What is the typical life span of a Versacamm Printheads

Cre8tivi tee said:

Hello Everyone,

I am considering buying a roland versacamm and have heard horror stories of regular blocked print heads and wasted ink, through ink cleaning cycles.

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Our VP540 is coming up on two years old and still on it's original print heads, I think most of the clogging issues is people using cheaper non-oem ink, we were warned against using non-oem ink by several people when we bought our printer.

Cre8tivi tee said:

As I only cater for the t-shirt side of the industry, I am sure I would not use the machine enough, to justify buying one soley for this use. Though I have heard how reliable they are, I am worried about the damage I could cause through little use and the cost for block printheads and servicing.

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Very reliable.....never a clogging issue, but to use a Versacamm to print tee shirt vinyl IMHO is a waste of the printers capabilities, that said we use to do printed vinyl shirts, never liked the feel (hand) and bought a DTG printer to do tee shirts. Our Roland spends it's days printing vinyl signage, decals, banners, vehicle wraps, etc which is again IMHO what the machine was meant to do.

Cre8tivi tee said:

Another issue I have is washability, as examples of t-shirts I have washed using this technology (C-print Transfer Vinyl) don't seem to wash any better than the small format inkjet transfers, such as Xpres Inkjet Dark, Magic Touch OBM, etc.

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Sorry can't help you here......all I can say is all the printed heat applied vinyl we applied to shirts always washed great, I still see some of the shirts we made over a year ago and the colors are bright with little or no fading.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the quick reply and insight, are there any other opinions out there, the more the better.

Cheers.

For larger front designs for t-shirts, a DTG does give a softer feel than a Versacamm print, however print/cut film for apparel is very popular for performance fabrics, team uniforms, small to mid sized logos and designs on t-shirts and polos, jackets, bags etc. It was created for signs, but tons of people are using it successfully to decorate apparel.

I have had an SP30o for almost 5 years with no print head replacements and no printing issues. Keep it clean and calibrated and it will last forever!

All previous post I agree with. ALso DO NOT listen to the sales repsa bout the other "cheaper inks" we changed over after a year or so, 3 month in the heads were clogging real bad, forever cleaning heads etc etc.
Git Roland out to change it all back over (cost a fortune) needed new heads because of damage from the more aggressive inks etc but once done rume perfect for past 3 years. SP540.

Stick to original inks, and service regular..= problem solved

John

Our Roland runs at least 9 hours a day SOLID. No head issues so far. I'll only EVER use Roland inks....if your going cheap on ink....your not charging enough for your product. I use MAX IMPACT on everything I print. Comes out looking amazing....and customers are very happy. We use it for T-shirts....banners....vehicle wras....decals...and a ton of other things.We're in the rocess of selling our screen rint and embroidery business...but KEEPING THE ROLAND !!!!