Gerber Solara UV2 printer

FLAAR now has a First Look report on all major UV-curable ink flatbed and roll-to-roll printers, including the Gerber Solara UV2. This Gerber printer was first shown at SGIA trade show, October 2004. Price comparisons suggest this printer may win over the Oce Arizona 60UV which never made it out the gate (after its premature showing in January). We had great hopes for the Oce UV printer, but this Gerber, NEOLT, and ColorSpan 72UV were better in every respect (and they were ready to deliver soon). 

The Gerber Solara UV was initially roll-to-roll only, but we saw the new hybrid flatbed model in Milan , Italy at its world premier in 2005.  Since then we have inspected the Gerber Solara UV2 at a dozen more trade shows, both in the USA and in the Spandex booth in Europe .

It is nice to see Gerber independently developing their own printers. We also feel that UV-curable ink is possibly less detrimental to your health than solvent ink printers. Even eco-solvent ink is still not something you would want in your own office all day long (if you value your health in future years). 

Comparative prices relative to other printers

Just be aware that you get what you pay for: the Oce Arizona 60 was priced low, but that printer was entry-level and may be more Spartan than you expected. Besides, delivery of the printer has been stalled and then the printer was cancelled. Turned out you can’t make a fully functional UV-cured inkjet flatbed printer for a price of $40,000. At least we credit Oce with good marks for not releasing a premature printer. The Kodak 6250 and the CrystalJet are two printers that were released prematurely. Both failed at the box office, so to speak. The Gerber Solara UV2 looks good and we hope it is successful. Just be sure to read the FLAAR Reports on UV-printers before you make a down payment on any UV-curable machine. 

Here is Nicholas inspecting the Gerber Solera UV flatbed printer. We have been taking notes now for over two years and have a complete FLAAR Report on the Solera UV printer. If you are comparing the Gerber, the ColorSpan, and any other entry level printer, whether Zund from Switzerland or lower price from China, you need to get an independent evaluation before you make your purchase.

Compare and Contrast the Gerber Solara UV2 with the ColorSpan UVX and Raster Printers RP-720 UV or Daytona

Most people who are looking for an entry level printer ask us about the ColorSpan 72 UVX, Raster Printer RP-720 UVZ or Daytona, and the Zund 215.  ColorSpan has now sold over 900 of their printers so we are updating our coverage of both the 72uv printers and the newer ColorSpan 9840uv. As of February 2007 there is a new site-visit case study of the ColorSpan 72UVX.

Also new in February 2007 are the ColorSpan 5440uv , 5445uv, 5460uv, 5465uv-curable wide-format inkjet printers. Our comprehensive coverage of ColorSpan printers is possible because of being able to inspect the printers inside the MacDermid factory. If we someday can get to the Gerber factory, we can increase our coverage of their nice Solara UV2 printers too.

So FLAAR offers comparative reports on all entry-level UV-cured ink flatbed inkjet printers. Now you can compare the Gerber Solara UV2 with all the other printers that you wish to learn about.  There is also a FLAAR Report on the Gerber ion, the printer with the unusual ink, "cationic" UV ink.

FLAAR Reports cover all levels of UV printers

If you seek a mid-range introductory UV-flatbed printer, we cover the Oce UV printers, the NEOLT UV printer, white UV ink in the Mimaki UV printers, the GRAPO Octopus UV flatbed, and the Vutek PressVU UV printers on this large format site. 

For the high end we mention the Leggett & Platt Virtu, Durst Rho, NUR Tempo, and Inca-Sericol flatbed UV-curable inkjet printers on our sister site, wide-format-printers.org. But you can obtain longer reports on every brand and model of all UV-curable ink printers from www.wide-format-printers.NET.  

All FLAAR information on UV-cured flatbed inkjet printers is now in PDF format. We can pack much more information and many more color photos into a PDF format than is possible on the website. So please check out our over 60 publications on www.wide-format-printers.NET .

Realize that all low-cost UV-cured ink flatbed printers tend to have no 1-year warranty up front. You have to pay extra. Accessories are extra too, and printhead replacement you have to pay for yourself. So the true price is not the list price, but list price + everything else. To help you understand all this, we have a new publication, sort of " how to figure out the actual price of a budget UV-curable inkjet flatbed printer."

Large-Format-Printers.org > Wide Format Printers >