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Dye-sublimation to fabrics is growing aspect for soft signage
At any trade show and every mall you can see soft signage. At the airport, out on the streets, there are banners made from fabric or fabric-like materials.
It’s the same with solvent-ink signage: it’s everywhere, outside and even inside.
Because signage can be produced both with solvent and dye-sublimation inks, it’s a clever idea to have a single printer that can handle both kinds of ink.
But dye- sub ink is oil-based and solvent ink is obviously solvent-based, so they don’t mix well in the a shared ink system. You would have to drain and flush (very expensive). So several companies have developed a solvent-based dye-sublimation ink. With these ink formulas the dye-sub ink can be let into the ink system without flushing; all you need to do is switch ink channels and have the dye-sub ink fill the system. Once one ink is out and the new ink is into the printheads, you can print. Takes less than 15 minutes.
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Actually the changeover from solvent ink on the EFI VUTEk 3360 grand format printer to dye sublimation inks is closer to less than 10 minutes. I actually tested this in the demo room to check on the advertising claims. If you are a regular reader of FLAAR you realize we don’t accept advertising claims until we can see things work with our own eyes.
The easy change from one ink to another is because all the dye sublimation ink lines are already attached, and already filled with ink. You only have to switch the ink through the last 2 feet of the ink lines (into the printheads).
So you don’t have to purge one ink out of the entire system (many meters of ink lines). Remember, this printer is designed from the ground up with dual 8-lines (16 ink line).
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Although I have seen these printers at trade shows, in order to do test prints I spent a day at the VUTEk demo center, adjacent to their factory. Now we have a preliminary report on our initial findings.
Since FLAAR Reports are inherently comparative: we compare prices, compare specs, compare results in the real world, next step is to compare with the dye-sublimation switching system of the HP Scitex.
Comparative Comments for alternative solutions: Comparing cost, performance
If you wish to do dedicated dye-sub printing, the options are many: DuPont Artistri 2020, Gandinnovations Jeti 3312 and 3318 DS (they have a new model now also), VUTEk FabriVu 3360, L&P Virtu TX. The Noritsu Mytis is another technology. The most direct comparison would be the HP Scitex XL1500 DS. We are in the process of learning about the HP Scitex XL 1500 DS change-over from dye sub to solvent inks so we can compare. But it will be tough to beat the ease of changing on the VUTEk 3360.
First posted September 2007.
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| Kwangko Sprin |
Eco-Solvent Printers |
| Gerber Jetster |
| Kimoto Philyrassystem |
| Mutoh Phoenix |
| Mild-Solvent
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| Bio-Solvent
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Air Purification Solvent or UV Ink Odors |
| Island Clean Air ICA |
| PAT Technologies |
| Latex Water-Based Ink replaces Solvent ink |
Interesting inks & |
| 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.
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