GCC SignArt Nautilus offers competition to Matan Sprinter B

Matan Sprinter at ISA Tradeshow

GCC SignArt Nautilus NL-600 is a 24 inch; Nautilus NL-900 prints up to 34”. Both appear to use the same ribbons, leading me to guess it is a narrow ribbon. However it is not immediately clear what is the width of each ribbon. On the Roland Color CAMM PC12, narrow ribbons lead to visibly distracting banding. People often complain about such defective output from the Roland Color CAMM system. Even at trade shows I see the horizontal banding lines on the Roland Color CAMM printers. I have never seen a GCC SignArt Nautilus at any tradeshow, so I can’t yet judge.

The Matan Sprinter B avoids the banding issues by having giant ribbons the full 36” width of its massive printer. But the printer, and ribbons, are priced accordingly. For 12” or 16” widths you can try the Matan Spark 1612.

Summa has an industrial strength thermal printer but it prints with a structured dot technology that leaves a noticeable imprint of dot pattern, like offset printing sort of. Of course you can’t see it when viewing at a distance, but close up the dot pattern is evident.

So basically you get what you pay for. Matan is the most expensive, yet what we have seen, the most beautiful output. However we have spoken with a company that used the Matan, and you might wish to order the FLAAR reports on dye thermal transfer printers, under the Premium report series on Sigs, before you put lots of money into any dye sublimation printer.

Now, in 2007, there are alternatives to dye thermal transfer technology

For some uses, you may require dye thermal transfer ink systems. But inkjet inks and printheads are getting so much better than older technology that dye thermal is waning. Even UV-cured inks and printheads have improved to the point that the output is less grainy and has a better color gamut. We have over 90 publications on UV-cured inkjet printers, available from www.wide-format-printers.NET, in the link to UV at the right.

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