I want your old UCJV300 / JFX-EZ print heads!

[SGC]

So, like the title says, I want your old/decommissioned Mimaki UCJV300 / JFX-XXXXex print heads.

We print anti slip tape. It’s a head strike nightmare, but the gritty, grainy surface allows us to use heads way past their usual life expectancy. If all channels still fire, I want it! I will gladly pay for the trouble (and shipping). Bonus points if you have a final nozzle test.

There’s nothing more emotionally devastating than putting a $2-3k head in a printer and immediately taking a nozzle destroying head strike. Help me help my mental health. Thanks!

 

[Smoke_Jaguar]

How bad of shape we talking about? I have some that have been completely delaminated. Since they support crossflow, they tend to be stupid easy to flush and are already very long-lasting heads.

 

[SGC]

How bad of shape we talking about? I have some that have been completely delaminated. Since they support crossflow, they tend to be stupid easy to flush and are already very long-lasting heads.

Definitely not total delams. More like regular head strike nozzle loss replacements, or the yuppy folks that won’t up a pass count, replace it. Mild electronic failure where there’s overspray that can’t be accepted on vinyl disappears on the sandpaper.

This is a 1.5 year old set of heads. Head plate is still attached. Sandpaper knows no forgiveness. I can still make a sellable product with this, but we’re on 600x1200 32pass uni, standard. It’s out of hand.

 

[Smoke_Jaguar]

I have some untested pulls kicking around but will have to check on those. I wish Mimaki used the standard 2 channel heads, absolute cheapest deal I can find on a 4 channel is $1921 versus $362 for a 2 channel. Same nozzle count, but not technically compatible without a new head carriage and reprogrammed nozzle spacing parameters. Considered trying to recess the heads?

 

[SGC]

I have some untested pulls kicking around but will have to check on those. I wish Mimaki used the standard 2 channel heads, absolute cheapest deal I can find on a 4 channel is $1921 versus $362 for a 2 channel. Same nozzle count, but not technically compatible without a new head carriage and reprogrammed nozzle spacing parameters. Considered trying to recess the heads?

Yeah, I’m not the biggest fan of how they implemented it all, but I do enjoy the little air purge plugs that disappear like a bad father.

Sweet, let me know what you dig up.

The carriage is modified to about 3x head height to generically avoid head strikes. This is ran on the UCJV, so there’s no constant human prepress oversight on the material itself. It’s truly the trials and tribulations of running a product not meant for printing, that doesn’t get printing product QC, on a roll to roll printer.

It only runs this product, so you just adjust the dpi, passes, and carriage speed to compensate as the material wears down the heads.

I do have a little modification I’m going to try, mounting thin aluminum on the sides of the heads. The material is very rigid, and generally doesn’t pop up in peaks, so the thought is if there’s something for the lift to ride against, it won’t made contact with the heads surface as often. I don’t care about losing the product it’s making for those split moments, I care about being able to run roll to roll without worry.

 

[Smoke_Jaguar]

Sounds like a crazy setup, I love it. Will poke around in the shop tomorrow and see what I have hanging around.

 

[SGC]

Sounds like a crazy setup, I love it. Will poke around in the shop tomorrow and see what I have hanging around.

Crazy is putting it lightly.

Appreciate it!