Mikoko Posted August 3, 2011 Report Share Posted August 3, 2011 Hi everybody! I have a question in general, cause I´m a newbie in the area of dry-labs ... Has anyone an idea, what the expected lifetime of the Kodak APEX 30- or APEX 40-system is? I´d like to get an idea of how many prints (e.g. 4x6''-prints) I can realize until I have to replace the maschine... I´ll be very grateful for your experience!!! Thanx in advance- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trevor brown Posted August 3, 2011 Report Share Posted August 3, 2011 As the Kodak APEX is a modular unit printers can be replaced as they break (Service contract does this automatically). Longterm the PC will probably need upgrading purely to deal with larger demands and files., as with the kiosks. Print count is not an issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fotoman369 Posted August 3, 2011 Report Share Posted August 3, 2011 Trevor, you make it sound like they are just a throw away item, and they break easily, surely they need to pay for themselves and then earn some real money!? I would be really interested to hear how many you have replaced when they have broken? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trevor brown Posted August 3, 2011 Report Share Posted August 3, 2011 Take break to mean breakdown. The printers are an upgrade from the 6800 series, I have changed 2 at my main site in 3 years, the gears on the printhead can go., nothing major but on a service contract they are just swapped out for another one. All my digital work goes through theses and we have 5 heads connected to the system which means at times the printers are very busy. Very reliable and if one does go down you have another one working untill the replacement arrives normally 24 hours. Effectively NO down Time not like my wet lab. As I said the biggest problem as with any PC based product is the Motherboard and Processor which do date very fast, they still work but anyone into gaming will know that speed does slow down. Would not swap it for any other machine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fotoman369 Posted August 3, 2011 Report Share Posted August 3, 2011 Thanks Trevor- sounds like you are a dry convert then? What do you think of quality on the Dye Sub vs Wet? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trevor brown Posted August 3, 2011 Report Share Posted August 3, 2011 I still run a Wet Lab in both store together with Dry labs. For general Digital work from the consumer the Dry Lab wins . Easy of use and colour saturation is great, for negative work the Wet Lab is still streets ahead. Saying that when the wet Labs give in I will just replace with extra printers for the Dry Lab, its so easy and gives time to retail. In the end you service your market, we a a high street retailer who try to give time to the comsumer not time to a machine messing with it to get it to work. And before anyone goes on we started with Dip & dunk 25 years ago and since then have had 10 different mini labs, at one point running 3 in the shop at one time. I class myself as a Retailer with customers not questioning quality but service and I print my own picture through the Dry Lab quite happily. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Amies Posted August 3, 2011 Report Share Posted August 3, 2011 Thermal heads on dye sub printers have varying life expectancy rates, and it is not easy to measure, but on avery, very rough estimate , you should be talking 60,000 prints or more. Head replacement price? Roughly £2-300 . How that compares with the Fuji/Noritsu ddry lab head? I wouldn't want to comment, but the head is liley to cost alot more to replace. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trevor brown Posted August 3, 2011 Report Share Posted August 3, 2011 Our 7000 printers are giving us approx 140000 prints before the head goes. You must keep the heads clean aswell as the rubber rollers inside. Maintainance is the key. And as I said if a Printer head does go there is still another printer attached Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Amies Posted August 4, 2011 Report Share Posted August 4, 2011 Yes Trevor, of course. In a drylab set up you will have multiple print engines. For example , the DNP Fotolusio Nexlab has capacity for four DS printers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Amies Posted August 4, 2011 Report Share Posted August 4, 2011 That is some result you are getting from the termal head Trevor, 140,000 prints. You are right , keeping machines clean is the best advice, as long as you follow the manufacturer's guidelines. We had a customer who managed to get 70,000 prints from a Sony UPDR100 dye sub, when the reccomened life was approx 30,000 - this being some few years back now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trevor brown Posted August 4, 2011 Report Share Posted August 4, 2011 Thats the benifit of Dry Labs, being modular you just keep adding, we have 5 thermal printers on the system with expectation of another 2 by christmas. Together with our DL2100 and LFP, Film scanner, Flatbed Scanner and Kodak Fast Print Scanner plus the new D4000 printer to come, One unit failing does not cause major problems. The biggest problem is the PC's ability to keep pace. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Amies Posted August 4, 2011 Report Share Posted August 4, 2011 One for Kodak/Tetanal/Chris to take note of then....................... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave S Posted August 4, 2011 Report Share Posted August 4, 2011 As the Kodak APEX is a modular unit printers can be replaced as they break (Service contract does this automatically). How much does the service contract cost per year for your Kodak APEX? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trevor brown Posted August 5, 2011 Report Share Posted August 5, 2011 A service contract with the 70" APEX, 2 x 6" ,2 x 5" 1 x8" printers , DL2100 , Rapid Print Scanner, Film Scanner, Flatbed Scanner LFP and 5 G4x heads, cost approx £400 a month. I still think its dear compared to a Wet Lab Service Contract, but to replace a 7000 printer is £2500 or there abouts Tetenal would class as value for money. If you do get a problem being on a contract ensures your problem is normally resolved within 24 hours. Biggest problems are the Thermal Printers but look after them and they do run relatively worry free. Biggest benifit is time, with the dry lab maintainance is quite easy, as I also run a wet lab along side I can tell you I spend more time keeping that running than I ever would on the Dry Lab Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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