I'm thinking about buying seiko over Roland SJ-740. 1/ What about inks? Any third-party inks ? They are much more expensive than ones for Roland,especially since it is now so easy to convert Roland to mild-solvent (not eco) machine. BTW: if a company voids a warranty because one used third-party inks it is illegal, at least in Europe - you can sue them. It is like a car - nobody voids a warranty because you don't buy oil from the car manufacturer. 2/ What about the high-speed modes, i heard there are problems with drying and one needs additional dryer (IP-260 or whatever). 3/ What about "lost ink" problem that occures sometimes, and about big loses of ink caused by cleaning ? 4/ what about 0.63 mm max media thickness (2mm in Roland machines). Is this a problem for you sometimes? 5/ What about printing quality ? Does it beat Roland ? OR is it worse? 6/ what about printheads? How often do you need to replace it (and their cost is ?) ?
I have not really been excited about owning mine. I have a banding problem which is killing business. I turn away jobs with large areas of blue. I don't know if its the rip or the machine. You will need to learn to do input adjustments on your own. I still am not really sold on the service end of it yet. If you have a problem... you have a problem. Wish I had better things to say... if you were to ask me if I would buy a seiko printer all over again... I would say no.
Man CD.who is ur tech?banding issues can be at the very least minimized to a point of non distraction.Have u performed ur step adjust>this adj is important and can fix banding issues!!where is ur shop?page 32 in ur op manual.32 or 3-32 I dont have manual in front of me.
I have had a Seiko since last July. Yes, we had many problems in the beginning, banding,media handling, drying. Just getting accustomed to the machine has taken some time. Seiko has not done a very good job of training dealers. Even Seiko is not very up on what materials work best on the 64.
However, with that off my chest, I can tell you that we are printing some really beutiful stuff, on paper, on p/s vinyl, and scrim vinyl. We do all high end work for ad agencies and corporate buyers. We have solved the banding issues, to the point were even an experienced observer can not be sure which direction the material was printed. Of course, on an 8' X 4' banner we will have some banding because of the profile we use, but at an appropriate viewing distance it looks great!
I am not very familiar with other solvent printers, but I have been operating wide format ink jet printers for over six years, and I believe that the Seiko is a fine machine. We seem to have come to an understanding ( me and the machine) I pay 100% ATTENTION to every little detail, do the maintenance, keep everything clean including the media, and in return the machine does a great job for me, and it is fast.
I am sure there is a lot we can learn from each other. If anyone wants to share some test files, see samples etc. Give me a call Bill, 603-753-0055.
Our machine prints almost as good resolution as our Epson 10600. We have had some head issues but tech was out ASAP and resolved them, I will tell you if unit is not adjusted properly and fine tuned it will not print perfectly.
