Do you have or considered a Neuralabel 300x color label printer?
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| 300x Color Label Printer |
For users of the 300x, we have now an inexpensive and reliable option to replace these difficult machines. Let me tell you more about our experience with the 300x and our suggested option.
In October 2014, I saw the first print results from the 300x printer. At the time, I thought the 300x printer would be a great option: 8+” wide, high resolution, durable pigment ink, permanent printhead, availability of HP on-site service and very fast print speeds; up to 20” per second. During 2015, I spoke about this printer to many customers; and even published this post.
and I purchased a 300x demo printer and wrote more in the Spring of 2016:
After receiving my 300x demo printer, I sold the first one to a former Kiaro printer user/food customer who required using gloss paper labels in a freezer environment. They did not like the requirement to purchase labels from Quick Label Systems to use in the Kiaro; and wanted a less restrictive option. Given our customer prints labels up to 6” wide, I felt the best option was the 300x.
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| 300x in Customer’s Location |
However, we had many issues with the 300x printer. First the gloss paper labels would jam inside the printer; and could not be removed. The labels would “predispense” as they made their way around the 3 turns inside the printer. Over the course of the next few years, we went through 10 to 20 replacement printers because of this paper jam problem. I learned that labels are not meant to go through 3, 180 degree turns in a printer. This problem started us looking for an option.
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| 300x Jammed Label |
Second, we had to use a specific gloss paper label as the ink would not immediately dry on many types of gloss. Similar to the Epson C7500, the pigment ink in the 300x would not dry immediately, causing smears. As a result of this issue, Epson launched the C7500G, specifically designed to work with gloss material. Learn more here: (the most read post on our blog site)
In addition to smearing, Neuralabel recommended a “tight release liner/coating” material to reduce the likelihood the label would “predispense” inside the printer. Neuralabel provides the following direction:
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| 300x Tight Release Liner/Coating |
But the label cost for tight release coating is significantly more expensive. This increased material cost along with the problems with the paper jams drove us to find an alternative.
Third, the 300x does not have a gap sensor; only a blackmark sensor requiring a unique que mark. This specific requirement increased our label prices further.
Fourth, printing full bleed accurately was almost impossible. The 300x requires a large, .25” gap between labels. Learn more here:
Further, the 300x setup requires moving the printer between the winders for every label width. This combination made it very difficult to get and keep the 300x set for full bleed. It could be accomplished, but not for the faint of heart.
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| 300x Winder Marked Position for Different Widths |
Overall, our and our customer’s experience with the 300x was not good. To keep our customer, we had to find a better option.
And in February 2020, we ship our first C6500A printer and DPR winders to the former 300x customer:
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| C6500A with Winders |
Read more about the C6500 and DPR winders here:
We felt our customer would find the C6500A printer not only more reliable and easier to use, but also much more affordable; with lower hardware and ink costs. Further the C6500A enables lower gloss paper label costs.
The initial feedback from the customer, however, was not so positive. The customer said, “it took all day to print the labels we needed in one batch. The C6500A printer is just too slow. Can you suggest settings other than gloss?” Based on this feedback and discussions with Epson, we recommended different settings. Learn more in this post.
These new settings increased our speed significantly while keeping the print quality acceptable.
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| C6500A Print Quality At “Speed” Setting |
According to our customer, “at the new faster settings, the print quality is about the same as the 300x. It’s still slower, but it is sufficient given our print volume. We use the setting, “Speed” and it seems to work well.”
Continuing, the customer said, “Also, the printer is much easier to load media. We no longer have to move the winders for every paper width. Plus, we do like the fact that we can continue using our old Mac computer as we did with the 300x also. Finally, we are tracking our ink consumption to compare ink costs. But so far, the ink costs seem less.”
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| C6500A With Rewinder |
Based on our and our customer’s experience, you should consider moving from the 300x to the C6500A label printer immediately. You’ll save money, time and frustration. Purchase the C6500A here:
Spare in the Air (SITA) extended warranty for the C6500A here:
And C6500A ink/kit here:
Contact us to discuss how the C6500A can replaces your 300x color label printer.
Guy Mikel
855-962-7670