet have utilized the problem media While on the subject of doing your own research be sure to ask both the printer operator and printshop owner or manager you will generally get two slightly different stories A printer operator may be aw
20. Latin America for example e Scotch tape pull off test SUBSTRATES 93 What is print width relative to roll width We have this entry because some printers are called 3 2 because they accept substrates that are 3 2 wide but the printer can actually print only 3 1 meters In such a case the model name is misleading and incorrect in a sense 94 Can you do borderless printing Over 72 printers you would not generally expect borderless capability 95 How about maximum roll diameter or weight The roll can weigh up to 120 kg which is more than most single workers can lift by themselves 96 Can the machine handle two different rolls of media side by side at the same time The original HP Designjet model did not handle two different rolls but at ISA 2010 the dual role model was announced SUBSTRATES Issues 97 Does this printer s ink require special media Is it coated Even if not coated is it the really low cost stuff or is it limited and hence by that very fact a tad expensive In many cases latex ink requires that the substrate be coated DuPont Tyvek is the best example that media must be treated Sepiax ink can print on uncoated Tyvek 6 TLANR Reports Latex Ink Printer Evaluation SUBSTRATES Image Ouality 98 Do you get roller marks on some media Which media How bad are the marks Naturally whether or not you get marks from the path of the pinch roller depends on the pressure of the pinch r
21. R PURCHASING STRUCTURE OF THE PRINTER ROLL FED ASPECTS HEATERS amp DRYER UPGRADES Future Improvements OPERATING THE PRINTER CONSTRUCTION BUILD QUALITY AESTHETICS SET UP OF THE PRINTER PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS INSTALLATION OF THE PRINTER TECH SUPPORT amp WARRANTY PRINTHEAD Technology PRINTHEAD DPI amp Print Quality PRINTHEAD Banding Issues PRINTHEAD Life Expectancy SAFETY CONCERNS INKS INK Cost INK Color Gamut INK Miscellaneous INK Appearance INK Longevity SUBSTRATES SUBSTRATES Issues SUBSTRATES Image Quality APPLICATIONS printshop owner questions Image Quality Issues Relative to Applications RIP SOFTWARE PRODUCTIVITY amp ROI Return on Investment ADVERTISING CLAIMS Anything Misleading Any Hype GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS COMPARISONS WITH OTHER PRINTERS SUMMARY Image Quality Issues Relative to Applications Pros Plus or minus depending on how you weigh the situation Conclusions Downsides Commentary 27 27 28 28 FLAAR Reports ON Introduction thank the many individuals who assisted me in learning about latex ink and the L65500 printer have inter viewed printshop owners and managers who use the HP L65500 daily have also interviewed people elsewhere in the industry to see and hear is each segment of the industry saying or asking about HP latex ink So we have learned how printshop managers like or dislike the printer when it is unpacked and put to work
22. 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 facili ties demo rooms and especially when the companies make their research engineering and ink chemistry staff available for discus sions When received my education at Harvard was taught to have a desire to learn new things This has guided my entire life and is what led me into wide format digital imaging technology it is con stantly getting better and there is a lot to learn every month Thus actively seek access to improving my understanding of wide format printer technology so that we can better provide information to the approximately guarter million readers of our solvent and UV printer web site www large format printers org and the over half a million who read either our wide format printers org site or our roughly half million Combined who read our digital photography org and www FineArtGicleePrinters org sites Barbieri electronic color management Caldera RIP ColorSpan DEC Durst EFI EskoArtwork Gerber Grapo IP amp lI Mimaki USA Mutoh Obeikan Dilli Drytac GCC NUR Oce Shiraz RIP Sky AirShip Sun Teckwin VUTEk WP Digi
23. anies are offering silver effects ink but this is mainly to attract attention smoke and mirrors rather than an ink that will offer serious production benefits to everyone Epson is experimenting with a water based white ink They had it in a secret room at Print 09 and naturally did not want me to even know it existed But because they acted so strangely in the booth suspected something was going on and got all the information elsewhere at the show It is a white ink with no titanium dioxide 6 FLAAR Reports Latex Ink Printer Evaluation 1 TT III a mg M g Bulk ink containers on the HP Designjet L65500 photographed a h Sign and Graphic Imaging Dubai 2009 84 Other than white how many spot colors are available What about metallic colors There is no white There are no spot colors There is no metallic ink White ink is readily available with UV cured printers and with Mimaki and Roland eco solvent printers Metallic ink is available with Mimaki and Roland eco solvent printers INK Cost 85 Does ink come in cartridges or bulk Since this is a 104 inch printer it needs bulk ink and offers this advantage 86 Where do you add the ink Front or back of the printer At the top left 87 What is ink cost per liter per cartridge and per liter Ink is not cheap and presently no after market ink is available though many companies are preparing such an ink INK Color Gamut 88 What co
24. anual best explains how the media is fed The substrate is moved forwards by the drive roller mo tor p 17 But actually both the front spindle and the rear spindle both have motors 24 Are the pinch rollers same size as grit rollers or smaller The pinch rollers act on a mail roller rather than a grit roller Grit rollers would be of uncertain reliability on a 104 width So this uses a more professional tension system but also does have pinch collers too 25 How is the roll held at the feeding position On a spindle On a saddle Old cores or cores damaged in shipment and handling tend to be a problem on a spindle On 5 meter wide ma chines the material tends to be banner material so there are not as many issues on a saddle Paper like media may sag in a saddle In general if you hang a roll on a spindle this is best observations by Mutoh managers at European factory 26 How is the roll media handled at feeding position For example is there a dancer bar No dancer bar 2 How is the roll media handled at take up position For example is there a dancer bar No dancer bar at take up position either 28 What is the media path Basic time proven media path at the back At the top and front the path is determined by the needs of curing the intense heat and how much time the substrate needs to receive this curing heat 29 Front loading back loading Back loading 4 TLA NR Reports
25. ar chassis from this manufacturer or distributor Is this same printer available elsewhere under a different name The 42 and 60 latex ink printers are on the chassis of the HP Designjet Z6100 That platform and the industri al strength 104 latex ink printer are quite distinct The L65500 model is the proverbial built like a tank a HP Designjet L65500 at Sign and Graphic Imaging Dubai 2009 6 TLAAR Reports Latox Ink Printer Evaluation 4 What other printers of other brands are comparable No other company has shown even a concept car or other prototype for any printer that can even remotely compete with any of the HP latex ink printers Encad VinylJet failed not enough substrated would work with that DuPont ink and Encad did not have the investment capital or clout to be successful Staedtler Lumocolor failed a bit because of the chemistry of the ink but mainly because of the chemistry of the company s posture towards printer manufacturers No major manufacturer was willing to take on their ink as a result of industry politics The alcohol based ink of Kiian Manoukian seems to have failed Bio solvent ink is not even used by its own de veloper InkWare now part of EFI and across the street from VUTEk So the only ink that has been shown to the public that might compete with latex ink is Sepiax This ink is now being rolled out one continent at a time Sepiax has a much more realistic relationship with the rest of t
26. are of more glitches of the printer than the owner If a printer is no longer a prime model then there is less interest in that printer so unless a special budget were available to update old reports it is not realistic to update old reports As always it is essen tial for you to visit printshops that have the printers on your short list and see how they function in the real world But even when we like a product and recommend it we still can t guarantee or certify any make or model nor its profitability in use because we don t know the conditions under which a printer system might be utilized in someone else s facility For ink and media espe cially after market third party ink and media it is essential that you test it first under your conditions We have no way to assure that TENAVAT HP Designjet L65500 Latex Ink Printer Evaluation any ink or media will be acceptable for your specific needs in your specific print shop As a result products are described as is and without warranties as to performance or merchantability or of fitness 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 o
27. at can t handle heat well emit an unpleasant odor when run through the HP curing system 73 Is the machine enclosed or exposed The machine Is relatively open compared with most solvent printers 74 What causes noise on this printer if anything Fans across the front 75 What is the noise level Noise is bearable 76 Are any other safety or health issues involved Does the operator need to be concerned with any other safety precautions The user manual clearly tells you even to wear gloves when handling the ink even though this is not solvent ink This warning is clearly important and would tend to make you question the green of an ink that requires gloves 6 TLANR Reports Latex Ink Printer Evaluation 77 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 The manual appears to be written in native English don t see anywhere that poor English exists or would cause confusion There may be an excess of PR English claims about how much media it can really print on but that is a PR policy not poor English diction 78 How easy is it to access 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 no
28. bout the latex printers So the main advantage of the FLAAR Reports is that for the first time you can really see the pros and cons of latex ink And most importantly this is the first outside review of the advertising claims for latex ink Yet we do not feel it is appropriate to recommend not buying this printer Our purpose is to alert the printshop owner manager and printer operator to a bit more of the reality check of the occasional limitations of latex ink The advantage of this FLAAR Report is that now for printshops who do prefer HP latex ink and the HP Sci tex solution and support that they will be better pre pared for the few things that the printer cant do So hopefully the owners will be more content with their purchase of the HP Scitex latex printers Every printshop has different needs different appli cations For some the HP latex ink printer is the best available in 2010 As new printers come out with oth er water based resin inks this will change but these changes will not happen until either very late in 2010 or more likely during 2011 If you need a latex ink printer now today summer 2010 there is not yet any pro duction printer at 3 2 meter width or even at 104 inches that can use other resin inks First prepared November 2009 but not issued until May 2010 because we wished to learn more about the printer from both end users and from industry analysts So between November and May there have been nu m
29. dia and software may not work as well in your facility as we or you see it at a trade show All the more reason to test before you buy and keep testing before you make your final payment Your ultimate protection is to use a gold American Express credit card so you can have lever age when you ask for your money back if the product fails Images printed at trade show may be in uni directional mode so you may not realize the printer has bi directional curing banding defects until you unpack it in your printshop Bi directional curing banding is also known as the lawnmower effect Many printers have this defect sometimes certain modes can get rid of it but are so slow that they are not productive You absolutely need to do print samples with your own images and the kind provided by your clients Do not rely on the stock photos provided by the printer ink media or RIP manufacturer or reseller They may be using special images which they know in advance will look fabulous on their printer Equally well if you send your sample images to the dealer don t be surprised if they come back looking awful That is because many dealers wont 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
30. e 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 manufac turers FLAAR has dealt with people inside the company did not themselves want to tell their boss that their pet printer was a dog So printer software and component manufacturers have learned that investing in a FLAAR evaluation of their product provides them with useful return on investment Of course if a printer manufacturer wants only a slick Success Story or what we call a suck up review that simply panders to the manufacturer obviously FLAAR is not a good place to dare to ask for such a review 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 dis tribution a printer or other product 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 manu facture Usually the company making the offer presumes they can buy advertising space just by paying money But that i
31. e an swered throughout this evaluation as well as in other upcoming FLAAR Reports We have been very busy these last two years So the advantage of HP flying me to three training sessions is that this allowed me to meet print shop owners that were content with the printer the ink the media it printed on and with HP service They were satisfied If HP had not provided this training would have been at the mercy of the rest of the world the people that thought eco green was great and without further thought simply bought the printer Then reality set in quickly So this FLAAR Report is based on two years of research It would be a challenge to find another other resource that has looked at latex ink from both sides HP Designjet L65500 FLAAR Reports oe an pam cao Ere oo 1 Brand name model ey O ko HP Designjet L65500 since launch at a h te AL emu DRUPA 2008 The name was changed i IN 4 to HP Scitex LX600 at IPEX in May 2010 This is the original 104 model u The 126 version 3 2 meters is the HP Scitex LX800 2 Whatisthenatureofthecompany Is this company the manufacturer distributor or rebranding HP conceives designs and engineers all printers in their own facilities Bar celona Israel Minneapolis San Diego and elsewhere The printers tend to be contract manufactured Malasia Singa pore etc HP Designjet L65500 at SIGN Africa 2009 3 What other printers are the same or simil
32. e that a FLAAR Report on a printer is not by itself a recommen dation 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 manufacturing plant demo room no disjointed parts from any ship ment since this printer has not been lifed by cranes and run over a rough pot holed highway or kept in smeltering heat or freezing cold during shipment Taking into consideration we do not know the conditions in which you may be using your hardware software or consumables neither the author nor FLAAR nor either university is liable for liability loss or dam age caused either directly or indirectly by the suggestions in this report nor by hardware software or techniques described herein because Availability of spare parts may be a significant issue Chinese printers tend to switch suppliers for spare parts every month or so So getting spare parts for a Chinese printer will be a chal lenge even if the distributor or manufacturer actually respond to your e mails at all Fortunately some companies to have a fair record of response Teckwin is one based on a case of two problematical hy brid UV printers in Guatemala The distributor said that Teckwin sent a second print
33. el or not at all Yes the printhead is identified clearly as being from HP and being a thermal printhead 64 Explain the pros and cons of Xaar Spectra Epson Konica Seiko or other heads relative to their ability to handle solvent inks If Xaar heads define how long they last compared with Epson or Spectra heads Every kind of printhead has its positive and negative features HP specializes in developing designing and manufacturing their own printheads They know printheads inside out A few competitors such as Epson whine about thermal printheads and claim that their own piezo heads are perfect because they are permanent This of course is self delusion Epson printheads wear out like any other brand of printhead Piezo heads clog on a regular basis But they produce nice quality in the meantime So every head type has good features and downsides HP Designjet L65500 printheads lee 6 FLAAR Reports Latex Ink Printer Evaluation PRINTHEAD DPI amp Print Quality 65 How many print modes are offered Indoor High Quality Plus mode 8 pass 21 m hr 231 ft hr High Quality mode 6 pass 28 m hr 306 ft hr Production Plus mode 5 pass only SAV 34 m hr 368 ft hr Production mode 4 pass 43 m hr 460 ft hr Outdoor Billboard Plus mode 3 pass 55 m hr 587 ft hr 6 Billboard mode 2 pass 79 m hr 846 ft hr Draft mode 1 pass 157 m hr 1691 ft hr 66 How many passes can this printer achieve Up
34. er at their own expense and sent tech support per sonnel 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 manufacturer 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 company in some cases the worse these particular problems may be Any new compiled printer may take a few months to break in Any new printer no matter who the manufacturer or how good is the engineering ane electronics will tend to have teething issues Until the firmware is updated you may be a beta tester This does not mean the printer should be avoided just realize that you may have some downtime and a few headaches Of course the wo
35. erous updates If you purchased this 1st Edition you can request the eventual updated 2nd edition at no cost Just send an e mail to accounting FLAAR org and indi cate approximately when you bought the 1st edi tion Please wait until you see comments on the FLAAR web sites that a 2nd edition is available A AAVAN A CON HP Designjet L65500 Latex Ink Printer 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 print ing experience have encountered results different that ours please let us know at ReaderService FLAAR org We do not mind eating crow though so far it is primarily a different philosophy we practice because since we are not dependent on sales commissions we can openly list the glitches and defects of those printers that have an oc casional problem FLAAR and most universities have corporate sponsors but FLAAR web sites do not accept advertising so we don t have to kowtow to resellers or manufacturers We respect their experience and opinion but we prefer to utilize our own common sense our in house experi ences the results from site visit case studies and comments from the more than 53 000 of our many readers who have shared their experiences with us via e mail the Survey Forms
36. f is glossy you can in deed obtain a nice image with the HP Scitex LX600 and LX800 But yu can obtain the same or better with most solvent ink printers eco mild low light and full Commentary While at Japan Shop expo in Tokyo March 2010 it was possible to get considerable insight into HP latex ink obstacles in the Japanese market The comments were from a knowledgable and experienced person in the Asian world area He was neither HP nor a competi tor of HP so his comments have even more credibility He said that in general print shop owners in Asia had more expectations and frankly were disappointed that the printer could not do more Cheaper vinyl starts shrinking at 75 to 80 degrees C There is no cheap media available PVC is okay uncoated but most other media requires coatings which increases cost Clear polyester media gets scratched by the needles that are in S shape on the platen These pins may scratch the underside of the media You have to put fabric or mesh across the platen to avoid scratching amp I LAAR Reports HP Designjet L65500 Latex Ink Printer Evaluation Blueback paper cant be waterproof Lighter browns not good Some green colors not good The validity of the observations were clear because this source also made positive comments on the printer it has good precise feeding And HP latex ink is excel lent for backlit It can replace Lamda But he c
37. facturers 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 improvement in firmware or even an entirely new printer model So if we point out a deficiency in a particular printer brand the model you may buy may not exhibit this headache or your kind of printing may not trigger the problem Or you may find a work around Just remember that every machine has quirks even the ones we like It is possible that the particular kind of images resolution inks media or other factors in your facility are sufficiently different than in ours that a printer which works just fine for us may be totally unsatisfactory for you and your clients However it may be that the specific kind of print ing you need to do may never occasion that shortcoming Or it may be that your printer was manufactured on a Monday and has defects that are atypical show up more in the kind of media you use which we may not use as often or at all during our evaluations Equally possibly a printer that was a disaster for someone else may work flawlessly for you and be a real money maker for your 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 a
38. he advertising or other claims made you buy this in the beginning and why do you now feel disillusioned The word disallusionment is what am increasingly hearing This is sad because what caused it is NOT a bad or inadequate printer What caused disallusionment is excessive claims in the advertising brochures and too much smoke and mirrors about the ecology and environmental friendliness would bet that if any printshop actually measured how much electricity each individual printer used they would be shocked But doubt if any printshop owner or even manager really is aware of the actual cost of electricity per printer per hour So it is other aspects that cause people to feel disappointed mainly the media restrictions the fact the ink is a monopoly and there is not much flexibility 116 When people are considering buying this printer what other printer s are they also looking at In 2008 and 2009 the choice was between HP latex and solvent printers and UV cured roll to roll printers For 2010 printshop owners now have to decide whether a resin ink printer may be better for them 117 What features on the other printers turn them off Presently there are no heavy duty production level printers made from the ground up to work with Sepiax ink But the 104 HP latex ink printer is the result of years of experience between HP Designjet and HP Scitex So with the L65500 you have a chassis and structure and ink delivery system designed exclusi
39. he industry than did Staedtler Roland and Mutoh claim they have things in the pipeline but neither is an ink company and my sources state that indeed nothing is seriously underdevelopment The competitors assumed latex ink would flop and did not prepare any ink that could compete with it Epson has done more with innovative inks than Roland or Mutoh the silver effects ink of Roland is not their ink it is probably from Eckart So again until FESPA 2010 there is nothing to compete with HP latex ink especially not in an industrial strength printer chassis such as the L65500 5 How does this model compare with comparable previous printers This model is unique and built from the ground up to handle the heaters necessary to cure latex ink You could probably find features based on experience from Scitex Vision but as far as can see the development area was largely in Barcelona 6 When and where was this model first introduced The HP L65500 was officially launched at DRUPA 2008 but was shown before then to hundreds of people un der NDA at well organized PR events in Israel and then later in Barcelona Several new features were shown at Sign UK 2010 Then the 126 model the HP Scitex LX800 was launched at IPEX 2010 D Dr Hellmuth has flown to Spain twice and attended two Latex ink presentation sessions in HP wide format printer world headquarters in Barcelona 6 FLAAR Reports Latex Ink Printer Evaluation NT
40. ially better Thus we note that companies which experiment with more than one brand of product tend to realize more quickly which brand is best This is where FLAAR is in an ideal situation we have nine RIPs and 25 printers Hence it is logical that we have figured out which are best for our situation Grant funding sponsorship demonstration equipment and training are supplied from all sides of the spectrum of printer equipment and software engineering companies Thus there is no incentive to favor one faction over another We receive support from three manufactur ers of thermal printheads Canon ColorSpan and HP and also have multiple printers from three manufacturers of piezo printers Epson Seiko Mutoh and Mimaki This is because piezo has definite ad vantage for some applications thermal printheads have advantages amp T LAAR Reports HP Designjet L65500 Latex Ink Printer Evaluation in different applications Our reviews have universal appeal precisely because we feature all competing printhead technologies Every printer RIPs inks or media we have reviewed have good points in addition to weaknesses Both X Rite and competitor GretagMacbeth provided spectrophotometers Again when all sides assist this pro gram there is no incentive to favor one by trashing the other Printer manufacturer ad campaigns are their own worst enemy If a printer did not make false and misleading claims then we would have noth ing to fill o
41. ight Exaggeration 110 Please look at the ad claims for this printer in magazines and on the internet What aspects of these ads will a buyer of that model soon find out are perhaps slightly exaggerated In some ads it seems to be the goal to list as outstanding features precisely where the printer is weak After all once we buy your printer we are going to find out about these discrepancies relatively quickly metamerism on some models slowness on most models banding defects inability to print on after market media small ink cartridges combined with high cost of consumables etc Printer Draft speed Quoted speeds in Quoted speeds in Top quality but thus useless due to spec sheets spec sheets naturally lowest low quality in most productivity cases HP LX600 157 m hour 39 m hour 6 pass 23 m hour Skillfully not quoted TT in HP sheet HP HPLX800 DGI 3 2 m gt Seiko H104s o T e S Roland AJ a es a E The claim that Print on low cost uncoated papers Solvent printers require more expensive coated papers to achieve the same results Is dubious at best and fail to understand why anyone would make such an undoc umented claim First DuPont Tyvek must be coated to use with But for Sepiax resin ink uncoated Tyvek is fine Clearly whoever wrote this claim has no knowledge of Sepiax ink or if so is skillfully hiding his or her knowl edge of resin ink But the purpose of solvent ink is precisely to print on
42. incapa bilities 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 virtu ally every hall each one producing museum quality exhibits Not our fault when we report what we see over and over and over again One of our readers wrote us recently Nicholas last month you recom mended the as one of several possible printers for our needs we bought this It was the best capital expenditure we have made in the last several years Just wanted to tell you how much we appreci ate your evaluations FLAAR is a non profit educational and research organization dedi cated for over 36 years to professional photography in the arts tropi cal flora and fauna architectural history and landscape panorama photography Our digital imaging phase is a result of substantial funding in 1996 from the Japanese Ministry of Public Education for a study of scan ning and digital image storage options This grant was via Japan s National Museum of Ethnology Osaka Japan That same year FLAAR also received a grant of 100 000 from an American foun dation to do a feasibility study of digital imaging in general and the scanning of photographic archives in particular The FLAAR web sites began initially as the report on the results of these studies of scanners Once we had the digital images we began to experiment with digital printers People began to comment that our reports were
43. ineered This is a serious machine from the ground up There is now a good choice between 104 and 120 widths The inclusion of applications in the HP LX600 data sheet is well done like the use of real world applica tions instead of exaggerated claims of eco greeness and claims of how much better the ink supposed is than solvent or anything else most of those claims vary from exaggerated to simply untrue The one claim of HP that accept is the fact that wallpa per printed with HP latex ink is less offensive smell than wallpaper printed with solvent or UV cured ink We will assume that Sepiax resin ink can print on all wallpapers also and equally with minimal odor but no one who was writing the HP material seems to be aware of resin ink The availability of a trough for catching ink that may pass through a fabric is an important feature Plus or minus depending on how you weigh the situation Page 24 is the most blunt reality check of the entire printer This is a completely honest and precise de scription of everything that may happen if the tempera tures are a bit too low or a bit too high for drying zone curing zone as well as vacuum pressure and tension feeding the material through the system Here is where if you read only this one page you would be skeptical But have spoken personally with two experienced users of this printer and either they had gone beyond these issues or maybe because they At one
44. ing in some countries and in remote areas especially do not see any test results for hazardous chemicals released by printing on cheap Chinese PVC or other really cheap Asian media All the test results are for the ink alone But the resulting prints are a combination of ink PLUS substrate PVC has many nasty chemicals in it and cheaper PVC who knows what s inside So it would be helpful to see test results on what chemicals are released into the air by heating cheap PVC to 100 degrees C And more information on the odor from such over heat ed media would also be helpful Several people have pointed out that the ink is rela tively matte and not glossy Seiko ColorPainter defines the beauty of glossy pop in a signage ink especially for black Latex ink is not able to achieve a Seiko gloss Thus find the advertising claim in the HP spec sheet comparable to low solvent ink technology for rich hues and vibrant tones as unrealistic am not sure that claim is true at all The image quality itself is great just that it s not as bright and colorful as low solvent Go to any major Chinese signage printer show such as Dongguan Guangzhou or Shanghai APPPEXPO and you will see stunning displays of bright colors with diverse kinds of solvent ink Where is this kind of POP and gorgeous color saturation in any latex ink booth But if your clients prefer satin which is a bit less than gloss and if the substrate itsel
45. l water based ink would not hold if it made contact with water 6 FLAAR Reports Latex Ink Printer Evaluation DESIGNJET a HP GRAF ogr f a Travel The mieniu ia diirai POP signage and mesh for windows are other applications possible with Latex ink b BEDAVA Reports HP Designjet L65500 Latex Ink Printer Evaluation P E77 sali INFANTIL rHILDF c Eukanuba area co POT VA cm CAE D Applications samples of latex inks Designjet L65500 at HP Demo Center in Barcelona 2009 TOER NI NI VA ki A printhead that produces a drop size of 12pl such as the head used in the HP Scitex LX600 is appropriate to reproduce art 6 TLANR Reports Latex Ink Printer Evaluation Image Ouality Issues Relative to Applications 103 How good is the adhesion of the ink When visit a trade show on most materials the ink does not scratch off the material 104 What about solvents such as cleaning solvents Do they mar dull or wash away the ink or change the surface guality e Windex Ammonia e Acetone e Cleaning alcohol e Gasoline e Soap and water e Scotch tape pull off test 105 Is misting observable The way you can tell whether your printer has an issue with misting is to put a white napkin inside the printer See if it turns colors from ink mist landing on it Or look under the media edge guard If the area to the right where mist can land has a faint barely pe
46. lors can you achieve easily and nicely Pink and lavender look good 89 What colors are hard to achieve Some colors look over saturated Some reds are not close Greens are a bit UV like meaning too yellow When you find someone who knows the printer and is frank about its pros and cons they will admit the color gamut is not extraordinary INK Miscellaneous 90 What about ink drying time It takes a while for the curing heat to take care of the curing so the printer is not the fastest thing in the world A comparable comment would be appropriate for Sepiax ink it too requires heat to start it s curing but much less heat than latex ink Both systems will get faster as these systems achieve second generation development amp TLAAR Reports Mie noel INK Appearance 91 Is output splotchy At one trade show even 12pt font was splotchy This was the same trade show where the colors lacked POP shadows were lacking in detail and color was not very true either Perhaps a better engineer or operator could have coaxed better performance from the printer INK Longevity 92 What about solvents such as cleaning solvents Do they mar dull or wash away the ink or change the surface guality especially on vehicle wrap e Ammonia in Windex and comparable cleaning liquids e Acetone e Cleaning alcohol e Gasoline e Soap and water with sponge e Soap and water with a broom frequently used to clean vehicle wraps in
47. nd many other RIP companies for pro viding their hardware and software RIPs We thank Dell Computers for providing awesome workstations for testing RIP software and content creation with Adobe Photoshop and other programs We also appreciate the substantial amount of soft ware provided by Adobe As with other product loaned or provided courtesy of ProVar LLC especially the 23 monitors which makes it so much easier to work on multiple documents side by side We thank Betterlight Calumet Photographic Global Graphics West cott Global Imaging Inc Phase One and Bogen Imaging for helping to equip our archaeological photo studios at the university and its archaeology museum in Guatemala Heidelberg Scitex CreoSci tex now Kodak and Cruse both in Germany have kindly provided scanners for our staff to evaluate We really liked some of the results whereas some of the other prod ucts were a bit disappointing Providing samples does not influence the evaluations because the evaluators are students professors and staff of Bowling Green State University These personnel are not hired by any inkjet printer company they were universities employ ees as was also true for Nicholas Hellmuth The testing person for the HP ColorPro desktop printer said he frankly preferred his Epson printer When we saw the rest results we did not include this Heweltt Packard ColorPro printer on our list of recommended printers but we love our HP DesignJe
48. nd software To handle ICC color profiles you may need ICC color profile generation software and a spectrophotometer since often the stock pre packaged ICC color profiles which come with the ink media printers and or RIPs may not work in your situation Not all RIPs handle color 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 wont do everything Tha s because those features you may be lacking are available only in the next level higher of that RIP often at consid erable extra cost Same thing in the progression of Chevy through Pontiac to Cadillac or the new Suburbans A Chevy Suburban simply does not have all the bells and whistles of the Cadillac Escalade ver sion of this SUV Don t blame us besides that s why we are warning you This is why we have a Survey Form so we can learn when you find products that are inadequate We let the manufacturers know when end users complain about their products so that the manu
49. ngle favorable com ment we made on one nice aspect of their printer but neglected to cite the rest of the review which pointed out the features of the printer which did not do so well For them to correct 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 exclu sion from this study in no way is intended to discredit any printer Advisory We do our best to obtain information which we consider reliable But with hundreds of makes and models of printers and sometimes when information about them is sparse or conflicting we can only work with what we have available Thus you should be sure to rely also on your own research especially asking around Find another trustworthy end user of the same make and model you need to know about Do not make a decision solely on the basis of a FLAAR report because your situation may be totally different than ours Or we may not have known about and hence not written about one aspect or another which is crucial before you reach your decision The sources and resources we may list are those we happen to have read There may be other web pages or resources that we missed For those pages we do list we have no realistic way to verify the ve racity of all their content Use your own common
50. oll the roll up to the printer 43 Where does the operator stand or sit Front right 44 What is at either end Ink is at the left but more at the top and not really at the end 45 Is a foot pedal included for operating aspects of the printer have not noticed any good pedal LCD screen on the HP Designjet L65500 6 FLAAR Reports Latex Ink Printer Evaluation CONSTRUCTION BUILD OUALITY 46 What is the solid ness of the construction of the outer body Is it plastic Metal Heavy gauge The core structure is heavy gauge metal The ends of the machine are rigid plastic The 42 and 60 versions are based on the largely plastic Z6100 chassis and are quite distinctive But the 104 version is no wimp 47 Is there both a front hood and a back hood The back hood does not open 48 The hood is it strong or cheap plastic Economical plastic here but the rest of the printer is plenty strong 49 Does the hood have a frame Not fully 90 Does the printer wobble back and forth when printing Does wobble a bit but nowhere near as bad as the 3 2 meter Gandinnovations solvent printer whose monitor wobbled so much by the start and stop of the carriage acceleration that it would have made an operator dizzy if they tried to look at the screen HP Designjet L65500 at Sign and Graphic Imaging Dubai 2009 AESTHETICS 51 How would you describe the design of the printer Solid 92 Can you easily tell which
51. oller what substrate you are printing on and how high your ink load is Normally with an HP latex printer you would not expect roller track marks APPLICATIONS What Questions should the printshop owner ask of himself 99 What kinds of applications could we print tomorrow if we select the right printer In other FLAAR Reports we analyze the claims and counterclaims of latex vs eco solvent mild solvent applications All can say is the FLAAR list of applications from 2001 2003 before eco solvent ink really became usable and based on pigmented water based ink of those years HP 5000 HP 5500 ColorSpan Mimaki JV22 Mutoh and Roland is a longer list than anything have seen for latex ink and actually the longest itenization of wide format applications that exists for those years Remember in those days Roland Mutoh and Mimaki were water based before Epson make it clear that Epson wanted all water based applications for itself and no printer assembler who used Epson heads was allowed to focus on water based applications thereafter Not many inks can print all applications or on all substrates The best way to compare is simply to make a chart with columns traditional water based eco solvent latex UV cured It is ironic that there are new inks that beat traditional water based but these other inks are so new such as Sepiax that no printer yet uses them 100 Can you print fine art photos giclee or decor At 8 or more passes y
52. om 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 of testing 400 specifications of any printer much less the over 101 different UV printers from more than 46 manufac turers Same with hundreds of solvent printers and dozens of water based printers We observe as best we can but we cannot take each printer apart to inspect each feature And for UV printers these are too expensive to move into our own facilities for long range testing so we do as best as is possible under the circumstances And when a deficiency does become apparent usually from word of mouth or from an end user it may take time to get this written up and issued in a new release Another reason why it is essential for you to ask other printshop own ers and printer operators about how Brand X and Y function in the real world is that issues may exist but it may take months for these issues to be well enough known for us to know the details Although often we know of the issues early and work to get this information into the PDFs access to information varies depending on brand and model Plus with over 300 publications the waiting time to update a specific report may be several months Plus once a printer is consid ered obsolete it is not realistic to update it due to the costs involved If you received a F
53. oncluded that latex ink sales in Japan and Taiwan would unlikely be a runaway success because of limitations He said again that expectations were too high Reading between the lines PR releases from HP were too juicy and promised too much Now you see why FLAAR makes no effort to become a PR agency We prefer to list the reality of a printer and not rosy prom ises that perhaps are unrealistic Another feature of every single HP PR release on this printer is the constant claim of being better than sol vent eco solvent or mild solvent light or lite solvent But nowhere is there any hint that anyone who wrote a single word of these spec sheets was aware whatso ever of water based resin inks from other sources It is as if the latex ink spec sheets were frozen in time back to 2008 Sepiax ink was first shown to an interna tional public at FESPA Digital Geneva summer 2008 before DRUPA that year Sepiax ink was launched of ficially in the USA at Graphics of the Americas in Miami in early 2010 and again at ISA in the Spring There was a further launch at Sign amp Digital UK 2010 So the total absence of any recognition of this other water based resin ink is strange especially since no HP latex ink can yet print on thick or rigid material Sepiax ink is adept at this solid metal ceramic tiles wood etc It is noteworthy that no trade magazine has dared say anything that is not an HP style PR release or Success Story a
54. ot your ver sion from somewhere else it may be an obsolete edition FLAAR reports are being updated all year long and our comment on that product may have been 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 being violation of copyright it is useful to know if there is a more recent version on the FLAAR web site because every month new UV printers are being launched So what was good technology one month may be replaced by a much better printer elsewhere the next month To obtain a legitimate copy which you know is the complete re port with nothing erased or changed and hence a report with all the original description of pros and cons please obtain your origi nal and full report straight from www FLAAR org Your only assurance that you have a complete and authentic evaluation which describes all aspects of the product under consideration benefits as well as deficiencies is to obtain these reports directly from FLAAR via www wide format print ers NET Citing and Crediting A license from FLAAR is required to use any material whatsoever from our reports in any commercial advertisement or PR Release If you intend to quote any portion of a FLAAR review in a PowerPoint presentation if this is in reference to any product that your company sells or promotes then it would be appropriate to ask us first FLAAR reports are being u
55. ou get them on your skin For example some chemicals such as cyclo hexanone do not sound like chemicals you want to breathe every day Be sure to obtain read and understand the MSDS sheets for the inks media and laminates that you intend to use Both solvent eco solvent and UV curable inks are substances whose full range of health and environmental hazards are not yet fully revealed It is 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 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 flammability regulations relative to inks media or laminates as well as using any described hardware software accessory service technique or products We have no idea of your clients expectations What students on our campus will accept may not be the same as your Fortune 500 clients In many cases
56. ou can definitely print d cor At maximum number of passes you could print giclee if the colors in the original painting could be reproduced by the gamut of latex ink which is probably a significantly better gamut than UV cured 101 What other kinds of applications can you print e Billboards good on several materials because viewing distance is far e Banners general signage good on most materials because viewing distance is far e Exhibit graphics okay if printed at more than 8 passses e Backlit yes e POP yes if printed at more than 8 passes e Bus shelters yes especially if printed at 6 passes or more 102 What kinds of applications are not something you should try What applications print well mediocre or poorly and why The question is more what materials media and aubstrates can t take the extreme heat of the curing that is needed for latex ink So far no such list has been published 6 FLAAR Reports Latex ink Printer Evaluation Ta ay NIM In 3 F HP had a very educative booth at SGIA 09 Behind the Latex printer there was an area of applications In this sequence you see the installation of wallpaper media In the upper set the demonstrator removes a piece of material and cleans the surface In the second row you see the placement of a new piece The image at the left shows the final result Notice that the ink is water proof Traditiona
57. 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 re fuse payment even months after the sale This card may also extend your warranty agreement in some cases check first Most of the readers of the FLAAR Reports look to see what print ers we use in our own facilities Readers realize that we will have selected the printers that we like based on years of experience and research Indeed we have met people at trade shows who told us they use the FLAAR web site reports as the shopping list for their corporate purchases Yes it is rather self evident that we would never ask a manufacturer to send a product which we knew in advance from our studies was no amp I LAAR Reports HP Designjet L65500 Latex Ink Printer Evaluation good But there are a few other printers which are great but we simply do not have them in our facilities yet So if a printer is not made available by its manufacturer then there is no way we can afford to have all these makes and models in our facil ity Thus to learn about models which we do not feature be sure to ask around in other print shops with IT people in other corporations at your local university or community college Go to trade shows but don t use only the booth ask questions of people in the elevator in line at the restaurant anywhere to escape the smothering hype you get in the booth Realiz
58. pdated 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 cor rect this error after the fact is rather embarrassing So it is safer to ask before you quote a FLAAR review on your product The material in this report is not only copyright it is also based on years of research Therefore if you cite or quote a pertinent section please provide a proper credit which would be minimally Nicholas TENAVAT HP Designjet L65500 Latex Ink Printer Evaluation Hellmuth year www FLAAR org If the quote is more than a few words then academic tradition would expect that a footnote or en try in your bibliography would reference the complete title Publisher would be www FLAAR org If you intend to quote any portion of a FLAAR review in a PowerPoint presentation if this is in reference to any product that your company sells or promotes then it would be appropriate to license the report or otherwise notify us in advance FLAAR reports are being updated every week sometimes and our comment on that product may have been revised as we learned more about the product from end users Also we noticed that one company cited the si
59. ports at www wide format printers NET Comments on UV Inkjet Printers at Major Trade Shows 2007 2009 FLAAR Reports UV Market S TLAAR Re spor List of UV Printers Manufactured in Observable at FESPA Digital Europe 2009 FLAAR Reports o UV COMBO of UV Cured Wide Format Printers FLAAR Reports UV Cured Inkjet Printers at LAAR Reports Trends in Wide Format UV Printers FLAAR Reports UV Printers Manufactured in s Poles 2009 Trends Markets aN well i Sade Comprehensive amp Applications FLAAR Inventory TRENDS Part IT Markets amp Technologies U V cured DER at TRENDS IN HYBRID STRUCTURE UV PRINTERS FLATBEDS amp FLAAR Reports TRENDS mr F LAAR Reports Analysis One Bi One ISA 09 FLAAR Reports UV Roll to roll oe ISA 2009 l LAAR Reports aE er gl il e qao FIRE a KA S 2 Observable at Shanghai 2009 UV PHATE ene sien care PART I UV Printers Manufactured in GTLAAR Reports Listof UV Printers Hel less in FLAAR Reports UV Cured Printer of the UV cured printers Zi UV aleji ole Printers a at t APPPEXPO Shanghai Flatbed amp Roll to Roll UV Printers SGIA 08 Part II FLAAR Repo List of UV Printers Manufactured in
60. printer brand could lose value when offered used Well HP will certainly still be in business so the corporate aspect will not influence sales value as used in three to five years But since resin water based printers are already being developed elsewhere in three to five years printshops will want a resin printer not a used vintage 2009 2010 latex printer So would not count on much of a high resale value used in three years If you sell your HP printer now you can probably get your money back since we assume you have made some profit selling print jobs since the day it was installed But you better hurry because by SGIA 2010 the new printers will be announced I am not sure the new printers will be leaked by FESPA 6 FLAAR Reports Latex Ink Printer Evaluation 114 Another guestion is to ask is there some major technological breakthrough in your market applications that will result in less value for your current model Yes we tried to hint this in the answer above In 2009 latex was king By 2010 doubts have set in By 2011 there will be so much new ink technology elsewhere that latex ink will be in their shadow Note this does not at all mean you should hold off This does not mean you should not buy an HP latex printer There is today no 104 Sepiax printer it is unsure whether Sepiax ink would work in the Seiko printheads of the Roland AdvancedJet COMPARISONS WITH OTHER PRINTERS 115 If you are dissatisfied what about t
61. r additional Die i applications such as interior d cor such as wallpaper but not giclee there is a i es subtle difference r 11 Are other markets buying this printer that were unexpected Many printshops are buying this L65500 for exhibition banners and signage and vehicle wrap Since HP latex ink is dry out of the printer it can be laminated im mediately This is a notable advantage over solvent inks which require out gas sing for 12 to 24 hours after printing d 4 by re E K D A M s yo ad G HP Designjet L65500 at SIGN Africa 2009 There are also people buying this printer to print on polyester and those fabrics for which this printer s feeding system and heat allow TLAAR Reports Danese PURCHASING 12 Are dealers national most companies or regional Roland allows a dealer to operate only within a limited regional area Does a buyer have any choice in dealers Dealers in US are local regional and often national This situation varies in other world regions STRUCTURE OF THE PRINTER 13 Is this printer made originally as a latex ink printer This is not a solvent printer that has been jerry rigged to handle latex ink curing The printer probably shares some features with HP Scitex solvent printers but latex ink has so many special requirements that it works best to be designed from the ground up specifically for latex ink This is the logical reason why this
62. r and only once they have it do the find it is not created by some green deity but it is simply a machine with one kind of ink for a limited range of tasks The printshops that are happy are those whose clients fit nicely into the limited range of tasks The unenchanted owners are the ones who were bamboozled by the mantry of green this green that eco this eco that and then found that the machine as a machine had limitations It is reported that printshop owners in Japan are especially disenchanted and a few in Taiway perhaps also GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 113 What will the resale value of your printer be in three to five years When you buy a printer nowadays people easily forget to ask what the resale value will be in three to five years When you buy a printer nowadays people easily forget to ask what the resale value will be in three to five years So a good question is 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 which is no longer in business may cause printers of that brand to lose value in the used market A company which has filed for bankruptcy irrespective of what other legal jargon they use to the normal person if a company does not pay its bills it is considered effectively bankrupt It is possible that such a
63. r profitability for a par ticular purpose is offered 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 me dia and substrates One production run can have a glitch chemical or physical even in the best of companies A major Swiss owned media company for example had several months of media which were al most unusable Yet other kinds of media from the same company are okay though we stopped using that brand and stopped recommend ing them after all the issues we ourselves experienced The user is advised to test products thoroughly before relying on them We do not have any special means of analyzing chemical con tents or flammability of inks media or laminates nor how these need to be controlled by local laws in your community There may well be hazardous chemicals or outgassing that we are not aware of Be aware that some inks have severe health hazards associated with them Some are hazardous to breathe others are hazardous if y
64. rceptible gray or other light color that is misting ink that has landed there Misting is common with UV cured printer systems indeed misting is heavy on a few models But no misting would be expected with this HP latex printer RIP SOFTWARE 106 Is a RIP included No RIP is included 107 ls a computer and monitor included to run the RIP You need to buy a separate computer to run a RIP to handle this printer 108 Is this RIP fine tuned for this printer in particular Yes any RIP for latex ink must be very special This has been one of the most unique inks that any wide format RIP software has ever attempted to handle It has taken the RIP developers most effort than for any other ink One issue is the ink chemistry and curing per se another aspect may be the competition between which soft ware will control things the HP firmware guided by its on board system or a color management system with a separate spectrophotometer 6 FLAAR Reports Latex Ink Printer Evaluation PRODUCTIVITY amp ROI Return on Investment 109 What is the level of productivity high medium low Because the heat must dwell over the material a few seconds the productivity of the initial models is not setting speed records But the same with Sepiax ink the first printers are not setting speed records either But when newer models of anything come out the new models are generally less slow ADVERTISING CLAIMS Anything Misleading Any Hype Sl
65. rs and for funds to allow us to attend all major international trade shows which are ideal locations for us to gather information We thank Caldera EskoArtwork EFI Rastek EFI and VUTEk OTF Obeikan Drytac DigiFab Barbieri electronic Seiko II Parrot Digi graphic AT Inks Sepiax inks Sam lnk Dilli Grapo and WP Digital for providing funds so that we can make more of our publications free to end users During 2000 2001 we had grants to cover all the costs of our publications and all FLAAR Reports were free in those early years As that early grant naturally expired after a few years we had to begin charging for some of our reports to cover costs Now in 2010 we are seeking corporate sponsorship so we can gradually make another 20 of our publications free to our readers Since 2006 we do a major part of our evaluations at a factory and headquarters demo room Since the university does not fund any of these trips it is traditional for the manufacturer to fund a research sponsorship In the US this is how most university projects are initi ated for decades now and it is increasing In fact there is a university in Austria that is not an edu but is a GmbH funded by the cham ber of commerce of that part of Austria In other words a university as an educational institution but functioning in the real world as an actual business This is a sensible model especially when FLAAR staff need to be on the road over a quarter of
66. rst case sce nario for this was the half million dollar Luscher JetPrint so being Made in Switzerland was not much help Counterfeit parts are a problem with many printers made in China Several years ago many UV printers made in China and some made elsewhere in Asia had counterfeit parts No evaluation has the fund ing available to check parts inside any printer to see if they are from the European Japanese or American manufacturer or if they are a clever counterfeits Be realistic and aware that not all materials can be printed on equally well Many materials don t feed well through hybrid pinch roller on grit roller systems or combo UV systems with transport belts Banding both from poor feeding and from bi directional lawnmower effect are common on many UV curable inkjet printers It is typical for some enthusiastic vendors to claim verbally that their printer can print on anything and everything But once you unpack the printer and set it up you find that it requires primer on some materials on other materials it adheres for a few weeks but then falls off And on most hybrid and many combo printers some heavy thick or smooth surfaced materials skew badly Since the claim that the printer will print on everything is usually verbal it is tough to prove this aspect of misleading advertising to a jury Not all inks can print on all materials And at a trade show many of the materials you see so nicely printed
67. s 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 pres ence 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 individual ism 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 con cerned when manufacturers learn of trends what applications are popular and for what reasons For example manufacturers need to know whether to continue designing software for Mac users or con centrate software for PC users So the survey form that you fill out is helpful to gather statistics You benefit from this in two ways first
68. st 58 pages but is short possibly because there are several other manuals that cover site preparation etc 57 Is there a glossary in the User s Manual Yes this is one of the few printer manuals that has a nice glossary two pages worth at the end Plus there are another two pages of glossary like descriptions on pages 13 14 58 Is there an index in the User s Manual Yes there is a modest index slightly over one page worth 59 What is the native language of these guides Is the translation acceptable HP manuals tend to be written in native English or if not wnosever does them is quite good in English Definitely better than manuals from China or manuals from Mimaki in Japan 60 What kind of cut away drawings or other drawings exist that show the various parts of the printer There is a view of the front and view of the back but at a scale so small you can t see any details 6 FLAAR Reports Latex Ink Printer Evaluation TECH SUPPORT amp WARRANTY 61 What are the hours of tech support If support is from the Eastern time zone the hours should be at least 8 am through 8 pm to cover users on the West Coast PRINTHEAD Technology 62 What printheads are used Xaar Spectra Epson Konica Seiko or other This printer does not need piezo printheads HP uses their own printheads which are an advanced thermal inkjet technology 63 Is the printhead identified in the spec sheet brochure by brand or also by mod
69. t 5000ps so much we now have two of them one at each university Sometimes we hear horror stories about a printer The only way we can tell whether this is the fault of the printer design or lack of training of the operator is to have the printer ourselves in house Of course some printer manufacturers don t understand the reasons we need to have each make and model they are used to loaning their demo units for a week or so That is obviously inadequate for a seri ous review Some of the media provided to us failed miserably Three printers failed to meet common sense usability and printability standards as well HP 1055 one older desktop model HP Color Pro GA and one Epson Yet we know 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 soft ware package was judged incapable by two reviewers one from the university second was an outside user who had made the mis take of buying this package So it s obvious that providing products or even a grant is no shield from having your products fail a FLAAR evaluation The reason is clear the end user is our judge The entire FLAAR service program is to assist the people who need to use digital imaging hardware and software If a product functions we find out and promulgate the good news If a product is a failure or more likely needs some improve ment in the nex
70. t generation we let people know If a product is hyped by what an informed user would recognize as potentially false and misleading nonsense then we point out the pathetic discrepancies very clearly This is what you should expect from an institute which is headed by a professor Actually most of our reviews are based on comments by end users We use their tips to check out pros and cons of virtually every product we discuss You can t fool a print shop owner whose printer simply fails to function as advertised And equally a sign shop owner who earns a million dollars a year from a single printer brand makes an impact on us as well We have multiple owners 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 money maker production machine and so on Yet we have documentation of several print shop companies whose business was ruined by specific brands that failed repeatedly It is noteworthy that it is always the same brand or printer at both loca tions one due to banding and printheads then simply no longer print ing one color the other brand due to pokiness of the printer simply not being competitively fast enough Same with RIPs we have con sistent statements of people using one RIP and only realizing how weak it was when they tried another brand which they found sub stant
71. t necessarily an attempt to hide the dangers but may be to hide the source of the ink tried to find the MSDS of latex ink There is a link which displayed so much stuff that did not have time or patience to figure out which was latex ink would rate accessibility to the MSDS as not exemplary The MSDS should be an instant download without needing to figure out what is the HP jargon for the catalog name and number of the ink 79 How many kinds of ink are available There is only one kind of ink because this is not a flatbed printer there is no way to print on thick rigid materials Presently there is no aftermarket ink either 80 Is this a full solvent mild or lite solvent or eco solvent Has the same level of solvents as other water based ink printers But there are not yet any specs on compari son of of solvents in latex and any of solvents in Sepiax resin ink 81 Whatcompany makes the inks Choices include DuPont Sericol Sun Triangle KonicaMinolta Tetenal Toyo and several others This ink may have been perfected by HP but was unlikely invented by HP So far no one has revealed where this ink comes from 82 How many colors Six colors CMYK lightCyan and lightMagenta 83 Is white ink available No White ink is not really available for most inkjet printers other than UV cured Roland and Mimaki offer white ink but in past years until recently have seen this more on Mimaki than on Roland Now both comp
72. tal Xerox Yuhan Kimberly Zund have each brought FLAAR staff to their headquarters and printer factories AT Inks Bordeaux InkWin Sepiax Sam Ink and Sunflower ink have brought us to inspect their ink manufacturing fa cilities 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 We have visited the world headquarters and demo rooms of HP in Barcelona and received informative and helpful technology briefings amp I LAAR Reports HP Designjet L65500 Latex Ink Printer Evaluation from HP about every two years We are under NDA as to the sub jects discussed but it is important that we be open where we have visited Mimaki Europe has had FLAAR as their guest in Europe to introduce their flatbed UV printer as have other UV curable manu facturers again under NDA as to the details since often we are pres ent at meetings where unreleased products are discussed Xaar has hosted an informative visit to their world headquarters in the UK You don t get this level of access from a trade magazine writer and can assure YOU we are provided much more detailed information and documentation in our visits than would be provided to a magazine author or editor Companies have learned that i s a lot better to let us know Up front and in advance the issues and glitches with their print ers since they now know we will find out
73. to 18 passes 67 What is the quality like at one pass Taking the various speeds that your printer advertises please explain the quality or defects of the output of your fastest speed What does the output really look like and is this sellable quality Is the output at fastest speed junk or throw away or would a Fortune 500 client actually pay for it and be pleased There is no 1 pass printing possible and even 2 pass printing is not realistic The L65500 is an impressive tech nological achievement but sheer speed is still to come PRINTHEAD Banding Issues 68 Is there banding in areas of solid black Not normally 69 Does this printer offer intelligent interweaving or comparable software No interweaving solution noticed PRINTHEAD Life Expectancy 70 Is there an alarm system to stop the head from hitting substrate if head is not high enough The Mimaki JV5 has the best system have seen so far to avoid a head strike SAFETY CONCERNS 71 Are emergency buttons present and if so how many and where are they situated Two emergency buttons on the front but on inset area not precisely where the operator might be Two on the back so total of four 6 FLAAR Reports Latex Ink Printer Evaluation Back emergency buttons on the HP Designjet L65500 72 How much odor is emitted by the ink HP states several times that no odor is emitted by the ink But everyone else points out that several substrates th
74. trade show the images looked uninspiring lacked POP and shadow areas lacked detail But per haps the ink limit was inadequately set In this same trade show the colors were not very good either turquoise water in a resort photo looked simply bizarre Most yellows were either dirty or a bit green surprisingly like UV ink yellow issues Reds were too orange again like UV cured reds Blue and Cyan were oversaturated again like UV cured inks Is the extreme heat of latex ink curing and the extreme UV curing lamp temperatures causing these minute color changes The spec sheet claims that printing directly to polyester with HP latex inks is superior to traditional dye subli mation But the spec sheet conveniently and skillfully neglects to say whether HP latex ink can produce the POP of traditional dye sublimation Note full dye sub via transfer paper usually has more pop than direct to fabric disperse dye ink It would also be interesting to compare longevity of HP latex ink on polyester compared to either disperse dye or dye sublimation inks Dye inks have notoriously short life span outside in the sun amp LAAR Reports HP Designjet L65500 Latex Ink Printer Evaluation A potential downside is mentioned in fine print polyes ter fabric that does not stretch Whether this means you can use only expensive polyester remains to be seen Most dedicated dye sub printers have a transport system made specifically
75. ur 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 gener ally require lamination to survive much usage Lamination comes in many kinds and it is worth finding a reliable lamination company and receiving training on their products Also realize that no hybrid or combo UV printer can feed all kinds of rigid materials precisely Some materials feed well others feed poorly others will skew Although we have found several makes and models to work very well in our facilities how well they work in your facilities may also depend on your local dealer Some dealers are excellent others just sell you a box and can t provide much service after the sale Indeed some low bid internet sales sources may have no technical backup what soever If you pay low bid price you can t realistically expect special maintenance services or tech support later on from any other dealer they will tell you to return to where you paid for the product This is why we make an effort to find out which dealers are recommendable Obviously there are many other dealers who are also good but we do not always know them To protect yourself further always
76. ur 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 dont need to be paid by the printer companies whose products work so nicely in both our universities on a daily basis The printers which failed did so in front of our own eyes and in the print shops of people we check with And actually we do try to find some redeeming feature in the slow ink gulping brands they do have a better dithering pattern they can take thick media that absolutely won t feed through an HP So we do work hard at finding the beneficial features even of printers are otherwise get the most critique from our readers Over one million people will read the FLAAR Information Network in the next 12 months 480 000 people will be exposed to our reports on wide format printers from combined total of our three sites on these themes You can be assured that we hear plenty of comments from our readers about which printers func tion and which printers fail to achieve what their advertising hype so loudly claims An evaluation is a professional service and at FLAAR is based on more than 11 years of experience An evaluation of a printer an ink media substrate a software laminator cutter or whatever part of th
77. utomatically 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 oper ating system Thus be sure to test a printer under your own specific work conditions before you buy And if a printer RIP media or ink does not function return it with no ands ifs or buts Your best defense is to show an advertising claim that the printer simply can t achieve Such advertising claims are in violation of federal regulations and the printer companies know they are liable for misleading the public But before you make a federal case just be sure that many of the issues are not user error or unfamiliarity It may be that training or an additional accessory can make the printer do what you need it to ac complish Of course if the printer ads did not warn you that you had to purchase the additional pricey accessory that is a whole other issue Our reviews do not cover accessories since they are endless as is the range of training or lack thereof among users The major causes of printer breakdown and failure is lack of main tenance poor maintenance spotty maintenance or trying to jerry rig some part of the printer The equally common cause of printer breakdown is improper use generally due from lack of training or experience Another factor is whether you utilize yo
78. vely for the latex ink SUMMARY Image Quality Issues Relative to Applications 118 What about the dot pattern Is the image grainy like sand or is the image smooth as you would expect of a photograph Image is smooth no graininess UV inks are grainy like sand sometimes 119 What about splotchiness mottle No mottle amp T LAAR Reports HP Designjet L65500 Latex Ink Printer Evaluation Conclusions Pros A significant benefit of the HP Scitex LX600 and LX800 printers are that the prints are more than dry to the touch they are fully cured when they come out of the printer There is no overnight curing needed With solvent inks and also with Sepiax ink the prints take 24 hours to fully dry though you can laminate Se piax after it comes out with solvent you need to wait However Sepiax ink offers so many other advantages over solvent and latex ink that the occasional issue should be weighed with the benefits Has a glossary in the User Manual a nice feature that is seldom available for other printers The manual also has a basic index at the back The section on applications actually on how to handle the substrates is really user friendly It is arranged al most in glossary format very easy to understand The author of this section deserves a compliment pages 13 14 HP thermal printhead technology has several advan tages over piezo technology The structure of the printer is professionally eng
79. way to notify any reader of when just one particular report is actually updated There is a free PDF that describes the UV curable inkjet printer Sub scription system Subscriptions are available only for UV related wide format printer publications FLAAR Reports on UV curable roll to roll flatbed hybrid and combo printers are updated when new information is available We tend to update the reports on new printers on printers that readers ask about the most and on printers where access is facilitated such as factory visits demo room visits etc Reports on obsolete printers discontinued printers or printers that not enough people ask about tend not to be updated FLAAR still publishes individual reports on solvent printers and on giclee printers but subscriptions on these are not yet available these FLAAR Reports on solvent eco solvent and water based wide for mat printers have to be purchased one by one Please Note This report has not been licensed to any printer manufacturer dis tributor dealer sales rep RIP company media or ink company to distribute So if you obtained this from any company you have a pirated copy If you have received a translation this translation is not au thorized unless posted on a FLAAR web site and may be in violation of copyright plus if we have not approved the translation it may make claims that were not our intention Also since this report is frequently updated if you g
80. we have not ourselves used the products but are bas ing our discussion on having seen them at a trade show during visit ing a print shop or having been informed about a product via e mail or other communication Results you see at trade shows may not be realistic Be aware that trade show results may not be realistic Trade shows are idealized situations with full time tech support to keep things run ning The images at a trade show may be tweaked Other images make be faked in the sense of slyly putting on primer without telling the people who inspect the prints Most UV inks don t stick to all ma terials many materials need to be treated Or the UV prints may be top coated so that you cant 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 vou 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 manufacturers trade show booth or pictured in their glossy advertisement Five years ago we noticed Epson was laminat ing prints to show glossy output because their pigmented inks could not print on actual glossy media The same equipment inks me

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