Afinia L801 vs L901! What are the differences?

Both the Afinia L801 & L901 are high speed, high quality, Memjet label printers. Both print at 1600 dpi at 6 inches per second. Both are full “edge to edge” colour printers using 250ml bulk ink cartridges. From first glance it just looks like the L901 is £3000 more for the same thing. Well I’m going to look at the key differences that really separate the L901 from the L801.

Firstly lets look at the specs of each printer.

Printer     –     Resolution     –     Speed           –     Print Width     –     Print Technology

L801        –     1600 dpi        –     6 or 12 ips     –     216 mm          –     Memjet

L901        –     1600 dpi        –     6 or 12 ips     –     220 mm         –     Memjet

As you can see things look pretty similar. For full specs click on the links below to go to the individual pages for each printer.

So what would you buy a Afinia L901 over the L901?

The L801 uses the previous generation “North Star” Memjet engine and the L901 uses the new “Sirius” Memjet engine. There are some key differences to these engines with how the engine cleans the print head being the most important. The North Star engine in the L801 has a service station that is based below the printer base. The problem with this is that when material is loaded into the printer you can’t clean the head as the material sits between the service station & head. The Sirius engine in the L901 has everything based above the material and the head lifts to allow the services station to slide underneath for cleaning. This is a game changer with Memjet printing! If you need to clean your print head mid print job then you can pause the machine, clean and then carry on. With the L801 you will need to cut the material. This doesn’t matter for everyone but in reason 2 you’ll see when this becomes a must.

If you are linking your Memjet printer to a finisher or using giant rolls of material you really won’t want to cut the material once it’s threaded up and running. The L901 is a must for these situations for the reason above. You really don’t want to be cutting material and splicing back together if it can be avoided.

The L901 in the DLP2100 Digital Label Press – Afinia DLP2100

Afinia have priced the inks on the L901 to be less than the L801. Both printers have 5 x 250ml ink tanks (CYMKK) but a single ink the in L801 is £130 and the L901 is £115. This does obviously make a difference in print cost making the L901 more efficient to use. I hear you thinking you need to print a lot of labels to start seeing a cost benefit when compared to the L801. You’re right but people do print A LOT of labels on these machines over many years.

The L901 has an inbuilt colour touch screen with instant feedback on ink levels, sensors and what the machine is doing. It can be controlled from this screen and with it’s own built in memory you can recall saved jobs from the screen and send them to print. Sensor tests, media self calibration and better feedback all come with the L901.

Do not get me wrong the L801 is a great printer and by far and away our best seller. But if you need an inline solution, maybe Watershield inks or you just want the latest technology then the L901 is as good as it gets when you’re talking Memjet label printers.

For more information on each printer, samples or a demonstration please get in touch. We run both in-house so you’re welcome to come and see them in action to find out which would be better suited to your needs.

Thank you