ColorSpan DisplayMaker 98si solvent printer

Starting about 2004 a new kind of solvent printer became fashionable. These were 64” or 74” printers stretched to 98 or 104 inches, trying to enter the grand format market at half the price of a VUTEk. 

Roland came out with their SolJet SJ-1000EX and then their SOLJET Pro II SJ-1045. 

Mimaki developed their JV3-250SP and then their JV3-250SPF. Now Mimaki has a stretch version of their Mimaki JV5.  

Seiko has the ColorPainter 100S as their stretch-model. HP rebrands that as the HP Designjet 10000s.

Mutoh is the only company that did not stretch their Toucan or eco-solvent body:  they super-sized them into first the Mutoh Spitfire, then the Mutoh Osprey, and the Mutoh Phoenix. Indeed Vutek had to borrow the Mutoh  Osprey (Mutoh Xjet in the USA) to rebrand the Mutoh Osprey/Mutoh X-Jet as the Vutek UltraVu 260. 

So the ColorSpan 98SI has plenty of competition. The difference is that the Roland uses pseudo-solvent ink. The ColorSpan 98SI uses true full-strength solvent ink. 

As soon as we find a ColorSpan 98SI nearby we will do a site-visit case study. But in the meantime, we have site-visit case studies of the ColorSpan 72” Gator. The printing mechanism and tech support is the same,  so you can use the report on the 72” Gator to judge what to expect for the 98SI.

Today (summer 2008), ColorSpan is owned by HP and ColorSpan no longer makes any solvent printers. Indeed the market has changed more to low-solvent (mild-solvent), eco-solvent, and after DRUPA 2008, will begin to evolve towards the new latex ink introduced by HP.

 

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Most recently updated May 5, 2008.
First posted December 19, 2005.