FROM OUR BLOG

April 23, 2019

Fun Sized printing; Roland’s VersaUV LEF-300

Glenn Cummins - Sales Executive

UV printing often means printing big, really fast (in the case of the HP FB750 – up to 900 sq. ft/hr). BUT I want to talk about the table-top guys, the major fun printers. For the past year, I have had a few Roland LEF-300’s in my demo room. Every chance I get, I print with it!!! It’s simply a fun printer. I printed ceramic tiles last week for a customer demo – amazing; I printed on sandstone - stunning. I made coasters and custom phone cases. We printed golf balls for a demo at a trade show – I love this printer. It is so versatile with little to no knowledge of printing needed – seriously little to no knowledge needed!

Lets talk about the stuff you need to know about this printer:

COLOR:
The Roland LEF-300 is a 4-color printer with 2-3 spot colors (I recommend the Roland EUV 2 Inks) with a Dual gloss set-up and white ink. (CMYKGLGLWH – there is also a “primer option” CMYKPMGLWH) The printer comes loaded with intelligent features like presets and smart cleaning cycles.

You would expect that the 4-color system would give limited color, but I have found very few situations where I was looking for more color or more “accurate color” – it hits the nail on the head!

One of the best things about the Roland LEF-300 is the white ink – it’s a bright white that really pops. I often use it as a flood coat, but when using it as a spot color you can get amazing results as well. I use the “gloss” in a few different ways – more experimental users have given me some great advice that really has paid off. I say “gloss” in quotations because it doesn’t have to be gloss it can be matte also.

Below are a Few Ideas for How to use the Gloss:
1. Primer – Roland does offer a primer and it’s great, but I use the gloss as a primer, and it works really well. One note – clean your products before you print.
2. Spot Gloss - We have done some really nice spot gloss prints using just the gloss.
3. Textures - PRINTING textures is something that we always wanted to do and now we can.
4. Raised Info - Now you can make tactile information like brail or framing when you need it.
5. Protective - You can protect your print with adding a layer of Gloss over the top.

USE:
The Roland brand is known for being user-friendly and it is true. The printer is extremely user friendly. I do recommend that you get the printer installed by an expert, but it an easy to use product. The menus are broken down into two kinds of menus:
1. “Function” – It includes basic functions like auto-cleaning
2. “Menu” It includes more advanced options; for example, making custom presets or manual cleaning.

Printing Bed:
The printing bed is extremely intuitive and made very well. There are locking points for making jigs sit in the exact same position, so manufacturing becomes easy and quick. The bed size/print area is 30’ x 13’.

Media Gate:
Another great feature is the media gate. This is a protective feature that allows you to quickly find the height of the media that you are printing on.

The LEF-300 can print in bi-directional mode making it faster than the smaller machines in its line. The whole experience of using the Roland LEF-300 is unique. It feels like every time you load the printer you are preparing to do something great. For me the key to this kind of product is the software.

SOFTWARE:
The Key to the majority of the Roland printer line is Roland VersaWorks (RVW). Roland’s powerful proprietary RIP software (Raster Image Processing Software). VersaWorks is loaded with many features, but here are my favorites:
1. 5 RIP queues per printer
2. Use up to 4 Roland devices
3. Variable Data
4. Nesting
5. Tiling

RVW is updated regularly (for free) – with support offered via Roland’s online support OnSupport or via phone.

RIP Queues:
RVW offers many ways of sending jobs to the print queue. For example, “add a job to” or PPD printing using a virtual printer, but my favorite is the hot-folder. Here is a workflow TIP:

In RVW you can default your queues. I recommend that you setup 4 defaults and 1 “open” queue. I also recommend that on your Roland LEF-300 you setup 4 presets that will correspond to the RIP queues. Then setup hot-folders on your server so you can copy and paste your file into the hot-folder for the queue and “BOOM” the file is in your desired RIP queue.

Variable Data:
RVW offers a variable data feature that allows you to quickly setup files with variable data. For example, let’s say we are making coffee coasters for an office, but every coaster needs to be unique to the person it belongs to and have their name or office extension number on it. You could simply load your file with the info and import the variable data from an excel document into RVW resulting in up to 250 unique coffee coasters that did not require you to make 250 different files!

Nesting:
Once you get into production you will realize that nesting is not only a money saver, but it is a time saver. The LEF-300 allows you to group jobs together to print many different jobs at the same time.

Tiling:
It is so easy. Simply plug in the size of the project, load your file and tell it how many or the size of the tiles that you need. Roland VersaWorks does all the work for you. You can even add a bleed to your tiles, and it will do the math for you.

PROS:
Easy quick setup and fast swap out of jigs.
Designed to help the small manufacturer to the multibillion-dollar manufacturer.
Easy self-contained system.
Simple maintenance.
Roland’s 2-year trouble free warranty – with OnSupport and AMAZING follow-up.
Roland VersaWorks 6 is very powerful and intuitive.

CONS:
Not cheap (Roland Offers 2 smaller models, if price is a factor).
When building textures, it is not fast.
The ink has an odor.

All in all, this is one of my favorite printers of all time.

PRICING:
The Roland LEF-300 is listed at $27,995 – But you really do need to buy the air filter (the ink has an odor) priced at $4,995. Contact us to get pricing (pricing is tailored to you and your needs).