Hey all info needed if possible thanks

[abacus1983]

Hi all, the company i work for have 25 shops and are looking to take there printing in house for the posters etc, they have asked me to ask, what would be the best printer to print up to A0 posters, we will only be printing posters for our shop windows, ie offers, new stock etc, ive been looking at a HP DesignJet T1100 but at £1300 it seems quite steep for the age, i would be very greatful if anyone could advise
best regards
carl

[froggy]

I advise you go to a specialist printer and get them to produce your work for you. Why do you want the headaches of in house production?

[abacus1983]

ive suggested this but the boss isnt having it, he says having so many shops that in the long run it will work out faster and cheaper to do it in house

[socialgiraffe]

Your boss is wrong

I handle work for a massive national chain who have well over 2000 stores. They have an in house printing team but still outsource most of the work as they can not cope and it is cheaper.

Having said that, if you boss still wants to have it in house then I would recommend a UV printer. You need the posters to be able to withstand direct sunlight if they are being stuck up on windows. Rolands and Mimakis work short term, but ideally a Roland fitted with a UV Lightbar is the answer.

I would recommend you contact MAGS on here as he does seem to know quite a bit about printers.

[mags1892]

Solvent and UV are the way to go for posters on windows as Social previous mentioned a UV will last the longest as the more UV its exposed to the more it cures . Uv also prints on just about anything but you do need to quicky wipe it with a fixing fluid first just to be sure. Infact the new mimaki UV has this pretreatment built in.

Ecosolvent will print onto most things and almost no smell maybe a very faint hint of peardrops, latex prints on slightly less and is a little more expensive to run but there no odour at all so can be used in an office. UV is the most expensive machine to buy and run as the inks tend to be more expensive but the substrate doesnt need a coating and you can print direct to foamex correx boards etc so this can be cheaper .

You can use pigment ink then laminate it with a UV protecting laminate but then this end up costing too much.

[froggy]

ive suggested this but the boss isnt having it, he says having so many shops that in the long run it will work out faster and cheaper to do it in house

OK, he's the boss. 25 shops and you have a budget of £1300 good luck.

Constructive advise, buy a HP latex there should be a few 300 series machine's about £4-8k, plus a decent RIP such as onyx. Make sure the machine is serviced, an engineer will cost about £350 a visit. Ink about £90 a cart you will need 6 of them, plus optimiser. The print heads are classed as consumables about £80 a head lasts between 3-10 litres per head. Oh and you will ideally need to get media profiled unless you get a 360.

If you arent using the machine regularly its not as much a problem as a solvent machine, but it will use ink even when not in use as part of its maintenance cleaning cycle. If you want to print onto clear static cling for window decals then you will need a Mimaki Latex machine as HP dont carry a white ink option.

If you want rigid media signage then you may need a applicator, especially as you will need to produce a decent amount to service your stores (approx £3.5k)

You may need other equipment/software depending on what you want to produce.

[Andrew]

How long are the posters up for? What is mainly to be printed....... text/ graphics/ photos? If the posters are not to be up for a long time and prints aren't complex you might get away with a cheap in-house printer. What spec posters are you currently buying in? That would probably get you in the right direction if you want to create like for like.