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I am on the market for a printer cutter. I have been doing as much research as possible and I thought I settled on the BN-20. Even though it is slow, I figured we would use it mostly, if not exclusively for t-shirt transfers. I’ve heard rumors going around that the BN-20 (and soon the vs-300i) may soon being discontinued since Roland is moving on from their print heads and going with the flex fire heads on each new model. I was kind of thrown for a loop when stahls took down the BN-20 from their website. I was told that it was discontinued (not sure if just by stahls only since I just saw the BN-20 at Roland’s iss booth.)
I was about ready to go with the SG-300 but after finding as much as I could from here and signs101, people are not really happy with them especially with tshirt transfers. Some are even going so far as to say not to buy one, but I’m not sure if it was more because the machine was defective or they really aren’t very good for our industry.
So I want to see what everyone here would recommend for us. Is anyone successfully and happily using a TrueVis for heat transfers?

Do we go with the BN-20 still? If stahls discontinued the BN-20 does that mean that they may stop selling their material at 20”?
Do we go with the TrueVis Sg-300? Or do we go for a refurbished SP-300i? Any other suggestions?
Thanks!

 

[shooin]

This sounds a lot like my question. What did you decide on? or is there anyone out there who can offer any suggestions.

Thanks

 

[PatWibble]

This sounds a lot like my question. What did you decide on? or is there anyone out there who can offer any suggestions.

Thanks

Although print quality is better I have been told that printers using TrueVis ink were problematic when used for garment vinyl. The washability of the ink isn't as good as the older Eco Sol max.


Could be better to stick with older style Rolands. Also Mimaki make some competitievly priced mid sized machines ( CJV150-75 and CJV150-107). The CJV150-107 is good value - 44" at a similar price to Roland 30" printers.

 

[tkster95]

While considering the bn-20 I too saw the TruVis printers but haven't given them much consideration because I saw the print resolution for every printer in the line up was only 900x900 while the bn-20 was up to 1440x1080.

I can imagine that a 900x900 is just fine when you're printing a big image like the larger format TruVis printers are capable of, but when printing smaller items like tshirt transfers, stickers etc I figured the bn-20 would offer a better image because of the higher resolution. Although, i'm not sure how the new ink technology stacks up to the old as far as look goes, maybe the 900x900 TruVis ink is better than the 1440x1080 eco-solvent at any size... idk. Has anyone seen the two inks side by side on a similar size printed image that can comment on which is better?

Haven't seen much talk on here about the TruVis series. I did read a few posts with people saying the TruVis ink wasn't as durable as the eco-solvent ink (fading issues and the ink tends to come off easier when scratched)... but that could be paper issues, heat press issues etc so not sure what to think.

I also noticed that a few suppliers don't carry the bn-20 anymore. Like you said that is a bit concerning. Maybe they have a smaller format TruVis printer their getting ready to release. Has anyone heard anything about that by any chance?