Eleven Factors to Consider When Choosing a Wide-Format Inkjet Printer

During the “Wide-Format 101” seminar on Wednesday, Travis Barcelona of Nazdar SourceOne (Booth 2941) talked about some important — and often overlooked — factors to consider when buying wide-format inkjet printers.

What type of machine should I purchase? That will depend mostly on the types of substrates you use most often, the range of colors you need to reproduce and the durability requirements of your clients.Your choice of machine will also be dictated by the print standards you need to achieve or if you need to laminate your prints to withstand abrasion.

What distributor will you buy from? Unless you’re placing an order for $500,000 or more, you’ll buy your printer from a distributor. Not all distributors are alike. There may be significant differences in the qualifications of their color-management experts, installation technicians, etc. The type of technical support and training they provide after installation will also differ.

What type of printing environment should I maintain? You will need a clean, temperature- and humidity-controlled environment with enough space to load and unload materials and store the materials in the same environmental conditions as your printer.

What type of air and power are required? Check the equipment data sheet to see what type of power is required. If the equipment was manufactured overseas, it might be using a different voltage than your shop uses. You may also want to protect your equipment from problems caused by power surges.
Consider an uninterrupted power supply, power conditioner or industrial surge protector.

What is included in the training? In addition to showing you how to operate the equipment, will the distributor teach your employees about how to maintain the equipment, use the RIP software and create color profiles? Does the training last a few hours or a few days?

Who will service the equipment? Are trained technicians available nearby to service your equipment quickly? Or will they have to fly in to make a visit? Find out if your distributor or manufacturer can help train someone on your staff to fix some common issues.

What type of operator will be required? Most wide-format printer operators today should not only be mechanically inclined, but also software savvy. They should know the basics of color management as well as RIP software. A good operator will be clean and organized and interested in continuous learning. Well-trained operators are less likely to leave if you pay them well.

What is the maintenance schedule like? What tasks do you need to do daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly?

What consumables do you need to keep on hand? Your most expensive consumable will be your printheads. They will have to be replaced every one to three years. Items to keep in stock include ink dampers, captops, wipers, maintenance solutions, gloves, lint-free cloths and lint-free swabs. Find out how long it will take to get parts and service.

What does the one-year warranty cover? Most warranties only cover machine defects, not operator errors like feeding the wrong thickness of material through the machine or trying to use the machine to print something it wasn’t designed for.

What calibration tools do you need for the printer? If your printer doesn’t come with calibration tools, you may need to consider the cost of a spectrophotometer, radiometer, densitometer and verification software when purchasing the equipment.

Print speeds and operating costs aren’t the only things to think about when buying a wide-format inkjet printer. You must also think about what will be required to keep it in peak condition over the length of time you plan to use it.