Gandi 3300 solvent - wide-format-printers.org · The current FLAAR Report is an advanced Third Look...

July 2005Nicholas M. Hellmuth

FLAAR ReportsGandinnovations Jeti 3300(also Distributed by Oce)

Site-Visit Case Study

Together with ComprehensiveSolvent Ink Printer Evaluation

Caption for front cover photograph: Gandinnovations Jeti 3300 solvent ink printer.

FLAAR ReportsLAAR Reports CONTENTS

Licensing Information

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In some instances a license would be available to distribute outside your company, including in other languages.

To distribute this report without license violates federal copyright law. To avoid such violations for you, and your company, you can easily obtain additional copies from www.wide-format-printers.NET.

Introduction Ackowledgements Gandinnovations The Present Evaluation The Basics Structure Of The Printer Set-up Of The Printer: Practical Considerations Operating The Printer Specifi cations: Printhead Tech Support Cleaning, Maintenance Inks Substrates Image Quality Issues RIP, Driver, Color Management General Aspects Assessment Of Advertising Claims The Next Printer Conclusions Evaluator’s Observations Please add your own suggestions Bibliography Appendix A

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FLAAR ReportsLAAR Reports 1Solvent Ink SIte-Visit Case Study

Introduction

The current FLAAR Report is an advanced Third Look at a Gandinnovations JETi 3300 combined with a site-visit case study. There is a Jeti 3300 about half an hour from our university in Guatemala. The best way to describe what a “Third Look” is would be to list the stages and levels of our reports.

• FLAAR Fast Facts is the initial level report. This is when we see a printer at a trade show.

• FLAAR First Look is when we have the chance to look at a printer with additional time to learn more about it.

• A FLAAR Second Look is when we have been able to look at the printer over a period of about a year (at different trade shows).

• A Third Look level is when we have access to additional information, much more than is normally available to someone casually visiting a trade show.

• A Site-Visit Case Study is precisely what it sounds like. We go and visit a print shop that has the printer in-house. In the case of the Gandinnovations JETi 3300, we were present at the print shop the day it arrived in summer 2004. It was possible to take photos of the printer arriving and being taken off the truck and moved into the print shop (Appendix A).

In summer 2005 we returned a second time to interview the owner of the printing company, Jaime Freire. He is from Spain and has worked for years in wide format inkjet printing in Guatemala. His company does most of the inkjet printing for the Universidad Francisco Marroquin (FLAAR does in-house printing for the university, but we do not have solvent ink printers). Freire has about 60 employees and is one of the larger inkjet printshops in Central America. We have known the company for about fi ve years and have visited their installations many times. Our site-visit case studies of the Agfa Grand Sherpa (Mutoh Falcon II) and the Mutoh Toucan were also undertaken in his company.

Another source of information is that we learn a lot by carefully listening to others in the industry. If you ask a dozen people about the Mutoh Toucan, the answer is generally the same. If you ask a dozen people about the ColorSpan Gator, you get a consistent range of replies (we just fi nished a site-visit case study of the 72S; very positive comments). If you ask people about printers made by the Gandy brothers, you soon realize that their printers are special. So we have plenty of opportunities to learn things about printers that might not always, or easily, be available to a print shop owner or operator.

The other distinguishing characteristic of FLAAR Reports is they are based on comparisons. When you read a printer manufacturer’s own spec sheets, naturally they list only their own specs. But they don’t usually tell you how their printer compares with others. We will be adding comparative tables to the next update of this report, probably in the autumn.

Nicholas Hellmuth talking to Jaime Freire about the possessive, print shop’s Gandinnovations Jeti 3300 solvent ink printer.


Another useful bonanza of information are the User Manuals. Here you learn a lot about a printer that is not in the short spec sheets or typical two or four-page brochures. overall you learn more in a FLAAR Report than is in the spec sheet on its own.

We have a photo essay as an appendix “Arrival & Unpacking” because we did our site-visit case study the day the printer arrived in a fl atbed cargo truck. The following day we had to fl y to Greece to test a Kodak SLR/c 13-megapixel digital camera during the summer Olympics in Athens. While there we did a site-visit case study of an Encad 1000i and a Roland SolJet eco-solvent printer. A year later we are back in Guatemala to fi nish the research on the Gandinnovations JETi 3300.

The printshop where we did the site-visit case study has • an Agfa GrandSherpa (Agfa version of Mutoh Falcon II) • two Mutoh Toucan solvent ink printers, both of which have problems • an old HP DesignJet 3000-series printer (which they classify as a work horse that kept on working despite its years).

Ackowledgements

We thank Jaime Freire, General Manager, Tipos (Tipos Graphicart), Guatemala City, Guatemala, Central America, for sharing his years of experiences with solvent ink printers with us. We thank Hary Gandy for providing the complete User Manuals. So many other companies either make it diffi cult to obtain these manuals or make it a hide-and-seek trial and error to obtain them.

Gandinnovations

The Gandinnovation printers come in several sizes, including the 3 meter wide model 3300 and the 5 meter wide JETi 5000 (about 15 feet wide).

James Gandy, Hary Gandy, and the rest of their team have made sure the printer that carries their name has the best printheads (Spectra S class) to render high quality output.

This is not a low-end clone. There is no need to risk a Chinese clone printer from some uncertain source, when you can obtain top “Made in America” quality from Gandinnovations. Gandinnovations has offi ces in the US, Canada, Europe, and many other continents and countries. For example, Gandinnovations exhibits at the Dubai sign trade show.

Oce North America now distributes and services the Gandinnivations JETi 3300. However in Guatemala Oce does not handle this printer (at least not last year, when this printer arrived).

The Present Evaluation We distinguish comments by the editor (Nicholas Hellmuth) by color from the comments of Jaime Freire (who has one year experience with this printer in his building). We also utilize abundant information we have gathered from Gandinnovations and other sources.


THE BASICS

1. Brand name, model

Gandinnovations Jeti 3300.

2. What is the nature of the manufacturer? Is this company the manufacturer, distributor, or rebranding?

Gandinnovations designs and manufacturers the printers.

3. What other printers are the same or similar chassis?

The distributor for the Jeti 3300 in the US is Oce.

4. When was this model fi rst introduced?

The 16-foot version was introduced at SGIA 2003.

5. Is this still in alpha-stage, beta-stage?

This is a mature printer, though as we see with the site-visit case study, there are features that still need improvement.

6. How does this model compare with comparable previous printers?

James Gandy had the advantage of being able to design a new printer from scratch.

7. List price? What other costs are involved? What accessories are extra cost? Are these same or similar accessories included with other printers at no extra cost?

$225,000. Realize this is the price paid by a print shop in Guatemala. The prices in each country will differ.

A rewind unit is one option. But Freire indicated it was really an absolute necessity, in part due to the unwieldy size and weight of a 3-meter roll of heavy vinyl.

8. What other equipment is needed to operate this printer?

• Air-conditioning • a ventilation/air-extraction system • air compressor

are absolutely essential. The printer requires constant temperature and constant humidity. If you do not have total climate control, merely the change from daytime temperature to nighttime (and presumably back to daytime the next day) will cause problems in maintaining the print quality.

9. Does a complete set of full-sized ink cartridges come with the new printer, or merely a “starter set” that is not as full as a regular set?

Yes, a complete set of ink came with the printer. Only the substrate was a short starter roll; 3 meters wide, but not very long.

10. What space is needed to accommodate not only the printer but everything else to make the printer fi t into your workfl ow?

The User Manual provides a suggested room plan to indicate how much space is recommended on each side. They suggest allowing 5 ft on all sides, minimum, for servicing. The side where media is loaded may need more space.

Gandinnovations Jeti 3300 solvent ink printer.


The site-visit case study shows the printer backed up against a wall. Normally perhaps more space back there might be useful. The photos taken by Eduardo Sacayon of the printer in-situ allows you to see the useful space on both ends and the front.

STRUCTURE OF THE PRINTER

11. Is this printer made originally as a solvent ink printer, or is it retrofi tted with solvent ink? If retrofi tted, what was the original brand?

With a Scitex Vision, NUR, Vutek, or Gandinnovations printer, these are designed from the beginning to handle true solvent ink. But the Gandinnovations has a distinct advantage: they did not have to use a legacy chassis. The Gandy family have years of prior experience designing solvent ink printers in other companies. When they left those companies and founded their own, this was an opportunity to redo everything in a better manner from the ground up.

All the printers on a Roland chassis are retrofi tted for using solvent ink. This is a polite way to say they were not originally designed for using solvents. Mutoh Toucans were designed to use solvent ink but the Mutoh eco-solvent printers are retrofi tted.

12. Is width enough for target applications?

Since there is also a 5-meter model, you can have whichever width is best for your clients.

Freire says that he rarely does jobs that would require 5-meter width. He fi nds the 3-meter width is fi ne for his needs.

13. What is the solid-ness of the construction of the outer body? Is it plastic? Metal? Heavy gauge?

The physical printer is solid: you can see it by looking at it.

A year experience using the printer reveals its weak points: • Ink feeding system cannot get ink into the printheads fast enough to allow printing at faster speeds. Light Magenta and Light Cyan ink are especially vulnerable. • Another weakness is the occasional weak pressure in the take-up rolls (several parts of the printer are managed by air pressure). Then the tension is not really rigid, as though the take-up roll (“rodillo” in Spanish) was a bit out of shape or otherwise slightly deformed.

14. What are the specifi cations for the supports? Are the supports included or are they optional accessories?

Supports are included on virtually all printers other than some 24” Epson, Canon, or HP printers, which can sit just fi ne on a desktop.

15. What is available to assist with extracting the solvent ink fumes, ventilation ducts, etc.?

Gandinnovations provides suggested exhaust hook-up specifi cations. But these did not allow a satisfactory solution. Freire says he may have to redo his ventilation system now that he has more experience.

Nicholas Hellmuth asking owner Jaime Freire questions about Gandinnovations Jeti 3300 solvent ink printer.


16. What about heater or dryer? Is there a pre-heater and post-heater both, or just one? How many heaters does this printer have? Where are the heaters located? Is heater on top of, or under, the media? Can you turn them on and off? Can you vary their temperature? What is average monthly electric bill?

The ink tanks are heated; the entire platen and front where the freshly printed substrate comes out, are heated.

I estimate there is a pre-heating system as well. Since it is assumed that a grand format printer has the necessary heaters they are not itemized in the spec sheet. I was surprised to fi nd not much info on them in the User Manual either.

17. Are emergency buttons present, and if so how many, and where are they situated?

Not all solvent ink printers have any emergency stop buttons at all. The Gandinnovations Jeti 3300 has four emergency stop buttons and one warning beeper. The red buttons are located: • Left rear • Right rear • Left front • Right front

Jaime Freire said that “we never use the emergency buttons, but one time we tried it out of curiosity. It was a near disaster. The entire head assembly smashed into the end of the printer and make a loud crashing sound.”

The difference between turning the machine off with the switch and pushing the emergency stop button, is, lets say someone’s fi ngers, hand, or arm are caught in the printer somewhere. If you turn off the printer with the button, the fi ngers, hand, or arm will stay stuck. But if you press the emergency button, then the entire printer carriage is loose, and you, or the rescue team, can move it out of the way with your other hand (the one that is not crushed already!).

But when you press the emergency button, the inertia of the rapidly moving printhead carriage results in the carriage continuing on its path, unabated, until it crashes into the nearest end.

Any open printer, that does not have a lid, is susceptible to having someone (especially a visitor), get too close to the machine and get jewelry, clothing, or body parts caught. The Gandinnovations User Manual is very specifi c about the need to not get near enough to be in danger.

SET-UP OF THE PRINTER: PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS

18. What is the size and weight of the printer?

The crate is 76 inches high, 51 inches wide, 221 inches long and weighs 5000 lbs.

The printer itself is 60 inches high, 33 inches wide, and 206 inches long, weighing 3800 lbs.

19. How does the printer arrive? How many crates? Assembled or must it be assembled?

The printer appears to arrive in one main crate. The printer appears to be assembled already. See the photo essay at the beginning and end of this FLAAR Report, of the day the Jeti 3300 arriving in late summer 2004.

The User Manual indicates you should have a suitable forklift truck available.

Nicholas and owner Jaime Freire evaluating the Gandinnovations Jeti 3300 solvent ink printer.


20. What was the installation like?

This was the fi rst installation for the local Guatemalan crew. The printer started up just fi ne. After the fi rst or second week the power supply burned out. Other than that, the printer installation went well.

The problems were not in the installation, but in tweaking the printer to produce the maximum quality possible.

21. What are the electrical requirements of this printer? This means, will the building have to be rewired.

208-230VAC, 50/60 Hz, 50 A (25KVA), short circuit interrupt capacity 10 KA. A complete electrical diagram of the printer’s needs is readily available from the User Manual.

The print shop had to have the electrical company add extra power capacity, primarily to run the heaters on the printer.

22. Is a compressed air supply needed?

Yes, 1/4 inch air hose with quick connect female adapter; 100-150 psi dry air. Most print shops will need to add an air supply.

23. What heat and humidity limits should be noted?

68-86 degrees F, 20-30 degrees C.

But at issue is more than merely not having the printer in an area that is too hot or too cold. You need to have the temperature, and humidity, constant. The print quality reacts to changes in temperature and humidity, and for all we know, may react to changes in atmospheric pressure.

This particular day a hurricane was passing across Central America, Hurricane Adrian. So I would guess the atmospheric pressure will indeed fl uctuate, especially during the summer hurricane season.

24. Connectivity? Parallel, serial, SCSI, USB, FireWire?

100Base T Ethernet.

OPERATING THE PRINTER

25. Can the operator manage print jobs via the Internet with this printer?

Yes, this is one of the few printers that you can operate from another computer. HP has offered this feature now for several years as well. It is now becoming more frequent with other printers too.

Tipos does not operate the printer from a distance, but does have the Wasatch RIP upstairs. The printer is downstairs.

26. What is the level of ease of use? Can anyone use this printer or do they have to be trained and certifi ed? What about daily and periodical routine maintenance? Whereas any reasonably intelligent person can run the printer, to do any of the alignments I would prefer to have a person who is factory trained and who works with this printer on a daily basis. This is what I wrote after reading the User Manual. It is worth hearing what it is like to actually run the printer in the real world: very similar, namely, your operator will best be trained at the factory.

Gandinnovations Jeti 3300 solvent ink printer printing prod-ucts for clients.


It appears that the fi ne-tuning on this printer is special. This is not something that the operator’s manual can (so far) resolve. It requires experience, training, and having a special sense for tweaking sophisticated options.

SPECIFICATIONS: PRINTHEAD

27. What printheads are used? Xaar, Spectra, Epson, or other?

Spectra.

28. Is the brand and model of printhead identifi ed in the specifi cations?

The printheads are identifi ed as Spectra, but the model is not listed.

29. How many printheads per color? How many nozzles per printhead? How many nozzles per color?

Twelve printheads are present, so two per color in 6-color mode. 128 nozzles per printhead.

30. How is dpi presented (with what adjectives)? How is this dpi calculated? What is the true dpi of this printhead? If the spec sheet uses the concept of “perceived dpi” how they calculate perceived dpi instead of true dpi?

DPI is listed as 200 (200x300) but, as traditional, no defi nition is included of how many passes is needed to achieve any given dpi.

31. What is the drop size in picoliters? Is there variable droplet capability.

You can vary the head voltage, which results in an increased or decreased dot size. But nowhere is the actual drop size indicated.

32. How long do your printheads really last? Do you have that written in a warranty? If your longevity specs are in drops, please translate that into liters of ink or square footage of media.

“The cause of most print head failures is due to improperly shutting down the printer at the end of the production day.”

33. If this piezo head fails, who is responsible for paying for replacement heads?What are the most common causes of printhead failure? Which of these causes of failure are covered by the warranty? Which causes of printhead failure are not covered by the warranty? Is there a limit to the number of printhead failures that are covered over a unit of time. You need to check your warranty.

“We have not lost a head in the year we have had the printer. We bought two extra heads to have a reserve. This way, when a printhead needs to have the super-cleaning done, in the separate cleaning unit, we can put other printheads on the JETi and keep printing.”

34. Do you raise the heads manually, with click stops, or motorized? Is there an alarm system to stop the head from hitting substrate if head is not high enough?

“The head is raised with a motor, through the software.”

Nicholas Hellmuth and Jaime Freire evaluating the Gandinnovations Jeti 3300 solvent ink printer.


35. What is rated speed at

One pass, 1520 sq ft per hourTwo passes, 970 sq ft per hourfour passes, 655 sq ft per hourtwelve passes, 235 sq ft per hour

But the question is, what is the quality like at one pass or two passes? Taking the various speeds that your printer advertises, what is the quality or defects of the output of your fastest speed? What does the output really look like and is this sellable quality? Is the output at fastest (one pass) speed junk or throw away, or would a Fortune 500 client actually pay for it and be pleased.

Lower than expected print speed, compared with resulting print quality, is the aspect that has caused the aspect of dissatisfaction with the print shop owner. You do not get the advertised speed at the advertised quality. Freire reported the same problem with the Mutoh Toucan.

36. Do you print at 4 passes, 8 passes?

The spec sheet (in the User Manual) indicates you can print at 1 pass or up to 12 passes, at 1-pass increments all the way up.

“We print at 8 to 12 passes; can’t print at below 8 passes and get acceptable quality. Could not do vinyl adequately at 6 passes.

Yes, it is true that for a banner or billboard you don’t need fl awless quality. But the client comes to the shop, and holds the print in his hand, or looks at it on the fl oor, and if they see defects they don’t like it. So even if you would never notice these defects when hung up as a banner, what counts in some cases, is the image quality directly visible by the client.”

37. Do you print bi-directinonal or uni-directional? How does this choice affect speed and quality?

You can print both ways, but if you want the absolute highest quality, it is recommended to print uni-directionally.

“We print bi-directionally, always.”

I would estimate that printing uni-directionally takes too long and hence is not profi table.

38. Can duplex (double-sized) printing be accomplished? If so, how diffi cult is it really?

This is not intended to be a duplex printer.

TECH SUPPORT

39. Is installation included in the purchase price?

Yes.

40. Is training included in the purchase price? If so, what kind of training is offered? Where is this training offered?

The crew that installed the printer obviously stayed long enough to get the two operators up to speed on the JETi. I am guessing these are the same operators that run the two Mutoh Toucans (now only one, since he got rid of one).

A crew and a sturdy fork lift truck moving the Gandin-novations Jeti 3300 inside of FLAAR in Guatemala.


41. What is setup of the printer like? Can I do it myself? Does your cost include sending a person to set it up for me?

Due to the size and weight of this, or any comparable professional size solvent ink printer, you need a crew ready to receive it (and a sturdy fork lift truck). If there is no loading dock, then a crane will be the safest way to get it off the truck.

42. What is the rating of the usefulness of the Setup Instructions?

The instructions must have been good enough for the local crew to get the printer up and running without appreciable problems.

43. What is the rating of usefulness of the User’s Manual and other associated materials? If translated, is it literate in English?

The manual is written by a native (Canadian) English speaker. I noticed only two spelling mistake (at least only two stood out). The manual is excellent but three things would have helped me: • information on the heaters, • The pagination in the Contents is not always identical to the fi nal pagination, but since the order of the pages is the same, you can fi nd what you need. • an index would be helpful.

Other than that, I doubt you would get a manual this good with any cheap printer from Asia.

Note the difference between my comments (I don’t have to keep the printer running) and the real world, where the printer operators have to keep this machine not only running smoothly, but producing the high quality that Jaime Freire, and his clients, expect.

“There is no manual whatsoever to help learn how to set the parameters. Not even how to set the basic parameters, since if you change one parameter that affects the others. Here are the three parameters that condition print quality (and which impinge on one another). 1. What voltage should you set the printheads to? You can select from 90 to 95 volts. 2. What is the ideal temperature 3. Negative pressure of the overall system.

Installing the printer was simple. Using the machine was complex.There was no help on understanding the relationship of the values for each aspect of the equation that produced good prints.

The well-intentioned crew that installed the printer had also to learn everything from scratch. Finally the head tech support person was called in from Peru, and he fi xed things. But there was still no explanation, no manual, no step-by-step help. It was all intuition, twiddling with one factor, tweaking another factor, until the image quality was high. But you never really knew how much of which factor was the key.

44. What about follow-up training after you have had the printer a month and know enough to ask better questions? Is classroom training available? Is factory training available?

Mr Freire said he intends to send his printer operators to the factory for training. Although the training itself will be provided at no cost, the airfare, hotel, and meals will have a stiff price, since ideally you should train two people.

45. What on-line training is available?

We are not aware of any on-line training.

46. Where are spare parts warehoused?

We guess there are spare parts in Canada, USA, and Lima (Gandinnovations headquarters for Latin America).

The local dealer stores basic spare parts. We have not had much need for any spare parts other than a sensor, and the power supply.

47. How far does tech support person have to travel to reach my printer?

Local tech support in Guatemala City, Digitech, is about half an hour away. The main tech support for Latin


America is in Lima, Peru. Christian, the tech manager there, is rated as good.

48. Are dealers national (most companies) or regional (Roland allows a dealer to operate only within a limited regional area)? Do I have any choice in dealers? (How many dealers actually exist in my country?

In the US the distributor is Oce. Gandinnovations itself is in Toronto.

49. What sort of serious technical assistance is actually offered? Do the tech support operators read from a script and only get a real technician later on? Most manufacturers are cutting back on tech support and/or have people answering the phones who don’t themselves actually use or know the equipment fi rst-hand. They just attempt to read from a script.

Since the printer was relatively new to everyone (last year especially), the local tech support were fl edglings on the printer also. The one person, outside the company headquarters, that really knew how to make the printer run well, was the tech support manager in Peru.

50. What is the native language of the tech support person? What training does my tech support person have? Is he factory trained? In what language? How many tech support people are available to cover the US (or Canada…)?

Guatemala is a bi-lingual country; many business people also speak German. But although Tipos staff and executives are bi-lingual, it is really in Spanish that the operators need the training. Otherwise too much gets lost in translation, especially for the printer operators, since in many countries an operator would not tend to have any college education, and sometimes barely high school.

CLEANING, MAINTENANCE

51. How is head cleaning accomplished? Spray, vacuum, manual, other?

Spit, and spit-and-wipe. A light spit is possible, which avoids having to wipe.

52. How hard is it to cap the system and turn it off, for overnight, over weekend, while you go on vacation?

When I asked about how they capped the printer for nights or weekends, the printshop owner smiled and said “this printer works most nights and many weekends.”

The User Manual makes printer shutdown sound relatively easy: Flush the printheads twice. Lay out the cellophane. Coat the cellophane with solvent. Put the cap into the purge station. Raise the purge station into position.

53. How often does printer automatically do its own head purge to keep ink from clogging? How much ink is used per month?

The printer automatically moves to the home position and caps itself if it is idle. The interval is user-set. Norm is 15 minutes.

But you have to lower the purge station. Prepare the cap with cellophane. Cover cellophane with solvent. Move the capping station into proper position.

Your printer operator better be a sticker for detail and be trustworthy. You don’t want a slouch for this printer.

54. Upon start up, do you have to swab the heads? How long does this take? How messy is it? What cleaning materials are recommended? What is not recommended?

When you start up

• Wipe the faceplates and carriage plate • Flush printheads once • Prime for fi ve seconds.


• Put all the ink reservoirs to recharge • Prime the printheads a second time • Wipe the faceplates and carriage plate a fi nal time

After this, then perform the Color Bars Test Procedure. If there is uneven color coverage then fl ush appropriate heads, prime, and repeat the test.

It defi nitely helps to have these instructions in coherent English.

55. What daily maintenance is required?

When I read the User Manual the cleaning and all that seemed rather complex. But when I asked the printshop owner, he said “Not complicated, kind of easy, not a headache.” • Dust off the machine • Wipe down the encoder strip • Ink area should be cleaned up • Ink take up reels should be cleaned.

“The Mutoh Toucan had a complex system in comparison.”

Here is what the User Manual Recommends for daily maintenance. • Clean the encoder strip • Clean all rollers, but do not use solvents • Clean heater plates • Wipe down the purge area • Wipe down the cellophane covered capping tray. • Every four hours wipe the print head faceplate and carriage plate

Then you have to take care of the printhead with daily care. It is sensitive to being mistreated.

If at anytime the printheads have been capped (which happens any time the printer is not being used for 15 minutes), then you have to uncap them, perform one fl ush, prime all heads twice.

Once a week • bleed off excess air in ink fi lters. • If printer is out of operation, fl ush printheads ever seven days.

Once a month • Clean fan fi lters • Grease bearing block

Once a year • Check and tighten all bolts, screws, nuts • Inspect bearings and other moving parts for wear • Inspect rollers and printing surfaces

56. What happens if the heads clog due to lack of maintenance, say over a 3-day weekend or a holiday period?

When a head gets seriously clogged, the system comes with a special head cleaning machine, made just for these Spectra printheads. But you have to take the clogged heads out of the printer, and install them in the cleaning system, which is a separate unit dedicated to thoroughly cleaning the heads.

Evidently this has to be done often enough that Tipos has bought two extra heads so when some heads are being cleaned his crew can still keep the printer at work.

57. Does this printer stay on the entire time once it is turned on?

We keep the printer on the entire time.


INKS

58. What kind of ink is this? How many other kinds of ink are available? s this a lite-solvent or eco-solvent?? What is the chemical composition of the ink? Compare it with the ink for a Vutek, what are similarities and differences?

You can use the printer with pigmented solvent ink or oil dye ink. A different JETi model is outfi tted for dye sub.

59. How many colors?

Four or six. They use six colors at Tipos.

60. Does ink come in cartridges or bulk?

Since Gandinnovations is not itself an ink company, the ink comes in a size that the ink company uses. But this ink would be classifi ed as bulk. It is really only Mimaki, Mutoh, and Roland printers, with their heritage from Epson printheads that use the 220 ml cartridges. A cartridge manner of holding ink contributes to a high ink cost for those printers. True grand format printers use a bulk ink system.

61. What is ink cost per liter (not per cartridge, but per liter)?

Ink, delivered to Guatemala, costs $55 per liter. In comparison, Scitex Vision ink is $35; Bourdeux ink is $35-$40. But I still use Gandinnovations ink.

62. What kind of protective devices are on the ink system to keep you from using after-market ink?

There are no protective devices, but you lose your warranty if you use outside ink.

63. Which color of ink is used up the quickest?

Light inks are used the most quickly, especially light magenta and light cyan.

64. Is there any ink color or kind which gives a problem that you don’t get with the other color inks?

Yes, light inks give the most problems, namely getting enough ink into the printheads. But also when you are printing large areas of any one solid color, the system can’t get the ink into the printheads fast enough. You have to slow down the printer.

65. What colors can you achieve easily and nicely?

The banner the printer happened to be printing showed good solid blacks; the red looked excellent as well.

66. What colors are hard to achieve?

It is hard to achieve solid colors without lots of banding. You hav to slow down the printer or banding is excessive.

67. Is output splotchy?

The output looked better than Chinese printers with Xaar printheads.

Ink reservoir on the Gandinnovations Jeti 3300 solvent ink printer.


68. What about banding? What causes the banding?

Jaime Freire expresses his believe that one cause of banding that he has noticed are the printheads not receiving enough ink.

Banding can be caused by many factors. Many of these factors can be eliminated, if you take the time and effort to do so. Every printer, and brand of printhead, is a bit different, so there is no one general way to eliminate banding. But it is reassuring when a printer manufacturer recognizes banding as an issue, and lists the adjustments needed, in this case • Step adjustment • Tension adjustment • Air pressure to cylinder • Vacuum • Vertical head alignment

Fortunately you can’t see the banding at normal viewing distance, but companies that ignore banding suggest that they may ignore other image quality issues too.

69. Can you hot-swap ink?

Yes, you can hot swap ink. With a Vutek you have to stop the printer. Also, if the sensor in the Vutek detects air bubbles in the ink, the sensor stops the printing until the bubbles go away.

70. What ink-out alarm system exists?

Yes, there is an ink alarm or warning system.

71. Is the printer enclosed? How is the enclosure vented?

The printer is not enclosed.

72. What kind of ventilation is recommended?

Serious ventilation is recommended. When we visited the print shop they had built a special room to house all their solvent ink printers. My nose is very sensitive, and outside the room, in the rest of the building, I did not notice any solvent ink smell. When I visited a printing company in Toronto, their Scitex Vision or comparable grand format printer was cranking out truckside advertising panels. The entire building had a solvent odor that was oppressive, even in the offi ce of the President of the company.

At Tipos, inside the enclosed room, even with a hood and extractor, the solvents and VOCs were unbearable. The two printer operators wore gas masks (but I still would not like to be in their position, since their skin is also absorbing solvents).

“The printer requires a strong ventilation.

Nicholas evaluating the print for banding off the Gandinnovations Jeti 3300 solvent ink printer.

The alarm system to alert employees of low ink.

The Gandinnovations Jeti 3300 solvent ink printer inside of an enclosed room in a printshop in Guatemala.


We were not able to get useful information from the printer manufacturer, especially no plans or sketches, how to design and build such hood with extractors. We had a hood with extractor built by the local air-conditioning company, but the hood was too deep. It should have been shallower. You also need more than one air extractor duct; you need two or three.”

I would also point out that the main point where the solvents are coming off is immediately after the heated platen. This is where the kind of front hood, the kind made by PAT (a Canadian company) might be useful.

The solvents in this particular room were not just from the Gandinnovations 3300; there was an unhooded Mutoh Toucan printing 12 hours a day in the same room. This printer did not even have its own top on because the Toucan needed repair and maintenance so often they gave up having to unscrew and take off the lid; so they just keep the lid off permanently.

73. What about ink drying time? What about outgassing during this time?

The print is dry after it comes out of the heated platen area. The head drives off the solvent: you can even see the vapor rising off.

74. How much ink is used up during installation of the printer?

The printer arrives with a solvent inside the ink lines. When you start-up the printer, you have to use ink to force out all the solvent. So this does use up ink during installation.

75. Do you need to have a band of printable colors along the edge, outside the main printed area, to keep all printheads and their colored inks fresh and ready to print (so as not to dry out when not be used by the colors in the design)?

It is not necessary unless you happen to wish an occasional test strip for other reasons.

SUBSTRATES

76. What core diameter(s) will this printer accept? How about maximum roll diameter or weight?

3-inch core.

77. What size media is accepted?

Up to 3.2 meters, 10’6” wide, with max diameter of 12-inches.

A press operator wearing a gass mask when running the Gandinnovations Jeti 3300 solvent ink printer.

A view of other equipment the print shop has and of the enclosed room where the Gandinnovations Jeti 3300 sits.


“3.2 meters is fi ne for our normal work. We do not normally do billboards; here in Guatemala the typical billboard is 9 x 15 meters (roughly 9 x 16 yards).”

78. What thickness media is accepted?

Surprisingly this aspect is seldom listed in the spec sheet.

When you do change a media thickness, you need to perform a vertical head test.

79. Is printhead height adjustment available? Manual? Automatic? How much?

Most spec sheets neither tell you the height nor explain whether you can vary the printhead height. But halfway through the user manual, in the page on Head Height/Z Axis Setting, you learn that through the software you can raise the printhead carriage up or down. But no measurements of maximum head height or media thickness are given: only that the head should be 1/8th inch above the substrate.

80. Precisely how many kinds and types of substrates will work in this printer? And rate them by “work perfectly” through a continuum to “function but not fl awlessly.”

Tipos uses scrim vinyl (reinforced vinyl), banner material, pressure sensitive vinyl but only a little polyester. There is not much market for prints on fabrics in his area.

The User Manual lists • Reinforced vinyl • Pressure sensitive vinyl • Canvas • Mesh • Paper • Solvent based fabrics are mentioned later in the manual.

Jaime Freire says they use “4 to 6 different materials, perhaps 2 banner substrates and 2 vinyls.”

81. What kinds of substrates will not work with this kind of solvent ink? Does this printer’s ink require special media? Is it coated? Even if not coated, is it the really low-cost stuff, or is it limited (and hence by that very fact a tad expensive?)

Some vinyls simply don’t work; LG vinyl, from Korea, for example. Does not work.

82. What are preferred applications to print with this machine?

• Vehicle wrap, “we have our own installation team.” • Banners of diverse kinds. • Some polyester, but not much local market for this.

83. What applications are possible but mediocre?

Everything we have tried has worked well so far. But POP, anything that is viewed at a really close distance, is not appropriate for this printer. Not even at 12-passes can you get photo quality.

84. Front loading, back loading? Paper path? In the paper path, can you see wrinkles, incipient skews?

Media is loaded in the back.

A billboard outside of the printshop that was printed on the Gandinnovations Jeti 3300 solvent ink printer.


85. Can the machine handle two different rolls of media side by side at the same time?

Yes, indeed normally we use two rolls side by side, each of one meter in width.

86. Are edge guards present? Is there a vacuum system?

No edge guards; no vacuum system.

87. Is heating required?

Yes.

88. Can you print nested images of various sizes side by side?

Nesting is automatic in the sense you can activate this with the Jeti GUI.

Jaime Freire responds: yes, we don’t do this in the RIP, instead we do it in the JETi software: very easy, very fast.

89. Is there self-detection of media width?

Yes.

90. Is there a reliable counter of media length remaining?

No.

91. Is there manual feed capability of sheets (sheet feed)?

No.

92. What about the take-up reel? Does it work unattended? Can this printer be left to run overnight or otherwise unattended?

The User Manual suggests that for reasons of safety not to leave the printer unattended while printing.

Jaime Freire confi rms this: “No, not even a crazy person would try to let this printer run unattended overnight. One time I had my HP Designjet 3000 print overnight; it did okay.”

93. Does media skew when it is wound up?

A little skew, starts to get ripples after it is fi nished printing; you can see it. As though the system loses tension. But this problem may be caused by the liner (the paper on the back); may be caused by whether the self-adhesive material is good enough quality. Or may be caused by the substrate itself being poorly wound on its own roll to begin with.

94. What is the rated longevity? Is 3M warranty available? Is Avery warranty available? What are the full added costs in ink, media, and lamination for such a warranty?

Gandy is honest about longevity, and suggests a one to three year life. If top coated the life can be doubled. Since Gandy does not sell media or inks, the warranties depend on your media dealer and brand of substrate.

95. What kinds of media ought to be laminated? How often must you laminate?

Yes, we do have to laminate perhaps 10% of the vinyl. Pressure sensitive, cold lamination. We never laminate scrim banner material.

The vinyl we laminate is for murals on walls, fl oor graphics, and vehicle graphics.

The backside of the Gandinnovations Jeti 3300 solvent ink printer, where the substrates are loaded.


IMAGE QUALITY ISSUES

96. When the media fl exes, does the ink hold on? Stretch? Break with stretch marks? To what degree can we expect cracking of the resultant image if on a fl exible substrate?

Seemingly this is primarily a problem with UV-curable ink on fl exible substrates. With the Gandinnovations solvent ink, there is “no problem; we print and we install lots of vehicle wrap.”

97. Is text sharp or fuzzy? What is the smallest text that you can easily read? What about ink splatter, either where a dark color adjoins a lighter area, or with black text against a lighter background?

Text is acceptable, though you have to expect some splatter.

98. Can the system produce glossy fi nish? To what degree is surface glossiness an issue? Can you select glossy or matte or do you get what the system provides and that is all? If you get only one, or the other, which is it you get?

Finish depends on the material, more depends on vinyl. PVC banner, scrim banner material, is not a problem with glossy fi nish.

99. When printing on backlit, is the printer as good as, better than, or not quite up to par with, other major printers?

With solvent ink you use translucent vinyl or transparent substrates. You do not use backlit media with solvent ink. We use self-adhesive vinyl applied to milky styrene for backlit.

RIP, DRIVER, COLOR MANAGEMENT

100. Is a RIP included?

The spec sheet lists Wasatch SoftRip and Onyx PosterShop as though you could select which one you prefer.

“We selected Wasatch since the local Guatemala City tech support person knows Wasatch.”

101. Is a computer and monitor included (to run the RIP)?

You have to provide your own PC and monitor.

102. Is this RIP fi ne tuned for solvent ink in general?

Most RIPs are not fi ne tuned for any one printer other than having its canned ICC profi les for that printer.

The Gandinnovations Jeti 3300 solvent ink printer printing some material for a client.

Print operator sitting next to the monitor where the Wasatch RIP for the Gandinnovations Jeti 3300 is located.


103. Is this RIP fi ne tuned for this printer in particular?

The RIP merely has drivers for the Gandinnovations JETi 3300; otherwise it is a basic Wasatch RIP.

104. What about color management and ICC profi les?

You need your own spectrophotometer and ICC profi le software.

The print shop we inspected has all their ICC color profi les done by their tech support system, as part of the maintenance contract. They use Monaco Profi ler.

105. If image has to be tiled, can this printer produce accurate sizes that can indeed be tiled fl awlessly? Can it reproduce these accurate sizes and proportions all the time, every time?

Mutoh Toucan did not do well with having each tile an accurate enough size to overlay with the adjacent tiles. JETi does okay in most cases. In those cases where not, this may be the fault that the substrate was not adequate wound around its own core.

I mentioned that several owners of DGI printers mentioned that their tiling also did not work well. They tend to always blame it on the KoreaRIP. Freire said he doubted the problem was in the RIP, but more likely the feeding transport system of the media. If it is off just a fraction, then the panels will not tile properly.

GENERAL ASPECTS

106. Are any systematic mechanical problems documented? For example, consistent complaints. If you asked outside industry experts would they reply, “ah, yes, Printer XYZ is known for potential XYZ glitches.”

“Before I bought this JETi, I went to two locations to ask the owners, in Mexico and in Spain. The person in Mexico did not demand high quality, and as a result he said he had no problems.

The owner in Spain was content with the printer but evidently mentioned the problem in the transport of the wind-up rolls.

But otherwise, both the Spanish and the Mexican owners were content with the JETi. As a result Jaime Freire bought the JETi 3300.

107. Are you satisfi ed with this printer to the point that you would recommend it to someone else?

The printer is good enough, but has its faults. But I would recommend it as long as these faults are taken into consideration.

This JETi printer has the capacity to produce. The Toucan is not a commercial production machine; not even two of them. Having one JETi is better than having two Toucans. In distinction, the HP Designjet 3000 was a very solid printer. The Agfa GrandSherpa (a Mutoh Falcon II) has only a few faults.

108. If you are dissatisfi ed, what about the advertising or other claims made you buy this in the beginning, and why do you now feel disillusioned?

In one 8-hour shift I can produce about one complete billboard. The local billboard size is 9x15 meters. This is 135 square meters.

I can only print at about 30 sq meters per hour, at 8 passes. I can’t print at faster speed (6 passes) because clients won’t accept the output at 6 passes.


109. If you were to redesign this printer, or if you could suggest modifi cations, new features, what improvements would you recommend?

There was not time to ask this question, but after spending several hours questioning Mr Freire, I would calculate that his wish list for a next generation printer would be: • Comprehensive written description of how to tweak the system to produce the best quality that he knows the printer is capable of. • More realistic speed claims • Faster speed yet still with quality • Take up system that did not skew the material

ASSESSMENT OF ADVERTISING CLAIMS

110. How would end-user describe this printer? Easy to use, takes care of itself, does not require you to personally become a repair or maintenance technician?

Not diffi cult to use; easy to use. But very subjective with the adjustments. You have to spend a lot of time learning to fi gure out what adjustments affect what parameters for image quality.

111. Look at the ad claims for this printer in magazines and on the Internet. Identify what adjectives the ads for this printer use? Is it clear what they really mean in terms of usable features? What aspects of these ads will a buyer of that model soon fi nd out are slightly exaggerated?? In some ads it seems to be the goal to list as outstanding features precisely where the printer is weak.

The ads for this printer claimed it could produce quality at X-velocity. But you cannot produce the quality you need at these speeds. Other than that, the ad claims were okay.

The Next Printer

What is the next printer that you feel you need? What kinds of jobs do you need this printer to handle? What kind of inks and substrates do you need this printer to handle?

He explained in detail the next printer he was already thinking about (not a replacement for the JETi 3300; he plans to keep the JETi). He said he might be ready to buy by the end of the year. So when we return from FESPA trade show, we will send our reports to Jaime Freire in appreciation of him taking his valuable time to assist us and our university in learning about the Gandinnovations JETi 3300.

I fi rst asked why did they not buy two less expensive, less fast solvent printers, since two printers at $100,000 each can probably print more than one printer at $225,000? The answer was:

“We already have tried that: two Mutoh Toucans. We often need them to print 24-hours a day, but they keep breaking down. We needed an industrial strength printer. Better one really good solid printer than two that are not strong enough to hold up.

Then I asked what other printers were you looking at, and why did you not select them, and instead buy the Gandiinnovations JETi 3300?

“I was looking the Vutek, a 2.2 meter printer. But I decided on the Gandinnovations printer due to the following reasons: • the JETi appeared to be more solid; generally simple and solid • more features than the Vutek at the same price • local service in Guatemala

The major factor in the decision to buy the JETi was present of local service for the Gandinnovations product. Vutek would have had to send a person on an airplane anytime there was a problem.


Conclusions

Jaime Freire said his conclusions after having the printer for one year were • The printer is solid • Image quality is good • Easy to operate (other than lack of certainty about what to tweak) • Not at all as rapid as was led to believe by advertising claims • Ink fl ow is not adequate; the printheads get starved for ink. Trying to print over 40 square meters per hour the ink fl ow is not fast enough to keep up with the printheads. • Wind-up rollers have some issues.

Otherwise, in general satisfi ed, but “we wish we had the print speed that we expected.”

In late July Jaime Freire visited our offi ces at the university and he said “I am getting 10,000 square meters of printed material a month.” So you can see that this is a true production machine. I don’t think you would ever get that production out of any pseudo-solvent printer that uses Epson printheads. Epson printheads are inherently slow, and not originally made to handle solvent ink anyway.

Evaluator’s Observations

If the opportunity presents itself we will return to see how the printer performs after the staff takes factory training. We estimate that this additional training may improve the printer operator’s ability to tweak and fi ne tune the variables that lead to the quality that this printer is capable of.

We will also keep our eyes and ears open to learn how other printshops fi nd this JETi solvent ink printer.

Overall, when you ask around, you fi nd that Gandinnovations has a good reputation as a company.

If you are considering a printer over 3 meters in width, this class of printer is going to tend to be more robust than stretch models. Note the experience this sign shop has had with trying to use lesser printers for serious production.

Please add your own suggestions

Your comments,including constructive critique, is welcomed. Naturally we also like to know how our material has assisted your learning process. Our fax in Ohio is 419 372 8283.

Bibliography

The User Manual, spec sheets, and handouts as found at trade shows were used in preparation of this report. We also interviewed managers in the Gandy booth at trade shows over several years.

FLAAR

Text Box

Gandinnovations company is currently under CCAA protection. They are working hard to resolve the situation. As soon as more information is available we will update this note in the future.


Appendix A


Proprietary right notice © Copyright 2004-2005 FLAAR and Nicholas Hellmuth. First issued July 2005

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