Best pigment ink based A3 printer?

[ogonzales]

Hi, you're friend Omar here. As I've mentioned in other post I've a Small Stickers Business.

I would like your recomendation on a pigment ink based A3 printer. I've a budget of $600.

I live in Perú, South America. The printer doesn't need to be the latest model. Just one that can get the job done.

As I understand, there are 2 (only?) types of printers ink jet or ecosolvent.

And inside Ink Jet printers, there are printers that use dye ink and the ones that use pigment based.

Currently I've an EPSON L475 that uses dye inks. The problems that I need to solve are:

1) Fading: The stickers I make don't last much on direct sunlight (2 weeks).
2) Waterproof: Even laminated the stickers get blurry borders on contact with water.
3) A3 Paper size: currently I can only print up to A4 size.

I'm thinking of having a dedicated pigment ink printer for the business and leave my Epson L475 for other documents printing.

I've also receive the suggestion to use 106 inks for my Epson machine to have a more UV resistant stickers, but since they are also dye inks, I'm guessing the printings will not be waterproof. This is why I'm thinking on a dedicated pigment ink printer.


Some of my current printer:

Some photos of my stickers fading out:

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

you are starting a new thread about pigment inks for your sticker business. That's fine with me as long we don't keep both threads active at the same time on the same subject.
We should become clear about the requirements of 'waterproof' , that can be about everything between high humidity resistance to underwater paints for ships. Dye inks are water soluble but that does not imply that dry ink dissolves again in water. It is always a combination of the ink and the coating , if you think ink is running off some print it is most likely the upper layer of the coating carrying away the inks. Some companies are selling papers for water proof printing, o.k. - take it with caution but there are wide differences between regular papers how they react e.g. against splashing drops. Or you can get an effect that water would not wash away a print but softens the surface reducing scratch resistance. It all would require some testing on your side . Pigment inks are somewhat 'water' resistant in combination with the base carrier and the coating, but again - do some testing if they meet your requirements.

Dye inks and pigment inks as they are used in the typical desktop printers all are water based with some additional glycoles as a solvent. That's completely different to solvent inks or eco-solvent inks and more complex. You may use base material which is not inkjet coated, you leave the job to the solvent to provide the adherance of the pigments to the base material, there are different types of solvent inks depending on the type of curing the ink - e.g. by heat or UV radiation. Some solvent inks can be used on some Epson printers without modification - you find lots of such offers e.g. on Alibaba, or you need to replace some internal hardware like the tubing or the cartridges since they cannot withstand the solvent, or you need another printhead since there is some rubber gasket inside which does not survive solvent inks.

 

[bremedi]

Hi, you're friend Omar here. As I've mentioned in other post I've a Small Stickers Business.

I would like your recomendation on a pigment ink based A3 printer. I've a budget of $600.

I live in Perú, South America. The printer doesn't need to be the latest model. Just one that can get the job done.

As I understand, there are 2 (only?) types of printers ink jet or ecosolvent.

And inside Ink Jet printers, there are printers that use dye ink and the ones that use pigment based.

Currently I've an EPSON L475 that uses dye inks. The problems that I need to solve are:

1) Fading: The stickers I make don't last much on direct sunlight (2 weeks).
2) Waterproof: Even laminated the stickers get blurry borders on contact with water.
3) A3 Paper size: currently I can only print up to A4 size.

I'm thinking of having a dedicated pigment ink printer for the business and leave my Epson L475 for other documents printing.

I've also receive the suggestion to use 106 inks for my Epson machine to have a more UV resistant stickers, but since they are also dye inks, I'm guessing the printings will not be waterproof. This is why I'm thinking on a dedicated pigment ink printer.


Some of my current printer:

View attachment 9731


View attachment 9730

Some photos of my stickers fading out:

View attachment 9729

Hello Omar,

Could you find a printer which prints UV and waterproof stickers? I am going to start a small Stickers Business in my country and looking for a good printer.

Thanks.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

all dye inks will fade - it is just a relaive matter - which ink is lasting longer than another - and the 106 ink is one of the best dye inks you can get, they'll last longer than the 664 ink you apparently use at this time. You can remove the top of the 106 bottles with some force and fill the ink into the 664 bottles for refill.

You need to search for 'waterproof inkjet labels' in your country or 'waterproof vinyl stickers' or similar. There are as well stickers for backside printing with a carrier foil for the glue. As long as the glue of the sticker itself will not sustain longer periods in humidity or water no ink whatever will survive that.
If you are looking for an A3 printer with ink tanks you may look for an ET16650 with pigment inks, or an ET7750 or L1800 with dye inks.
Or you still may be able to get an L1300 , this runs on dye inks but the older base model B1100 did run with pigment inks, and the L1300 is just an B1100 with attached tanks so it would run as well with pigment inks.

 

[Ubuki]

If you are looking for an A3 printer with ink tanks you may look for an ET16650 with pigment inks, or an ET7750 or L1800 with dye inks.
Or you still may be able to get an L1300 , this runs on dye inks but the older base model B1100 did run with pigment inks, and the L1300 is just an B1100 with attached tanks so it would run as well with pigment inks.

Maybe OP hasn't figured out a few things.

On Mercado Libre/Mercado Livre pigment inks for Epson printers, the kind people are putting in their big K3 ink printers, are found as "tinta para papel couché", which isn't informative or easy to decipher at all. On the Mexican site, offers like this get a high rating, no negative comments (as is the case with Durabrite inks) and users report that the ink works great on their L-series printers. At ~$45 USD, 6×100ml seems reasonable enough just to try out. On the Peruvian site, this may be good, but then it's confusingly described as "latex" ink and it's sold by the liter, setting the full purchase at around $168 USD. Since there's not enough information to be found, it would take a daring pioneer to try it out.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I can assume that there are sellers for Durabrite compatible inks in litre bottles, that's most likely ink from the Far East.
The ET16650 runs with Epson genuine pigment inks - Epson 113 in Europe, you can use this bottled ink as refill ink for the L1300. Latex ink is the wrong ink, ask the seller if it is really Latex ink, I would wonder since HP is using Latex inks for their large format printers.
Ultrachrome K3 inks and compatibles can be used as well, these inks are used in a wide range of printers - from A3 like the R2400, R2880 and larger Pro printers with 17" or 24" or 44" width and more.

 

[Ubuki]

The ET16650 runs with Epson genuine pigment inks - Epson 113 in Europe, you can use this bottled ink as refill ink for the L1300.

Well, that's difficult in countries where even ordering items from the country next door is not a thing.

Ultrachrome K3 inks and compatibles can be used as well, these inks are used in a wide range of printers - from A3 like the R2400, R2880 and larger Pro printers with 27" or 24" or 44" width and more.

In some countries, ML sellers have the same inks packaged in sets for K3 and for L printers (no mention of latex anything). From that and from buyers' reviews, mostly positive, I guess it's worth a shot, I'd go for it.

Still kind of a coin toss as these sellers don't seem to be really technically knowledgeable about their products.

I can assume that there are sellers for Durabrite compatible inks in litre bottles, that's most likely ink from the Far East.

I mentioned Durabrite only because those are the ones getting the negative reviews. Sorry I wasn't being clear.

Latex ink is the wrong ink, ask the seller if it is really Latex ink, I would wonder since HP is using Latex inks for their large format printers.

Heh, the Peruvian seller may be wrong, but I'm not Omar and I'm not in Perú. Good point though.