Suggestions In need of versatile printer

[Jason Thomas]

Hey all! If anyone can make suggestions here... We are running two Epson aqueous printers and a Roland print/cut. Currently we don't have the option to print white ink. We also can't successfully direct print magnetic material. That being said, we do a lot of 2nd surface graphics requiring a white floodcoat along with contour cutting. We also do tons of POP magnetic menu boards. Can anyone recommend a wide format printer that can facilitate white ink, contour cutting and direct to magnetic? We would like to stick to roll to roll, as we don't currently have the footprint for flatbed. Our main RIP is EFI Fiery XF.
Thanks!

 

[Solventinkjet]

The only method I have seen that can print white well is UV printing. Yes solvent printers do offer white but it does not work as well as most people want it to and it clogs the heads faster. UV printers can obtain much better opacity in the whites than any other method. I never recommend printing on magnet on roll to roll printers period. Head strikes become too expensive when the magnet refuses to budge and destroys the print head. They do make printable magnet for solvent and UV printers but use at your own risk. In my opinion it's too risky. One of my customers prints only on magnet material and nothing else. He used to use roll to roll Mutoh machines but soon switched to full sized flatbeds due to issues he had with head strikes and the cost to replace the heads.

Right now the only UV roll to roll printer that also contour cuts and prints white ink from a major manufacturer is the Mimaki UCJV300 and the Roland LEC Series although I have not heard great things about Roland UV Roll to Roll machines. There might be some foil transfer machines out there, like Gerber or Summa, that could do the same thing but I am not well versed in those types of machines. If you wanted to go a little cheaper and go with the solvent, you just might not be satisfied with the white. I would contact Mimaki and see if you can get a sample from each to compare.

 

[Sindex Printing]

I have the Mutoh 1638uh uv printer. I have had nothing but problems with it. It won't recognize any roll media. It will only recognize substrates. I have had problems with color being consist throughout the print. Mutoh and Axiom is scheduled to be out on the 7th for the 5th service call. The machine was installed in late August 2018. When the machine prints correctly the quality is amazing with the white and varnish. This time Mutoh has said it will be fixed or replaced. I did look at some other brands Mutoh gave an amazing deal on the machine (I am starting to see why the deal was that good) hopefully it helps.

 

[BigfishDM]

Hey all! If anyone can make suggestions here... We are running two Epson aqueous printers and a Roland print/cut. Currently we don't have the option to print white ink. We also can't successfully direct print magnetic material. That being said, we do a lot of 2nd surface graphics requiring a white floodcoat along with contour cutting. We also do tons of POP magnetic menu boards. Can anyone recommend a wide format printer that can facilitate white ink, contour cutting and direct to magnetic? We would like to stick to roll to roll, as we don't currently have the footprint for flatbed. Our main RIP is EFI Fiery XF.
Thanks!

I have a few options for you. First would be the Mimaki UCJV, this is a great roll to roll UV machine with a cutter built in and I have had some great success with them so far. If you didn't have to need white ink, I would say go latex all the way. I would also consider mounting adhesive vinyl directly to your magnet substrate. If you are doing a lot of magnetics you might want to check this stuff out also, its an alternative to using magnetic media, you print cheap permanent vinyl and it works like magnetic receptive media:

 

[Superior_Adam]

I would recommend the EFI Pro 16H hybrid UV printer. I print a ton of magnets and clear vinyl/static cling using white ink. The white is very opaque and I run the 48" rolls of magnet as this machine has the roll to roll feature.

 

[Solventinkjet]

Hi Jason - you may want to consider a hybrid UV from one of the 'mid majors' as I call them from Handtop. These 64" hybrids will do rolls or you can print direct to boards up to 2" thick (and magnet). They also have good quality, decent production, and the operating costs of utilizing white ink will be substantially lower than a solvent white. These units won't cut, but you can pick up a separate cutter for a small investment. I'll private message you my email should you want to know more.

This is what Gino is talking about.