Nicholas Hellmuth

FLAAR ReportsJULY 2003

Evaluation of two DGI Rex Solvent Ink Printers

Introduction 1Initial comments by the print shop owner 1Specifications: Printhead 2Specifications: Printhead; Testable aspects 2Specifications: Set-up of the Printer; Tech Support 3Specifications: RIP 4Specifications: Ink 5Specifications: Media 8Specifications: Machine Build and Mechanics 9Assessment of Advertising Claims 10Comparison with Piezo printers 10Comparison with HP DesignJet 10Conclusions 11Appendix A 12Please note 12To obtain license to reproduce 12Advisory 12Acknowledgements 14

Caption for front cover caption: DGI REx solvent printer at Carteleras Panoram-icas, sign shop

FLAAR Reports CONTENTS

FLAAR Reports 1Solvent Series

Introduction

Two years ago several companies began to attempt to retrofit Roland printers to accept solvent ink. Although those early after-market concoctions were not very successful, they showed a pent-up need for solvent ink printers which cost less than a Vutek, Nur, or Scitex Vision. Already by last year the real boom continued in solvent ink printer sales. The Mimaki JV3 took off for relatively record sales. A host of companies then attempted to create a lite solvent; some called their recipe “eco-solvent.” Although these varied from mild failure to near disaster (for some clients who bought them), it continued to dem-onstrate that there was a market for a $30,000 solvent ink printer.

Today (late 2003) the Mimaki JV3 continues to be the best of the name-brand solvent ink printers in the $30K range. Mutoh Toucan is over twice the cost. Into this void Infiniti and DGI have entered the market. At present the Infiniti does not have the reputation for solidness of quality of the DGI. As a result DGI has quietly taken over markets throughout Latin America and Third World countries worldwide. These were previously the domain of Arizona printers.

Since most printers from mainland China are not yet sturdy enough, and lack adequate ser-vice, tech support, and spare parts facilities, the market continues to go to DGI. When we asked around what kind of solvent ink printers were in Guatemala, we learned there were about 2 Mutoh Toucans, zero Mimaki that we could find (mainly due to lack of a good dealer and local support or familiarity), three or four older Arizona printers, two or three older and smaller Vutek printers, but 46 DGI printers.

As a result we made the effort to find and inspect two sign shops. One had a single DGI Rex; the other had two DGI Rex solvent ink printers.

To our knowledge these are the first actual-factual end-user interview-format reports on these solvent ink printers. Our purpose is to assist end-users, especially in countries outside the USA, learn about what works for other sign shops.

Here in the USA it is probable that the Mimaki will continue to be a leader in solvent ink printers because of its superior brand name and reputation for solid engineering and construction. But in countries where lower purchase price is more important, the DGI Rex appears to be a viable printer.

Interview and Evaluation

Brand name, model DGI Rex, no model numbers on front panel. This print shop had two. There were only a few differences between them; one being manner of accessing the ink. One model did not have ventilator, but owner said they don’t work adequately anyway.

Year purchased, two purchased Dec. 2002. One was reconditioned; the other was new.

When was this model first introduced? We do not know the model history of DGI, as their printers only came on the American scene recently.

DGI REx solvent printer

FLAAR Reports 2Solvent Series

What is profile of the printshop in which this printer is now installed? Professional print shop for banners, billboards, POP, and photo quality also (with thermal printhead machine). Some companies prefer that their competitors not know precisely what printers they have, hence we do not identify this company other than to say that we have known the owners now for about 2 years.

What other printers do they have? Also have a wide format printer, aqueous inks (both dye and pig-mented), with thermal printhead.

Size, shape, technology, mechanical

Is this printer made originally as a solvent ink printer, or is it retrofitted with solvent ink? If retro-fitted, what was the original brand? Editor’s note: History of DGI printers is not widely known. How-ever I am guessing these printers were designed to handle solvent ink.

Is width enough for target applications? I asked if the owner might prefer the wider SGI VistaJet. Owner stated clearly that the width he already had was ideal. He said that if the width was any wider it would take two people to hold up each panel as they applied it to the billboard fixture. As it is now the under 60” width can be held by one person with his arms outstretched. Another reason he was content with the current width and did not want a 90” machine is because 90” material does not come to Guatemala.

If image has to be tiled, can this printer produce accurate sizes that can indeed be tiled flawlessly? Can it reproduce these accurate sizes and proportions all the time, every time? Yes, but you have to stay with the same roll. I did not fully understand it, but the RIP software measures the weight of the remaining media. If you change the roll in the middle of printing a dozen tiles for a large billboard, the printer evidently gets indigestion and can not measure things properly. The other owner of a Rex also had problems with Korea RIP with being imprecise in making tiles that align with each other.

Specifications: Printhead

What printheads are used? Xaar, Spectra, Epson, or other? Explain the pros and cons of Epson, Spec-tra, or Xaar heads relative to their ability to handle solvent inks. If Xaar heads define how long they last compared with Epson or Spectra heads. Xaar. Note: based on asking around at tradeshows and among users, Xaar heads need to be replaced more often than either Epson or Spectra heads.

Is the brand and model of printhead identified in the specifications? We don’t yet know.

How many printheads per color? How many nozzles per printhead? How many nozzles per color? We don’t yet have the specs available as we write this.

Dr. Nicholas Hellmutha nd sign shop owner

FLAAR Reports 3Solvent Series

What is the true dpi of this printhead? How is this dpi calculated? Shop owner guessed 200-300 dpi. It is rare that a manufacturer reveals the true dpi, much less how they calculate the dpi that they do tout.

How do you calculate perceived dpi that you use instead of true dpi? This topic did not enter into the conversation but shop owner clearly stated that quality depended on the kind of media. They use “lona” (which he translated into English as banner material).

How long do your printheads really last? Do you have that written in a warranty? If your longev-ity specs are in drops, please translate that into liters of ink or square footage of media. The shop prints one roll every day (100 meters). That is roughly 150 days since he bought it. Has not had a single head fail. Editor felt this was a record, so owner explained why he had such a situa-tion. It may depend on condition of where the machines are situated, and cleanliness of the air. The toxic fumes stay in the room. He has an extractor which is beginning to work. He said that ink may condition whether the heads fail or not. He has tried three different inks. Some ink was terrible. He also said to keep dust out of the room. He also felt that perhaps it helped to have the heads printing all day long. However otherwise at night he turned the machine off, after cleaning it.

If piezo heads fail, who is responsible for paying for replacement heads? Owner has to pay for replace-ment heads.

What does each printhead cost to replace? Distinguish price for the printhead and also price for the service technician to come and do the installation if it is not user-replaceable? We don’t yet know.

How often can you expect head strikes? What causes them? Who will replace the printheads and at whose cost? Do other printheads have the same frequency of head strike failures as yours? My impres-sion was that head strikes were not an issue.

What is rated speed at � One pass� Two passes� 4 passes

What is the quality like at one pass? Taking the various speeds that your printer advertises, please explain 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 speed junk or throw away, or would a Fortune 500 client actually pay for it and be pleased. 2 passes for billboard printing; 4 for banner printing. 6 passes gives oversaturation; not noticeably better quality anyway, and much slower. So they did not use 6 pass.

How does this company describe photo-realistic? Air-brush photos from a LAC printer are not photo-realistic. Photos only acceptable from this machine if viewed from a distance. With the Rex he printed only for outdoor, not as much for inside viewing.

DGI REx printer at sign shop

FLAAR Reports 4Solvent Series

Can duplex (double-sized) printing be accomplished? If so, how difficult is it really? Note: it is not to be expected that a normal printer can accomplish duplex printing.

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

What about solid-ness of construction of the printer? Owner felt printer was solidly constructed; had no complaints.

What accessories are extra cost? Are these same or similar accessories included with other printers at no extra cost? Explain why this is any different than selling a car without tires, or a computer without a monitor? This subject did not come up in discussion; we don’t know of any accessories since these printers are not well known in the USA.

Tech support

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? One and a half days; training was much much better than that provided by other companies for other brand of printer that he had.

Where are spare parts warehoused? Miami.

How far does tech support person have to travel to reach my printer? DGS in Miami is owned by a Peruvian, so tech support sometimes comes from Lima.

Is training necessary? classroom training available? Is factory training available? Evidently no one felt more training was necessary, though it was clear that shop crew had to learn lots by trial and error.

What on-line training is available? No.

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? The most popular place to buy printers for Guatemalans is in Miami.

Cleaning, maintenance

How is head cleaning accomplished? Spray, vacuum, manual, other? Before shutting down clean heads, inject solvent. Evidently just takes a few minutes, hence is not worth leaving printer on overnight when it would spit ink often enough to keep from clogging up.

Does this printer stay on the entire time once it is turned on? No, you can clean and shut down for over-night, weekends, and Christmas holidays.

How hard is it to cap the system and turn it off, for overnight, over weekend, while you go on vacation? Very easy to clean and shut down.

DGI REx solvent ink printers

FLAAR Reports 5Solvent Series

How often does printer automatically do its own head purge to keep ink from clogging? How much ink is used per month? You do a thorough cleaning before shut down. During the day the machine has a briefer cleaning ritual. If you print 4 meters, you may need to do a quickie cleaning.

Upon start up, do you have to swab the heads? How long does this take? How messy is it? What clean-ing materials are recommended? What is not recommended? They said that in the morning just turn it on and start printing.

What happens if the heads clog due to lack of maintenance, say over a 3-day weekend or a holiday period? Evidently so far the printer has been well behaved over Christmas and other holidays. “You can leave it 20 to 30 days shut down if you run the cleaning solvent through the heads.”

Inks

Does ink come in cartridges or bulk? Liter containers.

What kind of protective devices are on the ink system to keep you from using after-market ink? No protective device; you can try out any ink you wish to.

What is ink consumption at full coverage (no unrealistic 5% coverage)? Discussion did not touch on this subject.

What is ink cost per liter (not per cartridge, but per liter)? $100 per liter.

Which color of ink is used up the quickest? Depends on the image, but magenta is usually used the fastest. Black ink may last three days (they print 100 meters per day on average).

How many colors? Just four.

Is there any ink color or kind which gives a problem that you don’t get with the other color inks? No.

How many kinds of ink are available? DGI ink is good. Ink from Tubelite is not so good.

Is this a lite-solvent or eco-solvent?? What is the chemical composition of the ink? Full solvent ink. Composition not noted.

Is output splotchy? Yes, with banding too.

What about banding? What causes the banding? Much discussion over what caused the band-ing. Different substrates, thickness (which made some substrates further form the printhead; or substrates with slippery surface.

What kind of ink is this? Compare it with the ink for a Vutek, what are similarities and differences? Discussion did not touch on this subject.

Can you hot-swap ink? Yes.

Printing on DGI REx solvent printer

FLAAR Reports 6Solvent Series

What ink-out alarm system exists? No.

What environmental restrictions exist on this printer’s ink in Europe? In California? Discussion did not touch on this subject.

Is the printer enclosed? How is the enclosure vented? Vented but it is useless. Even if the machine were enclosed it could not fully work because the odor happens when the material comes out the bottom. There is no way to enclose the entire floor where the printed material comes out.

If your printer cleans its heads with liquid money (in other words if it uses costly ink to push impurities through the heads), why does your print head technology allow such defects? What if one purge does not work? How many purges does it take? How does this affect total cost of ownership. Discussion did not touch on this subject.

How much ink is used up during installation of the printer? If a piezo printer, does that mean I have to buy practically a complete set of ink within a few days of paying off the cost of my printer? Does that mean ink will end up costing more than my printer? Half a liter perhaps.

On that subject, can you please show me, in writing, the total cost of ownership of your printer. If your company has no total cost of ownership, why not? Surely all the technical people in your company must have figured out what it takes to run your printer? Discussion did not touch on this subject.

Some printers now have “counters” which report how much ink has been expended for each print. Most printer manufacturers admit that these counters are generic estimates: they do not really count how much ink is actually squirted out the heads. So how about your printer? Does it even have a counter and if so, what is it really counting Discussion did not touch on this subject.

Will this ink print on everything that a Vutek will? Same stuff.

Fumes: how noxious? What is done about the fumes? The owner had quite a lot to say about the fumes. He said that the worst odor came from the printed material, not from the process during printing. He said most enclosures only covered over the printing process, but could not cover over all the outgassing of the substrate which poured out of the printer. That would require covering the floor in front of the printer!

Media

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?) Regular cloth won’t work. Have not tried much other different materials.

Precisely how many kinds and types of substrates will work in this printer? And rate them by “work per-fectly” through a continuum to “function but not flawlessly.” Backlit very good substrate; vinyl varies in quality. Some causes more banding than others.

Dr. hellmuth interviewing sign shop owner

FLAAR Reports 7Solvent Series

Is printhead height adjustment available? Manual? Automatic? How much? No.

What thickness media is accepted? Nothing out of the ordinary.

What about heater or dryer? Is there a pre-heater and post-heater both, or just one? Is heater on top of, or under, the media? All heated front and back. Some media works best if you turn the heater off (banner material for example). Off or on conditions amount of banding. Editor’s note: too bad the DGI company does not have information for end-users on all this.

Can the machine handle two different rolls of media side by side at the same time? Never tried.

Can you print nested images of various sizes side by side? RIP does not do nesting.

Is there self-detection of media width? Yes

Is there a reliable counter of media length remain-ing? No, counts only length of media already used.

Is there manual feed capability of sheets (sheet feed)? Sort of; don’t do; RIP can’t calculate media remaining.

Is media feed without skew? No problem with skew.

Do you get roller marks on some media? Which media? How bad are the marks? No roller marks.

Is backlit saturated enough with one print, or do you have to print two and mount them together? Okay as is; no special tweaking in Photoshop.

Is 3M warranty available? Is Avery warranty available? What are the full added costs in ink, media, and lamination for such a warranty? Clients do not ask for this kind of warranty.

RIP, driver, color management

Is a RIP included? KoreaRIP ArtistRIP

Is this RIP fine tuned for solvent ink in general? Discussion did not touch on this subject.

Is this RIP fine tuned for this printer in particular? Discussion did not touch on this subject but owner said the RIP did poorly on tiling.

Is the driver just for PC? What about using this printer with a Mac? Discussion did not touch on this subject.

How many other RIPs work with this model of printer Discussion did not touch on this subject.

What about color management and ICC profiles? Not using color management. No knowledge base available in Guatemala; cost is high. Clients appear satisfied with color as is.

Ispecting print quality of DGI REx

FLAAR Reports 8Solvent Series

General or Miscellaneous

Can this printer be left to run overnight or otherwise unattended? No.

Please look at the ad claims for this printer in magazines and on the internet. What aspects of these ads will a buyer of that model soon find out are perhaps slightly exaggerated? Discussion did not touch on this subject.

How many of your printer of this model are in use in the country? Not how many are in dealer show-rooms, not how many have been “sold” on paper, but how many are functioning in actual use printing signs, posters, banners, textiles, or whatever in commercial establishments. The estimate of 46 DGI Rex printers in Guatemala is considered close to accurate by this print shop owner.

What kinds of companies have bought over your printer models in the last two years? We are not interested in whether Kwik Kopy is on your preferred buyer price list, but rather, how many of Kwik Kopy’s x-hundred outlets actually bought your printers in the last two years? Of these, how many were of the model that we are interested in? Generalized sign shops.

What are preferred applications to print with this machine? Bill-boards, vehicle wrap, banners. Tropical sun causes some shrink-age and other problems with vehicle wrap.

What applications are possible but mediocre? Discussion did not touch on this subject.

What applications would be better printed on another type of ink, media, or machine? Discussion did not touch on this subject.

Are any systematic mechanical problems documented? For example, consistent complaints. If you asked outside industry experts would they reply, “ah, yes, Printer ABC is known for potential XYZ glitches.” No systematic problems.

What surveys have been done of user satisfaction of your printer? Discussion did not touch on this subject.

Have their been any recalls of your printer or any hardware or software features that had to be replaced on a notable number of your printers? Discussion did not touch on this subject.

Please indicate the problems in the initial introduction of your printer, between the first ads and/or first showing of the printer at tradeshows? To what degree were early buyers also beta testers? Is this model of printer a mature model or is it still being redesigned and retrofitted? Have to clean heads too often, prime. Clogs when there are large white areas in the image. You need to put CMYK bands alongside outside of the image area to keep the printheads ready to print properly. The owner was relatively sat-isfied but hemmed and hawed when asked. He then asked his partner. Partner was somewhat more satisfied. Both were resigned to the printer is it is and they were doing okay with the two they had. Asked what was the next printer they would buy, and they said, “another Rex.”

Dr. Hellmuth examining print quality output

FLAAR Reports 9Solvent Series

The following question is not meant to be mean but is to protect the people who spend their money buying your printer. Are you sure that your company will exist over the next three to five years in a manner that can secure the investment of our company in buying one of your printers? Is it certain that spare parts will continue to be manufactured or at least readily available? Is there anything in your recent corporate past or upcoming future that might cause a reasonable person to feel justified in asking this question? Discussion did not touch on this subject.

What will the resale value of your printer be in three to five years? Will either the brand name or model specifications cause a knowing buyer three years from now to shy away from your printer or cause a knowing buyer to only want to pay a very low price as compared to the other printers our company is considering? A company which is no longer in business may cause printers of that brand to lose value in the used market. Or is there some major technological breakthrough in your brand that will result in less value for your current model? Discussion did not touch on this subject.

Downsides

KoreaRIP “ArtistRIP” has a few foibles. Evidently can’t nest. And tiles do not always come out matching, especially if you change paper halfway through.

Exhaust for the fumes was inadequate.

Requires lots of primes, sometimes after every large print.

Requires CMYK bands alongside white areas to keep the ink ready to print when otherwise the heads don’t print for a while.

Pros

The DGI Rex has an acceptable reputation in Guatemala. There are so many installed, and so few of other brands, that no sign shop wants to go to an unknown brand.

Discussion

I asked owner why did he not buy an Infiniti. He said he visited an Infiniti dealer (I gather in the USA, probably Florida). “The heads clogged repeatedly in the dealership. I figured if the dealer’s own tech can’t make the printer work, then it was not an ideal printer. Also did not like the cleaning system. Evidently since then the Infiniti has tried to copy the Rex cleaning system.” But at that time the Infinity cleaned with aspirator. There was not as much heating elements, such as no pre-heating.

Recently another sign shop wrote us asking what solvent ink printer to purchase. The brand of solvent ink printer we feel is the most up to date technologically, the best constructed, and optimal value for its price is the Mimaki JV3. But the sign shop owner said that service was not realistic in Central America for this brand.

We asked why he did not consider the Arizona 30 from Oce. Evidently not enough in the country to acquire a stellar reputation, and considered very slow. He ended up buying a DGI Rex because that is what all his competition already had. The reason each shop buys the same printer is that then they can trade information and help each other in emergencies. So few shops are willing to be the first one to experiment in some other brand which is not yet known in their country.

FLAAR Reports 10Solvent Series

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For Further Information:

A place we recommend for you to obtain further information on solvent ink printersis from Scarab Graphics, toll free (800) 350-1366, or info@scarabgraphics.com. They offer both Mimaki JV3 and Ly-son Tiara solvent ink printers, as well as Canon,HP, and both PosterJet RIP and Wasatch RIP.