EFI Rastek H700, a flatbed and roll-to-roll UV-curable printer
The Rastek H700 is a UV-cured inkjet printer that handles both rigid and roll-fed materials up to 1.83 m (72”) wide. The FLAAR evaluation on this printer has a detailed comparison of features between the Rastek H700 and the Grapo Octopus, Dilli Neo Titan, Agfa :Anapurna M2, and DYSS Apollo UV220. Such details are not discussed in this article, but we will only anticipate that with a price around the US$95,000 the Rastek H700 is the most affordable of this group of printers.
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EFI Rastek H700 UV combo printer at ISA 2009. |
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The EFI Rastek H700 at EFI Rastek headquarters in San Jose, California. |
Perhaps the wide-format inkjet printer that has been rebranded more times in the Industry.
Small to mid-sized successful printer manufacturers get acquired by bigger corporations, such as HP, whose line of UV printers consists 100% of printers designed by companies that were later acquired by HP (in other words, HP has not itself designed any UV printer). This is one reason printers get rebranded.
The other reason is distributorship. Some printers are rebranded in certain regions to have better acceptance. This is the case of the Agfa :Anapurna M series, which are OEM’d by Dilli in South Korea. The degree to which both the original manufacturing company, and the rebranding company admit about the origin of their printers, varies in different cases. Fujifilm personnel mention openly that their Acuity is made by Oce, and vice versa.
But the Rastek H700 printer is a special case because it is a printer that has changed name more than once
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| In order to double-check on how this printer holds up in real life, FLAAR made the effort to find an installation and inspected the Daytona H700UV printer in-situ. |
Raster Printers Daytona H700UV is a rebranding of the Flora F1-180UV printer from China. As of late 2008 and early 2009, the new name of the same printer is the EFI Rastek H700uv.
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The same printer is also rebranded in Spain as the ”Arena.” But the output in the Raster Printers booth was significantly better than the output with the ink used by the unrelated Spanish distributor. I also recently inspected the Flora F1-180UV printer at VISCOM Italy. The results are in the FLAAR Reports (which covers the Chinese version and the Raster Printers version both in the same report).
Because DuPont had issues for years with their two UV printers that were contract manufactured in China, and because there were two years of issues with the first Flora hybrid UV printers, I will need to test this Raster Printers Daytona H700UV myself, will need to visit the factory in China, and will want to interview several end-users in the US, Europe, or Latin America in order to document its reliability.
So first I visited the world headquarters of Raster Printers in Silicon Valley to test the Daytona H700UV printer. Then a few months later I made time to visit a FastSigns franchise printshop in Philadelphia that has the H700UV printer for about eight months. They were content and were making money with this printer. The owner of this FastSigns printshop praised the support he received from the distributor (Raster Printers). I have learned that several other FastSigns franchise shops have also ordered the H700UV as a result of the success of the printshop in Philadelphia.
Several people with experience with the ColorSpan and with the H700UV say the Raster Printers is stronger, more robust, and has better print quality (this is not me, it's people with hands-on experience with both).
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| Nicholas Hellmuth (at the right) and Donnie Massari (at the left) with the Raster Printers Daytona H700UV at recent site visit in Philadelphia. |
Differences between Hybrid and Combo UV flatbed printer
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| Raster Printer Daytona H700UV exhibited at SGIA '07 |
A hybrid printer has a flat metal or plastic platen with pinch rollers working on grit rollers; a combo printer has a moving transport belt. So the Zund 250 Combi is actually a hybrid printer. And the Raster Printers Daytona H700UV hybrid is actually a combo printer.
The nearest competitor among Chinese printers is from the same factory in China. This is the former DuPont Cromaprint 18uv which is being repackaged by another company, DEC (Digital Equipment Company), and renamed the Legend 72HUV. LexJet prices this printer at substantially less than DuPont was trying to ask for the same printer (plus the new printer is improved over that offered by DuPont).
The other printer from Raster Printers, made in the USA, shows considerable potential as a dedicated flatbed system. This is the Daytona T600UV. (now the T660 since it has different printheads). It had the best print quality for 3 pt text of any printer at SGIA '07, even better than text from the Oce Arizona 250 GT. The Raster Printers costs almost half of the price of the Oce Arizona 250 (it is a smaller footprint).
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Nicholas testing the Daytona H700UV in California in early 2008. |
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Raster Printers Daytona H700UV showing some sample at FESPA Digital 2008. |
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Raster Printers Daytona H700UV is a rebranding of the Flora F1-180UV printer from China. The new name of the same printer is the EFI Rastek H700uv. SGIA trade show, 2008. |
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Most recently updated December 10, 2010.
First posted November 2, 2007. Updated Dec. 5, 2007, August 2008, January 12, 2009.
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We are adding new pages and new features every month so it is not always realistic to update old pages from past years. All the old equipment is still available on eBay, so we keep even our old pages. If you wish only the more up to date product reviews, these are in PDFs (not in the web pages, but in PDFs which are linked in the columns at the right of every page). Please realize that we tend to update a page (or a PDF) primarily when it is clear that our readers ask about this brand or model frequently. With over 45 brands of UV printers and over 200 models in the past ten years, it is not realistic to update pages on obsolete brands or unpopular models. If you prefer to speak with Nicholas Hellmuth in person about a printer, you can bring him to your company anywhere in the world as consultant. By later in 2011 each of our web sites will be in 36 different languages with instant translation (and better than old fashioned web page translators of several years ago). So far all the languages are available on www.FLAAR.org and www.3d-scanners-3d-software-reviews.org. Next will be our fine art photography, giclee, decor web site. |
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