Opinion Considering purchasing a small UV printer need advice/opinions

[ArtBR]

Hello all, I am new to Signs 101 and am looking for advice / opinions on a flatbed printer.

A little background about my company: We have been in business for 15 years and specialize in fine art and photography reproduction along with hi resolution scanning of artwork. We have a couple Canon printers and did have a UV hybrid printer we sold earlier in the year.

I am considering a small UV Printer to produce more unique and personalized items that our clients and prospective clients are asking for. So far I have gotten information and pricing and on the Logojet UVx40r and Mimaki UJF 6042mkII. I will also get info on the Mutoh version of small UV and Direct Color Systems too.

I have multiple questions on the 2 printers I have gotten info on that I would like to get from endusers as opposed to sales people. Inks, maintenance, parts, heads, user friendly, etc
I was hoping there may be a few users of this equipment on here that may share there experience with the equipment and support

 

[Superior_Adam]

We have the original versions of the Mimaki 6042 and 3042. There have been some major changes with the MKII. Ours have the Ricoh heads and I believe the MKII machines switched over to Toshiba. We have had 1 service call on both printers in the last 7 years. Not sure about the MKII users, it will be interesting to see if anyone has had issues.

 

[ArtBR]

We have the original versions of the Mimaki 6042 and 3042. There have been some major changes with the MKII. Ours have the Ricoh heads and I believe the MKII machines switched over to Toshiba. We have had 1 service call on both printers in the last 7 years. Not sure about the MKII users, it will be interesting to see if anyone has had issues.

Thanks Superior for the info. The heads are one of my biggest concerns. 4 heads @ $3000 ea plus the service tech travel and time (vendor says not user replaceable). Supposed to last at least several years if maintained but I have my doubts.

 

[dburner]

There appear to be significant differences between inks in terms of adherence to different substrates, with or without pretreatment. We currently have a DCS, and many things we were told the ink would adhere to we haven’t been successful with. But of course it depends on what you’re trying to print on and what pretreatment you use.

 

[ArtBR]

There appear to be significant differences between inks in terms of adherence to different substrates, with or without pretreatment. We currently have a DCS, and many things we were told the ink would adhere to we haven’t been successful with. But of course it depends on what you’re trying to print on and what pretreatment you use.

Researching the printers I have noticed that and quite a difference in pricing on inks depending on the manufacturer. trying to gather as much information on all the factors before moving forward. Thanks for the info on the inks

 

[petepaz]

one thing i have learned over the years, if you can afford it go bigger than you think you need right now. not sure exactly what type of items you will be printing but if you have the room and the money go 4x8. also which ever model you get i would recommend a flatbed with a vacuum table not a roller feed. we have a roland LEJ-640 and it's great a real work horse it runs everyday, almost all day but being roll fed we have some issues, material skewing during printing, material being to heavy and it gets stuck/slips, two sided prints can be off 1/4" or more

 

[ArtBR]

one thing i have learned over the years, if you can afford it go bigger than you think you need right now. not sure exactly what type of items you will be printing but if you have the room and the money go 4x8. also which ever model you get i would recommend a flatbed with a vacuum table not a roller feed. we have a roland LEJ-640 and it's great a real work horse it runs everyday, almost all day but being roll fed we have some issues, material skewing during printing, material being to heavy and it gets stuck/slips, two sided prints can be off 1/4" or more

totally agree Pete, we had uv hybrid that fit our needs wonderfully for several years and did great work. Our clients needs have changed, one of there reasons to look smaller and with a flatbed