Discussion Looking to buy a flatbed uv printer

[Thomas Fischetti]

I am looking to buy a flatbed uv printer to print onto plastic cases. I am interested in the roland and mimaki. What would you guys suggest? Any experience to shed some light on either?

The mimaki is faster and less expensive, but i have heard bad things about their support.

 

[rjssigns]

Mimaki in the lab at school has been great. Only issue as I recall was an ink leak. It is no speed demon but the output is beautiful.

 

[greysquirrel]

the Roland is way too slow....for this application the Mimaki is a better solution

 

[Thomas Fischetti]

the Roland is way too slow....for this application the Mimaki is a better solution

Awesome, thats what I figured. How long have you had your mimaki?

 

[PaPrinter]

We have had the Mimaki JFX 200 2513 for I believe almost 5 years. It's a very good machine for the price. Print quality is very good even at it's fastest and lowest resolution. Service is going to depend on who is in your area. We have no problem with that. If you'd like you can call me, just send me a pm.

John

 

[greysquirrel]

I don't. I used to support the Roland. I had a customer with several Mimaki printers and they loved them. Saw them run and they were pretty fast. They made custom gift cards for Disney

 

[BigfishDM]

I am looking to buy a flatbed uv printer to print onto plastic cases. I am interested in the roland and mimaki. What would you guys suggest? Any experience to shed some light on either?

The mimaki is faster and less expensive, but i have heard bad things about their support.

I am a Mimaki dealer and have a branch in SLC if you are interested.

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

Depending on your size needs look at the vanguard vr5d or vk600d-hs. Price competitive to both but light years faster and more advanced. Paired with their support and higher quality ink it's a winning combo.

 

[Superior_Adam]

We ran a Mimaki JFX200 for 5 years. We had one of the first 9 that came into the states. Loved that machine, just outgrew it. If I had the space I woudl run multiple of them instead of 1.

 

[Solventinkjet]

As most have said here, the JFX200 is a great machine. As far as service goes, ask your dealer two questions. 1. Do you have a Mimaki certified tech who is specifically trained on the JFX on staff? 2. How many units do you have in the field?

If the answer to number 1 is yes, you are in good hands. If they say they don't, you will have to rely on Mimaki which means longer wait time and paying much more for a service call once the machine is out of warranty. The good news is, a properly setup and maintained JFX doesn't require a lot of service calls.

As far as the second answer goes, the more the better. Some smaller dealers might only have 1 or 2 in the field so haven't had a lot of experience servicing them. A tech could go to training and never see the machine again for years until you need a service call. The more machines they have in the field, the more likely they have had to go out on regular service calls.

 

[Wide Image Solutions]

I am looking to buy a flatbed uv printer to print onto plastic cases. I am interested in the roland and mimaki. What would you guys suggest? Any experience to shed some light on either?

The mimaki is faster and less expensive, but i have heard bad things about their support.

We sell Hp. I'll be glad to get you info on that if you like? Thx www.Wideimagesolutions.com

 

[Wide Image Solutions]

Are you planning on doing iPhone cases or? If so it would be best to just print skins. thx www.wideimagesolutions.com

 

[Thomas Fischetti]

Thanks everyone for the input! We are now leaning towards the mimaking jfx200 EX version. Looks to be a super fast and high quality machine. We will probably take out the gloss ink and just have white ink to speed up white backfill printing.

 

[rjssigns]

Thanks everyone for the input! We are now leaning towards the mimaking jfx200 EX version. Looks to be a super fast and high quality machine. We will probably take out the gloss ink and just have white ink to speed up white backfill printing.

May want to play around with the spot "varnish" first. You can turn out some super trick pieces. Should see what comes off the printer in the lab. Matte or gloss in specific areas gives visual texture and tactility.
Of course it all comes down to your core products requirements. With white ink valid pixel may become your best friend.

 

[printcolor]

I bought a JFX200 last year and I love the machine. It works great and we see a lot of potential to service large format needs in the short turnaround on demand market.

I have the CMYK+WW Primer and Clear and I haven't had any problems printing on most anything yet.

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

Thanks everyone for the input! We are now leaning towards the mimaking jfx200 EX version. Looks to be a super fast and high quality machine. We will probably take out the gloss ink and just have white ink to speed up white backfill printing.

Is there a reason you are set on Roland or Mimaki? I would implore you to look at the other options on the market as there are similar priced with much better machines and capabilities out there.

 

[Thomas Fischetti]

Is there a reason you are set on Roland or Mimaki? I would implore you to look at the other options on the market as there are similar priced with much better machines and capabilities out there.

What other brands are you thinking of?

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

There are a few out there now. Ricoh makes the new Roland flatbed, there is also HP R Series. We settled on a Vanguard because it out performs all the other options and the group at Vanguard are super attentive and dedicated to service.

If you have the budget SwissQ makes amazing machine and there is also Entry level Dursts.

 

[JoeDG]

I'd vote for the Roland, but don't htink you get the S-Series in the US.

 

[BigfishDM]

After seeing your other posts on here I do not think you should be purchasing a machine. It appears you do not know the first thing about these machines so your going to go invest $75k+ on something you have zero experience in? Keep outsourcing, you are about to make some expensive mistakes! DO NOT BUY USED!