 |
|||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|||||||
|
|||||||||||
HP Designjet H35100 and HP Designjet H45100 replace ColorSpan 5400uv
Today, in 2008, the world of UV-curable printers is very different than when the MacDermid ColorSpan 5400uv Series was born.
The ColorSpan 5440uv, 5445uv, 5460uv, and 5465uv were a heritage of the #1 best-selling MacDermid ColorSpan 72UVR and ColorSpan 72UVX. The ColorSpan 72UVR and X out-sold the Zund 215 and outsold the Gerber Solara.
 |
| Here is Nicholas Hellmuth with the HP Designjet H45500 UV-curable printer at Goa 2008. |
Today, this is the time of DRUPA 2008, when the outburst of technology will be staggering. So doing a comparative evaluation of a printer today will be different than evaluating a printer a year or so ago.
It is rare for a new UV-curable platform to be without a few issues, and the ColorSpan 5440uv, 5445uv, 5460uv, and 5465uv had a few design quirks. But the difference between how ColorSpan handles this, and how companies handle problems on Chinese printers is completely different.
 |
 |
| Samples printed by HP Designjet H45500 . |
One distributor with Chinese printers was completely in denial about the issues that everyone who owned their printers complained about.
In distinction ColorSpan recognizes the issues and is resolving this situation by redesigning the pertinent aspects of the printer in order to eliminate the issue.
So the rebranding of the ColorSpan into HP Designjet H35100 and HP Designjet H45100 is a good time to re-evaluate this family of entry-level printers. Our evaluations will be revised and updated to list the issues and to detail the work-around, replacements, and improvements that have been undertaken already.
We will also seek out printshops where we can undertake a site-visit case study to see how these printers are doing in the real world. Indeed today we just received an e-mail from a printshop that had repeated issues with Coroplast. What helps is when (like this printshop owner), they detail (in diary form, month by month the issues). It also assists us if in addition to reporting what is not working, if they can indicate precisely what kinds of materials the issues occur with, and equally important, what aspects of the printer is doing okay and what kinds of materials work okay.
Plus, to what degree is it a flatbed issue, and to what degree a roll-fed issue; and/or an ink delivery issue? The general consensus is that it’s a feeding issue; too many different kinds of rigid material don’t feed as well as would be desired. So I need to make time to do a site-visit case study and make lists of what materials feed okay, and which materials feed poorly, skew, or skip.
This is a tough year for any printer to have issues now that Mutoh has come out with a new hybrid-format UV flatbed printer (Mutoh Zephyr). The DYSS UV printer (combo design) is gaining considerable attention by new dealers and distributors (I have not yet visited the DYSS factory but I am hearing increasing comments about their abilities). IP&I Cube 260 and Cube 1606 continue to receive high ratings and has a growing dealer network. Plus a host of additional new UV printers will be launched at DRUPA 2008 and a few at SGIA ’08. So it is a good year to re-inspect the venerable ColorSpan UV printers and to document to what degree it has been possible for HP to retrofit them with better features to improve the ink delivery and media feeding/handling system.
HP Designjet H45500 and it’s other new names
ColorSpan 5440uv is now HP Designjet H35100
ColorSpan 5460uv is now HP Designjet H35500
ColorSpan 5445uv is now HP Designjet H45100
ColorSpan 5465uv is now HP Designjet H45500
ColorSpan 9840uv is now HP Scitex FB910
 |
| HP Designjet H45500 UV-Curable Printer. |
Most recently updated April 2008.
Updated Feb 6, 2008.
First posted the last days of January 2008 after we had seen the new designation in several places, especially on Russian web sites.
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
| More FREE Downloads... |
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
Dilli NeoPlus |
| HP Scitex XP5100 and HP Scitex XP5300 |
| HP Scitex XP2100 and HP Scitex XP2700 |
| HP Scitex FB6100 |
| L&P Spuhl RS |
| Sun FastJet |
| RIP Software |
|---|
| Caldera RIP software |
Interesting inks & Alternative Inks |
HP latex ink |
UV-Curable ink, OEM (in preparation) |
UV-Curable, third-party ink |
| Encres Dubuit (others in preparation) |
Fine Art Photography Giclee & Proofing (on other FLAAR sites)
|
Epson 4880 |
Epson 7880 |
Epson 9880 |
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Most of our updates for 2008 onward are in FLAAR Reports in Adobe Acrobat PDF format. It is more efficient for us to make new information available in PDF format. So if the web page itself is not updated, check out www.wide-format-printers.NET to see if the printer, RIP, or other subject is covered in an update in a PDF download.
|