Mimaki UCJV-300 Reviews

[White Haus]

Just thought I'd post an update after having this unit for about a month.

Learning curve for running a Mimaki and using Rasterlink was a little steeper than I expected! I've been on team Roland for 10 years and always assumed they would be very similar. Lots of differences both physically and mechanically, but mostly improvements. Print quality, speed, take-up/tracking are all very good. We've done some 50-60' runs on it and the roll was nice and straight on the take up. Scratch resistance is even better than I expected. Unlaminated decals look awesome and you don't have to worry about edge curl like solvent. We've printed banner, lots of different vinyl, polyester fabric (just for testing, printed great). We've only been really using it daily for the last couple of weeks but we've run about 2500 sqft with very little hiccups. Only issues we had w/ buckling/head rubs were with an old roll of IJ40 that should have been thrown out years ago, but otherwise it will print on anything you load on it.

Ink consumption is a little heavy compared to what we're used to on our Rolands and Oce Arizona, but I'm hoping that's due to the over-saturated profiles in Rasterlink. We are still patiently waiting for Onyx to figure out their printer drivers/profiles to allow us to create custom cmyk + white profiles for Thrive, so we're unfortunately stuck using Rasterlink in the meantime. If anyone has successfully created custom profiles for Onyx for these units I would love to speak to you.

Print & Cut out of Rasterlink is OK.... again going to be moving to Onyx workflow as soon as possible so we can use the UCJV as print only and cut on our Summa.

All in all very happy with our purchase and once we get the profiles sorted out I'm confident this will be our main printer. Still use our solvent for vehicle graphics, and flatbed for substrates, but this unit has fallen nicely in between our existing printers.

I'm probably forgetting some things, so I'll keep updating as I think of things.

If anyone has any questions about these printers feel free to ask.

 

[CanuckSigns]

Just thought I'd post an update after having this unit for about a month.

Learning curve for running a Mimaki and using Rasterlink was a little steeper than I expected! I've been on team Roland for 10 years and always assumed they would be very similar. Lots of differences both physically and mechanically, but mostly improvements. Print quality, speed, take-up/tracking are all very good. We've done some 50-60' runs on it and the roll was nice and straight on the take up. Scratch resistance is even better than I expected. Unlaminated decals look awesome and you don't have to worry about edge curl like solvent. We've printed banner, lots of different vinyl, polyester fabric (just for testing, printed great). We've only been really using it daily for the last couple of weeks but we've run about 2500 sqft with very little hiccups. Only issues we had w/ buckling/head rubs were with an old roll of IJ40 that should have been thrown out years ago, but otherwise it will print on anything you load on it.

Ink consumption is a little heavy compared to what we're used to on our Rolands and Oce Arizona, but I'm hoping that's due to the over-saturated profiles in Rasterlink. We are still patiently waiting for Onyx to figure out their printer drivers/profiles to allow us to create custom cmyk + white profiles for Thrive, so we're unfortunately stuck using Rasterlink in the meantime. If anyone has successfully created custom profiles for Onyx for these units I would love to speak to you.

Print & Cut out of Rasterlink is OK.... again going to be moving to Onyx workflow as soon as possible so we can use the UCJV as print only and cut on our Summa.

All in all very happy with our purchase and once we get the profiles sorted out I'm confident this will be our main printer. Still use our solvent for vehicle graphics, and flatbed for substrates, but this unit has fallen nicely in between our existing printers.

I'm probably forgetting some things, so I'll keep updating as I think of things.

If anyone has any questions about these printers feel free to ask.

Hey Pat, what is the smell like on these printers? I know when we get UV printed banners from 4over as soon as you open the box there is a very strong smell that takes over the shop, any issues with that?

 

[iPrintStuff]

We use rasterlink 6 and onyx. After using rasterlink 5 for years and recently switching to 6, I actually think they went backwards. The visuals across the whole thing are massively dated and everything seems like it takes 5 steps more than it needs to.

even on 5, you just got one little thumbnail for each job, be it p&c or just print. with RL6 you now get a little extra unnecessary bit that also shows the cut file. Then another bit for the reg marks.

the difference between RL and onyx is night and day.

we looked at the UCJV but I think it just looked a bit slow for us. I hear the white is good though.

 

[White Haus]

Hey Pat, what is the smell like on these printers? I know when we get UV printed banners from 4over as soon as you open the box there is a very strong smell that takes over the shop, any issues with that?

Hey Scott, smell isn't horrible. All UV prints have a pretty strong smell, and this one is no different but once the prints are fully cured the smell almost completely goes away. Much better than our Oce flatbed prints, you can smell those even after months of being printed. It does smell quite a bit when it's printing but other than that it goes away.

Hope you guys are doing good and keeping busy!

 

[White Haus]

We use rasterlink 6 and onyx. After using rasterlink 5 for years and recently switching to 6, I actually think they went backwards. The visuals across the whole thing are massively dated and everything seems like it takes 5 steps more than it needs to.

even on 5, you just got one little thumbnail for each job, be it p&c or just print. with RL6 you now get a little extra unnecessary bit that also shows the cut file. Then another bit for the reg marks.

the difference between RL and onyx is night and day.

we looked at the UCJV but I think it just looked a bit slow for us. I hear the white is good though.

Yeah the white is super good. Very happy with it.

But yeah, Rasterlink is a joke. The poorly translating wording and 16 tabs to accomplish something that should be done on one screen are killing me. Not to mention that it freezes almost every time you switch between tabs. What would take 30 seconds in Onyx takes 10 minutes in Rasterlink.

 

[amazing]

Anyone out there running one of these units? I've searched through the threads and still seems like there aren't many people out there using them.

Any success or horror stories? What are you using it for, and is there anything you haven't been able to print with it?

I'm seriously considering one to fit in between our Roland XR-640 and Oce Arizona flatbed. We would go with the LUS 170 CMYKLcLm and LUS200 White, and possibly the clear/varnish. I've heard clear/varnish can be a pain but I've also heard the same about white and it works great on our Roland/Oce.

I've seen the stock samples and have had Mimaki print some samples on our material and everything looks good so far. I just need to test out laminating some of the prints to make sure the laminate lays down nice without silvering.

Just looking for some real user feedback.

Thanks in advance.

I have been running this machine for 3weeks now really like it but I have lots of head strikes on lots of different material never had this problem running the jv33 anyone else having this problem if sole I would love to talked to you on how to solve the problem

 

[lubo1972]

We have UCJ300-160 for almost 2 years. Main problem is HUGE ink consumption. It is our 3rd UV printer and I haven't seen that big ink waste. When it is printing, printer spit every 3-4 passes. It is not needed for UV printers, but Mimaki made it that way. After 2 years, real consumption is 14ml of ink per square meter! Almost half is waste. Every month we throw 1 liter of waste ink!

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

14ml per sqm? That's actually on par with most machines. Our latexes average 14.25ml/Sqm or 1.33ml a sqft, that's with 10 years of tracking.

 

[White Haus]

I have been running this machine for 3weeks now really like it but I have lots of head strikes on lots of different material never had this problem running the jv33 anyone else having this problem if sole I would love to talked to you on how to solve the problem

We've only run into head strikes a couple of times. Was more "head rubs" in the center of the media and only happened with 3M IJ40C and 3M IJ180cv3. Tried messing with vacuum settings and pinch roller pressure and placement and was able to get the jobs done, but haven't really found out why it happened then and how to prevent it. It was definitely frustrating at the time.

We have UCJ300-160 for almost 2 years. Main problem is HUGE ink consumption. It is our 3rd UV printer and I haven't seen that big ink waste. When it is printing, printer spit every 3-4 passes. It is not needed for UV printers, but Mimaki made it that way. After 2 years, real consumption is 14ml of ink per square meter! Almost half is waste. Every month we throw 1 liter of waste ink!

I was also pretty shocked with the ink consumption. According to Rasterlink (which I don't really trust/believe anyways) the amount of ink it uses per job is pretty bad. Especially when you're printing white. We are hoping this will be reduced once we start profiling, but still at a dead end with that. Apparently the Onyx profiles they provided aren't set up correctly, so still waiting. In the meantime we're just using the few canned profiles in onyx or rasterlink that work, which lay down a ton of ink unnecessarily.

Will keep you guys posted with our progress.

 

[TomK]

We've only run into head strikes a couple of times. Was more "head rubs" in the center of the media and only happened with 3M IJ40C and 3M IJ180cv3. Tried messing with vacuum settings and pinch roller pressure and placement and was able to get the jobs done, but haven't really found out why it happened then and how to prevent it. It was definitely frustrating at the time.



I was also pretty shocked with the ink consumption. According to Rasterlink (which I don't really trust/believe anyways) the amount of ink it uses per job is pretty bad. Especially when you're printing white. We are hoping this will be reduced once we start profiling, but still at a dead end with that. Apparently the Onyx profiles they provided aren't set up correctly, so still waiting. In the meantime we're just using the few canned profiles in onyx or rasterlink that work, which lay down a ton of ink unnecessarily.

Will keep you guys posted with our progress.

Just curious a few months out, how is the UCJV300 working for you? Any regrets?

 

[lubo1972]

14ml per sqm? That's actually on par with most machines. Our latexes average 14.25ml/Sqm or 1.33ml a sqft, that's with 10 years of tracking.

Our JV300 overal consumption is 11ml/sq.m. Our two roll UV with KonicaMinolta KM512 heads used 8-9 ml/sq.m , so that 14ml for UCJV is more than we are expected.

 

[Solventinkjet]

Ink consumption is based on the color profile you use.

 

[bigben]

Ink consumption is based on the color profile you use.

It was the question I was gonna ask. Is it canned or custom profiles. I always create my own profiles.

 

[adsababy]

I have been running mine for 4 months now and ink consumption is heavy, a few head strikes but usually when I do not pull the material forward to attach to the take up (to save wasting material). I really like the machine but I am having major issues with laminating, specifically silvering. Does an one have any recommendations for vinyls and matching laminates?

 

[APCInk]

Just wanted to chime in on this thread regarding the Head Strikes. Just like the JV150/300, CJVs etc that share a similar design, the media generally lays very flat going thru the machine, so head strikes should not really be an issue. One important thing to check is that both the Feed Roll Holders and the Take-Up Roll holders are mounted square to the machine - If not, the media will walk, loose tension on one edge and then start to lift up off the platen.

Best way to test for this is to load empty media cores on the machine, then take a very thin, flexible measuring tape, hook it to the right-most pinch roller, loop it down around the core and then back up to a reference point of your choosing on the tape. Repeat again at the left end of the machine and make sure the distance measured is the same, within 1/16" or so. If not, then you'll need to loosen the mounts adjust the roll-holders so you get the same measurement left and right. Check the same way for feed too. I've corrected a lot of head-strike issues this way.

 

[APCInk]

In regards to the original question posed, we've been selling the UCJV300 since they were first released, have a lot of them out in the field and really can't say a bad thing about them. Certainly not the fastest machine out there when configured 6-color + white, but makes up for that by being extremely stable to run unattended. Also I'd say the the versatility is practically unrivaled. Here's a list of applications we've tested and have customers using regularly:

- Vehicle Graphics (including partial wraps)
- Lightbox and illuminated channel letter graphics (the UV inks offer very nice dense colors and solid blacks that don't "pinhole")
- Double-sided window decals (think of a "Push-Pull" door sign for example)
- Color/White/Color Frontlit/backlit graphics
- Optically clear window films such as Lintec Wincos (requires the LUS-200 white if not laminating)
- Decals on special effect sign vinyls (i.e. White under color on Chrome, Gold, Fluoro, Engine Turn etc.)
- Commercial-Grade Pasted Wallpaper (scuff resistance is excellent without any additional clear-coating)
- Package Prototyping on coated, card-stock, acetate, metallic foils, etc. (clear ink works really well in this application)
- Fabric Banner and SEG Graphics (works best with a fabric with a urethane or rubberized back-coating making it more stable during feeding)
- Membrane switches, control-panel overlays and other industrial apps (the UV inks adhere well to Polyester films, which Solvent and Latex will not)

If anyone ever has any specific application questions, feel free to reach out. Like many in the industry right now, myself and our techs have some free-time on our hands!

-DM

 

[Norman Clifton]

Awesome!! If you ever have questions, never hesitate to reach out! I've spent a lot of time toggling this machine. I think you're gonna love it!

Hello Sophie - was hoping you could help me as well - I have the 300 and love it as well - hard to get good advice from suppliers and Mimaki - apparently this will direct print/cut on roll magnet - any experience with that? also on 5 layer printing on static cling the white doesn't look white on both sides - goes to awful shade - i see someone post 32 passes - haven't tried that - anyway any light you can shed would be great CMYK LM LC ww 170 inks ---

 

[Retro Graphics]

I know this is an old thread, but figured I'd toss my hat in the ring if anyone was still curious. I just bought the UCVJ300-160 last July, I'm running the LUS-170 w/White. Let me add this is my first printer and up until recently I have only been using a cutter. So I've been learning the machine on the fly. I work in Flexi but export and import from Illustrator and Photoshop as needed. As far as maintenance it's pretty easy going. I did have to replace the cap sponge after 6 months, and the inks are just starting to expire, which has me wanting to use up as much ink now as possible. The ink containers through my vendor are $150/ea,, I haven't looked into 3rd party inks or chip coders yet but have heard of them.

For the most part I love the printing and have printed lettering smaller than a quarter inch with more precision than my 30" plotter would cut. I am under the impression that unless you are printing heavy contour stuff like vehicle wraps (bumpers and the sort), then you don't need the 200.

Originally I was debating between the HP365 and this one, both because of the Low-VOCs and operating out of my basement, I'd rather not be huffing fumes. That being said, if you are printing 1200x1200 you are going to smell it in the next room over, if you're printing a 600x600 you won't smell a thing.

Issues I've had are mostly related to the cutting aspect on this machine. have had issues cutting perf vinyl. The holes confuse the eye and it can't find the right crop marks. I've lost more than a couple perf prints that way. So we are cautious on doing perf jobs that require crop marks now.

I have had larger jobs come completely off alignment when cutting. Perfect example, I was printing my first sign for my shop and wanted to try cutting after laminating because I needed the practice. Two identical pieces, literally selected 2 prints, and the first one cut with an extra half inch on the side, so of course I had to manually trim it after. Had other times where the cut would either be short or over.

If anything, I suspect most of my problems are from RasterLink more so than the machine. Tonight I sent a job from Flexi to RasterLink and as it rendered it, it decided some of the letters didn't need their fill... so I have a 43" x 38" print and one of the letters is printed hollow. At this point I'm going to look to see if I can just set up everything to run through Flexi.

 

[Retro Graphics]

Hello Sophie - was hoping you could help me as well - I have the 300 and love it as well - hard to get good advice from suppliers and Mimaki - apparently this will direct print/cut on roll magnet - any experience with that? also on 5 layer printing on static cling the white doesn't look white on both sides - goes to awful shade - i see someone post 32 passes - haven't tried that - anyway any light you can shed would be great CMYK LM LC ww 170 inks ---

When I asked my vendor about running magnets on the machine, his advice was, the risk of damaging the head is very high and it would be safer to print on to a vinyl and apply it to the magnetic.

 

[Norman Clifton]

I have been running mine for 4 months now and ink consumption is heavy, a few head strikes but usually when I do not pull the material forward to attach to the take up (to save wasting material). I really like the machine but I am having major issues with laminating, specifically silvering. Does an one have any recommendations for vinyls and matching laminates?

We upgraded our laminator for heat assist and it makes a big difference for us and gets rid of silvering - heating the laminate as it applies makes it softer and more pliable - before that we were using a laminate with thick adhesive to help reduce silvering