Dear Future Printer,

So... You have been searching the web trying to find out a cost effective way to join the solvent printing craze. What have you found?

If you were like me when I started looking around a couple of years ago, you are finding mixed messages. Many will tell you to just go and buy a new eco solvent printer. A few will tell you about the time that a guy down the street tried running solvent inks for the first time and the ink ate up his printer. Every now and then you will hear about a success story: someone who actually converted their printer and used it to grow their business.

That's my story!

In the summer of 2006, I had started a small banner printing company with only a laptop computer, a cell phone, and an e-mail account. All of our printing was outsourced to a billboard printing company that used solvent inks. The price was great and our product was durable, but our customers were craving higher resolution and tighter control over turn around time and color.

This led me to search (as you may have) on e-bay for an entry level eco solvent printer. I ended up buying a Roland FJ-52 that had been converted to solvent ink by Splash of Color (a Roland dealer in Texas). They had realized that there were many small printing businesses that wanted to print with solvent based inks for outdoor durability and versatility, as well as low cost of materials. At the time the choices were few for an affordable wide format eco solvent printer. Now there are many that you can purchase new for $15,000-$30,000 or more that are great printers. But... What to do if you want to test the waters with this type of printing without risking that kind of money?

We asked the same question and researched the process of converting aqueous printers to mild solvent ourselves. Since then, we have started converting Roland FJ-50s, FJ-52s, CJ-500s, CJ-540s, and other models, and have
used them for thousands of jobs in daily service after converting.

When we were first searching around for information about converting to solvent inks, the information was spotty and inconsistent. One sticking issue was heaters. Many online suppliers offer solvent resistant parts for what were originally aqueous printers, but I was unable to find more than one place that sold heater kits. Splash Of Color advertised heater kits starting at $2500, but that was out of our budget. So we developed our own heater kits (with a few improvements I might add). We have been testing and using the kits on our own printers and now will make them available to people like you along with conversion kits and the information we have learned about properly converting printers.

If you are reading this you know that there's money to be made in the wide format printing industry with banners, trade show displays, window film, car wraps, and other forms of signage. You probably already have a connection to the industry... maybe as a graphic designer, a business owner, or working with another print mediums such as paper or t-shirts. You can do well in this business and you don't need to risk your home to give it a shot.