Mimaki print cut or print only

[gabagoo]

My JV3 is basically in hospice care right now...every print job is an effort to fight banding and overspray... I have decided I will go with another Mimaki .
Just curious for those that have them, how does the print and cut work? Is it reliable or a pain in the butt? I have a Summa d-140 cutter which I have used with my current printer, but even though the Summa cuts great the registration reading can be very aggrevating as it has trouble reading the first mark, making it virtually impossible to speed through production. I figure if I get a print and cut I can have the use of both if possible? So long as I let the printer know which cutter will be doing the job, I am thinking it should work OK?

I have demo Wed but still wonder if the print and cut is the way to go?

 

[Gino]

I think that all depends on your job flow. If you have the summa already, you still won't bottleneck.

 

[Solventinkjet]

I just set up a CJV150 for a customer who was using a JV3 and he's having a ball. I have installed about 100 Mimaki printer/cutters and they are good machines. One main difference between the print only and the print/cut is the pinch rollers. The print only has a better pinch roller setup that prevents buckling. The print/cut has fewer rollers which can cause buckling problem but it's not anything you can't get around. Other than that they are pretty much identical. Also, keep in mind the Mimaki will cut slower than the Summa. Top speed is 30cm per second where as most stand alone cutters can get well above 100. But when you want to do a quick job without laminate it is super efficient compared to loading it in to another cutter. In the end we sell way more printer/cutters but it's usually a space issue. If you have the space for a printer and separate cutter, that is usually what I recommend.

 

[rjssigns]

New Mimaki print/cut in the lab at school. Lots of "miles" on it already. Students are doing partial wraps on 4 squads right now. When the students aren't using it signage for our campus and remote centers is being produced. No issues that I know of except I'm not a fan of Rasterlink. White ink is good too. Can blank out reflective.

 

[TimToad]

My JV3 is basically in hospice care right now...every print job is an effort to fight banding and overspray... I have decided I will go with another Mimaki .
Just curious for those that have them, how does the print and cut work? Is it reliable or a pain in the butt? I have a Summa d-140 cutter which I have used with my current printer, but even though the Summa cuts great the registration reading can be very aggrevating as it has trouble reading the first mark, making it virtually impossible to speed through production. I figure if I get a print and cut I can have the use of both if possible? So long as I let the printer know which cutter will be doing the job, I am thinking it should work OK?

I have demo Wed but still wonder if the print and cut is the way to go?

We've had our new CJV150-130 for less than a week and are really impressed so far. When you set up a job, you get to choose which of the six rollers you want to use and the hold down pressure each applies to your media. I assumed that banner material would get crushed a little and show astripe, but with the four middle rollers set to "low" pressure, they aren't doing it. So far, the few print/cut jobs have gone flawlessly.

Print quality is very good and is even better once I started downloading material/brand specific profiles and using them. The first few days, we were so backed up from going three weeks without our Roland, we just ran things with the couple of preloaded generic profiles and everything still looks great.

 

[iPrintStuff]

I run a CJV30-130 print and cut for years and it was great. Still going strong.

the only reason we had to upgrade was not having a separate cutter gave us a huge bottleneck frequently.

as others have said, the built in cutters don’t tend to be as quick and as accurate but they’re very helpful for keeping things automated. (Just hit cut after print and wander off).

I’ve noticed a massive increase in our productivity since switching to a standalone printer and a summa, it’s great starting to print the other jobs while you have one cutting! Lol.

If you need the space, a print and cut model is great. Probably just worth noting how much time you spend printing, how much time cutting (then multiply the cutting time by 3) and then seeing if you can fit that into your work day. Though the actual printing may be faster so you’ll have to factor that in too.

 

[particleman]

If you're laminating I think using the Summa is much much easier. A friend of mine has your exact setup and uses his Summa 95% of the time rather than cutting on the Mimaki. Not that the Mimaki is bad it is just slower and you'll find the you need to plan ahead because the cut marks are not the same. So even if you ran a job on the summa and had issues you'd still need to reprint it.

I have the d140 Summa also, you've got something going on as that isn't normal for scanning the first dot. Mine did that a while back and it had a very tiny piece of vinyl covering the optical eye. I had to carefully remove with tweezers. There is also a calibration that you can run to dial in the black.

 

[MikePro]

not a fan of the 2-in-1 setups.... I'd rather be printing on one machine while I cut on another. one never slowing-down the other from operation, and keeping your workflow moving-forward.

besides, if you laminate your prints then you have to remove the print anyways, and if you don't trim-off every bit of excess laminate before putting back into your printer to cut, can potentially gum-up the inner workings of your printer.
however, if you cannot afford the ~3ft x 5ft footprint from a plotter in your workspace in addition to the printer, then heck yeah.... multipurpose WOULD be the way to go.

 

[nlnickolatos]

We run two CJV150 machines and a SRIII plotter. It's a great option to have for jobs that don't need lamination, but ultimately I do find it more productive to just have the CJVs printing and then the plotter handling almost all of our cutting - print/cut only for specific jobs where it's been optimized. Even considering getting in another plotter to deal with the minor bottleneck.

The main benefit to having the SRIII for us is the ability to modify cut conditions while a job is actively cutting. If you need to change cut pressure at all on your CJV, you need to stop the job, change what you need, and restart it. Way easier to fix on the plotter.

 

[gabagoo]

If you're laminating I think using the Summa is much much easier. A friend of mine has your exact setup and uses his Summa 95% of the time rather than cutting on the Mimaki. Not that the Mimaki is bad it is just slower and you'll find the you need to plan ahead because the cut marks are not the same. So even if you ran a job on the summa and had issues you'd still need to reprint it.

I have the d140 Summa also, you've got something going on as that isn't normal for scanning the first dot. Mine did that a while back and it had a very tiny piece of vinyl covering the optical eye. I had to carefully remove with tweezers. There is also a calibration that you can run to dial in the black.

If you saw all the processes and tricks I use to get it to see that first reg mark, you would wonder how I figured it all out, but after 12 years and a few hissy fits I have come up with about 6 things I can do and eventually one will work. I have examined the reader and all I can figure is that it probably is damaged, although it has been like this pretty much since new.

 

[gabagoo]

Thanks guys for the input. I will more than likely go for the print only. Does raster link support the Summa? and what about software, do I have to upgrade that as well? I have been using Flexi print and cut for 12 years..I know it, understrand it, don't love it, but I don't want to have to learn new software and slow down production....95% of all my jobs are setup in Signlab and sent across the network and imported by Flexi for print. I suppose I could look into Signlab print module, but again I am an old dog and the only thing I like working on these days is my golf game

 

[TrustMoore_TN]

My JV3 is basically in hospice care right now...every print job is an effort to fight banding and overspray... I have decided I will go with another Mimaki .
Just curious for those that have them, how does the print and cut work? Is it reliable or a pain in the butt? I have a Summa d-140 cutter which I have used with my current printer, but even though the Summa cuts great the registration reading can be very aggrevating as it has trouble reading the first mark, making it virtually impossible to speed through production. I figure if I get a print and cut I can have the use of both if possible? So long as I let the printer know which cutter will be doing the job, I am thinking it should work OK?

I have demo Wed but still wonder if the print and cut is the way to go?

My vote would be to have separate units instead of an all in one personally. If you're going to look at a Mimaki demo at ND Graphics in Concord, have them show you the OKI as well. They have an M64s Colorpainter in the demo room as well as the Mimaki's and HP Latex. If you see the output on the M64, but you don't need that much speed, the E64s is a great little brother to the M. They don't have a demo model there, but the output is virtually the same... 6 colors on the E instead of 7 on the M, and not as quick, but better color and saturation than I've seen on another machine printing 6 pass at 360x360dpi.

 

[gabagoo]

My vote would be to have separate units instead of an all in one personally. If you're going to look at a Mimaki demo at ND Graphics in Concord, have them show you the OKI as well. They have an M64s Colorpainter in the demo room as well as the Mimaki's and HP Latex. If you see the output on the M64, but you don't need that much speed, the E64s is a great little brother to the M. They don't have a demo model there, but the output is virtually the same... 6 colors on the E instead of 7 on the M, and not as quick, but better color and saturation than I've seen on another machine printing 6 pass at 360x360dpi.

Saw the OKI at the show last month...pretty pricey and prints great but they had it set for 8 colour and I will stick with CMYK

 

[TrustMoore_TN]

Saw the OKI at the show last month...pretty pricey and prints great but they had it set for 8 colour and I will stick with CMYK

Cool. FYI, The M64 was at the Canada Sign Expo in ND's booth. The E64s is $14,999 and has a show special going on right now.

 

[gabagoo]

went for the demo yesterday and basically decided to go with the print only single head.... Price is decent. The machine prints better than mine so that's a plus. What I am a little concerned with is that these new machines are not vented. I have venting with an exhaust fan built into the line currently... I suppose I could just run the fan while printing with the new machine and it will move the odor out slowly. I was only at the demo for about 40 minutes but did not like the look of Rasterlink as the only way to rip. I called SAI and I can upgrade my Photo Print for about $1400.00 or I can go subscription for a full Flexi Package for $50 a month.... I like the idea of having the full Flexi as it will allow me to use that work station to also use my Summa for regular vinyl cutting which photo print does not allow. I have a Graphtec for my regular vinyl cutting running off of Signlab at a different work station, but there are times when having 2 cutters available would come in handy. Am I thinking this through properly?

I figure I have about 5 years left before I decide to throw in the towel, but you never know what tomorrow brings...

 

[ams]

I can't speak for Mimaki, but have a Roland print/cut and I will only use them. Having to use a plotter is an extra step that is unneeded and takes up more room.