B
bofh00
I have been doing a lot of reading ranging from personal accounts and
places like large-format-printers.org to manufacturer specs and printshop
owners claims. To date the only conclusion I have come to is noone says
the samething and its appearing either there is a total inconsistency
between what people experience or everyone is full of crap.
I am trying to find the truth as to printhead duty cycle/life expectancy.
Piezo is claimed to be permenent in general or lasting 1-2 years.
Thermal about 1000ml(colorspan 3000ml which is funny because they claim to
use HP heads and HP says 1000ml, um... WTF? although that was told to me
by a sales rep their documentation on the X-12 claims 1000ml) or 9000hours.
Obviously the Piezo claim is highly dependant on what you do in that 1-2
year span and I have also heard "permanent" is a relative word and they do
indeed go bad.
The thermal ratings seem to be closer to the truth but honestly seem
fairly pathetic to me. Am I just naive as to duty cycles of other
printing equipment in the industry?
Does anyone have real world stats on these heads? I am beginning to think
that the thermal heads from the likes of HP are somehow "programmed" to
"go bad" after X time and that the piezo heads are "semi-permanent" and no
one really knows for sure how long they last.
From Epsons Site:
28 billion shots per nozzle.
Smallest drop size claimed to be 5pl(variable though).
180 nozzels per head.
28 billion 5 picoliter shots?
0.000000000005 x 28,000,000,000 = 1.4 litres
180 x 1.4 = 252 liters
This seems far more reasonable for the printing industry.
What any of the stats I have read about though lack is real world numbers.
We have an HP5500ps and we see consistently 1000-1200ml per head.
From these quick calculations and quite possibly bad assumptions it means
that in the lifetime of a piezo head you would have to buy about 252
thermal heads. This is for lack of a better word ludicrous. At 150 bucks
a pop you will have bought the plotter 2 times over at around 37,800 US
dollars not including taxes. I understand piezo heads are more costly yet
I have found those heads for 80 dollars compared to 140 for the thermal
heads. We personally opted for the HP due to many other factors but
admittedly not enough research was done since at no point was head life
introduced into the equation of cost and maintenance. Neither Epson nor
HP debate this issue nor point it out as a pro or con in either cases
advertisements. This makes me wonder if the numbers I list above are
either outright incorrect in collection, calculation or both. If I were
Epson I would be making a HUGE point of this when comparing their
plotters. Or perhaps is there are reason they do not?
places like large-format-printers.org to manufacturer specs and printshop
owners claims. To date the only conclusion I have come to is noone says
the samething and its appearing either there is a total inconsistency
between what people experience or everyone is full of crap.
I am trying to find the truth as to printhead duty cycle/life expectancy.
Piezo is claimed to be permenent in general or lasting 1-2 years.
Thermal about 1000ml(colorspan 3000ml which is funny because they claim to
use HP heads and HP says 1000ml, um... WTF? although that was told to me
by a sales rep their documentation on the X-12 claims 1000ml) or 9000hours.
Obviously the Piezo claim is highly dependant on what you do in that 1-2
year span and I have also heard "permanent" is a relative word and they do
indeed go bad.
The thermal ratings seem to be closer to the truth but honestly seem
fairly pathetic to me. Am I just naive as to duty cycles of other
printing equipment in the industry?
Does anyone have real world stats on these heads? I am beginning to think
that the thermal heads from the likes of HP are somehow "programmed" to
"go bad" after X time and that the piezo heads are "semi-permanent" and no
one really knows for sure how long they last.
From Epsons Site:
28 billion shots per nozzle.
Smallest drop size claimed to be 5pl(variable though).
180 nozzels per head.
28 billion 5 picoliter shots?
0.000000000005 x 28,000,000,000 = 1.4 litres
180 x 1.4 = 252 liters
This seems far more reasonable for the printing industry.
What any of the stats I have read about though lack is real world numbers.
We have an HP5500ps and we see consistently 1000-1200ml per head.
From these quick calculations and quite possibly bad assumptions it means
that in the lifetime of a piezo head you would have to buy about 252
thermal heads. This is for lack of a better word ludicrous. At 150 bucks
a pop you will have bought the plotter 2 times over at around 37,800 US
dollars not including taxes. I understand piezo heads are more costly yet
I have found those heads for 80 dollars compared to 140 for the thermal
heads. We personally opted for the HP due to many other factors but
admittedly not enough research was done since at no point was head life
introduced into the equation of cost and maintenance. Neither Epson nor
HP debate this issue nor point it out as a pro or con in either cases
advertisements. This makes me wonder if the numbers I list above are
either outright incorrect in collection, calculation or both. If I were
Epson I would be making a HUGE point of this when comparing their
plotters. Or perhaps is there are reason they do not?