Reviews of white ink Durst Rho 600 combo UV-curable flatbed printer

FLAAR is involved in developing innovative signage for museums, specifically in Guatemala. So white ink is of interest to us.

Now you know why FLAAR spends so much time and effort to undertaking studies of UV-curable printers. We are a research institute with interests in printing of high quality digital images. FLAAR currently has an 80-megapixel Cruse digital photography system, a 48 megapixel BetterLight system for photographing architecture, a Phase One P25+ from Denmark, Canon EOS 5D, and is acquiring a Nikon D300.

Every year the FLAAR photography team spends months out in remote areas of Central America doing the photography that we will exhibit.

During the time we are not in the jungle, we visit the factories, demo facilities, and headquarters of UV-curing inkjet printer companies so we can learn which UV printer is ideal for producing our museum exhibits.

Also I visit as many printshops as possible, to learn first hand. I have visited these printshops with UV printers in order to get actual documentation on what these printers are like in real-life: what are the problems. A Success Story on any brand of printer varies from a farce to a scam; no printer is perfect (not even the ones we like). A one or two page Success Story tends to be commercial PR (simply a camouflaged advertisement).

In distinction, I actually visit the printshops that I write about. I am not a journalist, instead I simply want to know what it is really like to have this UV printer in a print shop. What can it do well; what can it do okay but you have to cover come issues; and what are the issues, problems, lack of features, etc.

I ask the printshop operator in addition to the printshop owner (you never get the same comments from both; each has a different point of view on the printer).

• Gandinnovations Jeti flatbed
• Gandinnovations Jeti roll-to-roll
• VUTEk 200/600
• Luscher JetPrint (a printer that had many issues)
• DuPont Cromaprint 22uv
• ColorSpan 9840uv (now the HP Scitex FB910).
• Durst Rho 800 (upcoming, we just made our first visit last week)
• Durst Rho 600
• Etc.

The Success Story on another DuPont Cromaprint never mentioned the serious problems, breakdowns, constant need for repair, etc. Yet every single owner of a DuPont Cromaprint 22uv tend to have the same problems (exactly what you expect with printers made in China).

Durst Rho 600 combo UV-curable flatbed printer at Sign Istanbul 2006.

The owner of the Durst Rho 600 surprised me with a long list of issues, including about the learning curve for white ink and whether varnish was realistic. These are all detailed carefully in the FLAAR Reports on the Durst Rho 600. I had not expected to be hit with so many problems. But this was an experienced printshop: they had another million dollars worth of wide-format inkjet printers in the same building.

Here is the Durst Rho 600 combo UV-curable flatbed printer with some samples at Madrid 2006.

As soon as it is possible to visit the Durst factory we can learn about how to overcome these issues. In the meantime, to study white UV ink I visited the VUTEk factory (three times actually last year), spent several days at the Zund factory, and during 2008 will be visiting other manufacturers headquarters demo rooms to take more notes. The VUTEk report and the Zund 250 reports are now available from www.wide-format-printes.NET.

Reviews of Durst Rho 600 combo UV-curable flatbed printer.

The Durst booth, Durst Rho 600 printer (in front). SGIA trade show 2005.

Sample printed by the Durst Rho 600 combo UV-curable flatbed printer.

 

Most recently updated January 27, 2008.

First posted November 28, 2005; updated April 17, 2006; updated May 29, 2006, updated August 24, 2006 and again Sept. 25, 2006, August 24, 2007, September 7, 2007, October 9, 2007, October 29, 2007.