Question about Replacing or Sidegrade Epson 4000 for Film to Screen Printing

[skirsch]

We primarily do our screen printing through a CTS machine, however as a backup process we print Inkjet to film and through some photo/light sensitive process that is transferred onto a screen (Sorry, I'm the IT guy, not in textile productions!). The Film-to-Screen process is also used for four-color processing, as our current (soon to be old) CTS machine does not do that... or it doesn't do it to our liking. So even though we are using a Epson Stylus 4000 series printer I'm posting this inquiry here in Screen Printing instead of DTG as it seems more appropriate.


Anyways, both of our Epsons have died. Heavily mechanical issues (both are throwing 1001D, 10033 and 10035 repeatedly, if you can get one to go away another comes up). I've swapped park sensors, carriage motors, belts, and the pump cap assembly, I've cleaned and re-greased the roll bars and carriage wheels. No luck. We recently sent both to an authorized refurbishing due to clogging in the print head and nozzles. We didn't get more than 4-5 months out of them since and we'd rather just purchase something else - even it turns out to be another known-good 4000 series - rather then dump more money into these. They've both been running here for about 10 years and frankly the maintenance on these has always been pretty poor. We don't use them a lot. They sit. We make sure to cycle ink, run test prints and clean them regularly, but they are in our art dept and art dept personnel were the ones charged to clean them. We did get 10 years out of them, so...


I'm looking to get a recommendation on a new printer. These 4000s are probably more than we need for how much we use them, but we need them because if the CTS machine goes down we cannot lose our ability to make new screens. I've been charged with finding out if there is a model we can get where we wouldn't sacrifice quality of the print, or size - we do use the 17" width, but may be a either 1) cheaper (though this is less of a concern) or 2) more manageable when it comes to maintenance and how well it 'sits'. We only need to print one color, the black photosensitive ink. We do prefer to use a roll of film, so a roller and a cutter are necessary. We never change inks, never use regular paper, etc.


If I'm going to loose quality or the other features I mentioned, then we may just get another 4000 series. However, if you folks might have a recommendation that might sound like its more suitable for our needs I'd appreciate the input. Thanks!

[Sbrem]

What size films do you need? We ran 13 x 19 on our Epson 1400's, and 3800 (we print of the roll on a newer T3270) which can go wider. There are lots of explanations on the site here if you search. You may need a RIP to convert the grayscale channels to halftones, but as an IT guy, Ghostscript might be right up your alley and less expensive that other commercial scripts. With a commercial RIP like AccuRIP, you can run black ink in one cartridge, and cleaning fluid in the others, and just print from the black head. If you have to do a head cleaning, you wouldn't be eating up expensive ink. There's a ton of info here, so grab a beer and sit down and read...

Steve

[blue moon]

Long story short, find a used EPSON 4880.
If looking for new, EPSON has two new printers designated for positive printing. Steve mentioned the T3270, and I think the other one is T800. I would probably still rather use the 4880, but some ppl are not in a position to buy used.

Pierre

[Sbrem]

Since our 3800 recently died, (it was our backup) I'm also keeping an eye open for a 4880, it's good advice.

Steve

[Maxie]

I’m getting good results using a EPSON T3270 with Accurip Black Pearl.

[StinkyDaddy]

I have two 4000's, one I use and I keep the other as a backup. I keep my backup loaded with windex in all the carts and lines. Just load a set of carts with windex and run an initial fill. When I need it, I load the black cart and do an initial fill and run a nozzle check. It's usually good to go from there. If you have trouble with clogging it may be the capping station. Here's a vid on cleaning that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNlYR1SKONI&index=52&list=FLtsMZraLppRbdYRrutwDV5w&t=1s
Hope that helps,
Wm.

[StuJohnston]

Are the bigger 880 series epsons generally good? I have been on the lookout for a printer and wanted something newer than a X600.

[Sbrem]

Are the bigger 880 series epsons generally good? I have been on the lookout for a printer and wanted something newer than a X600.

The P880 is slow, so slow that we went with the extra cost for T3270. We've had it for a year, and so far, no problems... check out how many 13 x 19 films the P880 can output in an hour, I think it's like 4, pretty damn slow...

Steve

[StuJohnston]

Are the bigger 880 series epsons generally good? I have been on the lookout for a printer and wanted something newer than a X600.

The P880 is slow, so slow that we went with the extra cost for T3270. We've had it for a year, and so far, no problems... check out how many 13 x 19 films the P880 can output in an hour, I think it's like 4, pretty damn slow...

Steve

Sorry, I meant like the 7880, 9880 or 11880. I figured I'd ask since the 4880 was recommended.