The Scarlet Beast: One year on

If you know your Bible, or ever watched the film The Omen, you may know that the ‘Beast’ is first mentioned in the Book of Revelations 17:3: “And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness; and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns.”

I do not know about the horns, but the Roland SolJet Pro4 XF-640’s scarlet chassis and speedy 16 heads were well lauded at its UK outing at Sign and Digital UK 2013. Just under a year later, I wanted to see the PRO4 XF-640, AKA ‘The Beast’, in a lair of its own and so I took myself off to visit Xpres in Castle Donington, which owns probably the most comprehensive wide-format print showroom in the country, and put it through its paces.

Firstly, I must point out that a woman wasn’t sitting on it, but it did not need one to look good; the XF640 is one nice-looking printer. It is about time a wide-format printer manufacturer decided that grey was not the only colour available when designing the printer. Roland DG?chose red for the XF series, accordingly, to display the passion and dedication behind the development of the new machine.

The Roland XF-640 is, in essence, a redevelopment of the SolJet PROIII XJ-640 released in 2007, but with a much more robust chassis, increased stability and much, much faster. It is a very solid looking machine, with no discernable movement when coping with the impressive full speed of 102sq m/hr. The information from Roland states that as a result, the ink droplets have become as accurate as printers with in-line and one single head configurations.

Revealing redevelopments

Of course, with any new printer redesign where increased speed is the aim, you not only look at how quickly you can put the ink on the paper, you also have to accurately match the speed of the paper going through the machine. So Roland has designed a brand-new media feeding and take-up system, now included in the price, which feeds around twice the amount of media through the printer than on previous models.

They have added extra pinch rollers, making a total of sixteen, to help grip the media steadily and accurately and reduce the risk of media skew at high speeds. They seem to have taken time and effort in the design of the media handling system, making it much easier to use. They have added movable end caps on both sides, a heavy media support bracket and an optional foot pedal that controls rolling the media forward or back as necessary.


But what will please Roland users most about the media handling is that the manufacturer has added a media clamp to the back as well as the front, making it quick and easy to change rolls when-ever the job demands. I did not even notice the roll being changed during the demonstration as it was all handled by one person, with no hassle or fuss.

There is an optional front dryer unit available, which is not necessary for all applications and will cost you an extra £2,499, but if you are printing high speed or laying down thick ink layers then you will probably need it. The panel on the right hand side is easy to remove, with a quick release push mechanism giving easy access to the print head configuration.

Roland DG states that the anti-scratch properties in the ECO-SOL MAX 2 inks have improved and it certainly performed well in the manicured nail test, but I think if you are in the vinyl wrapping business, belt and braces are in order, so lamination may still be necessary for jobs where maximum durability is required.

The need for speed

A criticism of many manufacturers is that the speed times noted on the initial specification sheets and brochures usually far exceed the actual print speed doing a real job. We ran three basic, non-scientific speed tests on banner printing at the full speed mode of 102sq m/hr and also in vinyl mode at 30sq m/hr, the machine performed to specification.


We printed on an unprofiled 1 x 1.5m double-sided banner and it printed in one and a half minutes in full colour mode on the fastest setting. Yes, there was some minor banding, but in fairness the media was unprofiled. It would pass any walk or drive-by test and was more than acceptable for commercial banner work. The vinyl test was printed on profiled gloss vinyl 1 x 1m on the fastest quality vinyl mode and the print was beautiful with vibrant, near photographic colour.

Safe environment

Obviously we are all very concerned about health and safety these days and need to be sure that whatever new printer purchase we make will not be to the detriment of our working environment, print room, or staff—and it will not cost the company a small fortune to run it. The Roland SolJet PRO4 XF-640 has a handy power-saving automatic sleep feature built in, and when running uses approximately 1350w and gives out just 65dB or less. I found it a fairly quiet machine even running at the fastest speed, which is when I assumed it would kick out the most noise.

So, did I feel the ‘Beast’ lived up to its launch hype last year? Yes. If you are looking for a production sign printer with all the bells and whistles, and have the space for it, then the Roland SolJet PRO4 XF-640 is a very nice machine. Look past the hype and run your own tests in your own time and you may reveal the true beast within is not the printer itself, but your own excitement at what this printer might be able to do for your business.
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