Hi guys,
You may remember we did a thread on the testing and development of the Epson Surecolour SC-P600 printer for use with dye sublimation. This proved very popular and helped to show how we decide what printers to work with and the steps we take to ensure they will work well for you in the real world.
Myself and Christian have been discussing the 'future' of desktop inkjet sublimation printing and where we think things are heading. In a hope to stay ahead of the curve we are looking at various printer models that we can work with for sublimation.
The printers we will be looking at using are from the Epson Ecotank range. The reasons for this are-
1) RICOH models are pretty much gone. Stock is pretty scarce and prices are shooting up for the SG3110DN or similar models. Sawgrass still have the SG400 but as we all know (although brilliant) they are very expensive to buy and run, especially using SG inks.
2) EPSON printers using ink cartridges; the majority of new Epson printer models are starting to use sponge based ink cartridges, (Expression Premium and Expression Photo series especially). I do not like using sublimation ink in cartridges that contain a sponge. The sponge clogs up quickly and easily with dye sub ink being thicker than whats intended for use in the cartridge. We feel this trend is going to continue with cartridge based printers in the future, and this will limit what will 'work' with sublimation ink.
3) EPSON firmware updates; firmware updates are the latest ploy by Epson to hinder or stop the use of 3rd party ink cartridges. It does not apply to all models but lots of the latest model (and most likely future models) will have automatic firmware updates built in that will stop the use of 3rd party inks and in turn stop he printer recognising a CISS or RIC setup with sublimation ink. These updates can be disabled but if you don't know how to do this its sometimes too late and your printer cannot update.
4) EPSON microchipped ink cartridges; as with firmware updates the microchip built on to the cartridges is another way that Epson will protect their investment and try to ensure customers use their ink cartridges. Although its common for cartridges to be copied and 3rd party chips to be made we are finding this is taking longer and longer to do - then firmware updates or upgrades are often rendering certain version chips useless, so the waiting game starts again until a new version comes out. This is something that is holding us back on the Epson XP-15000 for example; we have been waiting over 6 months with no products as yet (as of Feb 2019)
All of the issues above are solved by using an Epson Ecotank printer.
Benefits-
1) There are no ink cartridges to worry about- no microchips, no sponge based ink cartridges. Just a purpose made ink tank on the side to pour the ink in.
2) There are no firmware updates to worry about- even if the software or firmware does update it wont affect the use of 3rd party inks.
3) No need to retro fit either CISS (continuous ink system) or RIC (refillable ink cartridges)- as the printer comes from Epson with the Ecotank built in it's a very straight forward setup; pour in the inks, charge the printer and print!
Disadvantages-
1) Price- this is the only real disadvantage that I can personally come up with. An Eco tank printer is fundamentally more expensive than its standard (none ecotank) equivalent. But do the benefits listed above outweigh that?
The question really is- if you were looking to buy a new printer for sublimation printing would it put you off paying more money for an Eco tank printer?
As someone who has worked in the desktop printing market for the past 18 years I have seen lots of products, lots of changes in the industry, both good and bad. I personally think the introduction of the Ecotank printers is a step in the right direction both for the environment as well as for the sublimation print industry.
I will be updating this thread with progress and testing on a variety of Epson Ecotank printers that we have selected to potentially use for sublimation printing. I hope it will be an interesting read for you guys and give you an insight in what we do and how we test the potential products we sell.
Any thought comments, feedback on the above please comment :)
Alex