Mimaki UJV100-160 vs UCJV300-160?

[FatCat]

Looking to add our first UV roll to roll machine at our shop. Really like the Colorado's but price point is more than our budget, and they seem to be machines made to do long runs and we change material many times throughout the day.

Anyway, looking hard at the UJV100-160 and the UCJV300-160.
The UJV is a dedicated printer, the UCJV is a print/cut machine.
Trying to decide which will be better for what we plan to do with it which will be mostly banners, posters, and misc print and stick (not wrap) vinyl films.

I'm leaning to the less expensive UJV-100-160 because;

1. We really don't need the cut feature, we have a Summa S2-160 and a Summa F1612 flatbed cutter for all the cutting we need. (plus I don't like tying up a printer to cut)

2. I notice the UJV100-160 has a lot more pinch rollers than the UCJV300-160 - which I would "assume" will be better for media handling?

3. Both printers have dual heads, but the UJV has a new style had made by brother, and the UCJV has Ricoh heads...thoughts?

4. Either machine we buy will be setup for dual CMYK for speed - no need for white or other colors...

5. Anything else I'm missing? Other thoughts from current owners?


Thank you much!

 

[Solventinkjet]

2. Absolutely.

3. Even the Mimaki USA guys don't know which head it is in the UJV100. Mimaki Japan is keeping it close to the vest. I have heard maybe brother and maybe a modified custom Epson but no real info about them yet. I do know that the list price for both is around $4k.

4. If you're not going to be using white or clear, get the UJV100. The UCJV300's extra bells and whistles only really make sense when using the white and clear.

 

[White Haus]

I don't have first hand experience with the UJV100 but we've had the UCJV for just over a year.

Couple quick thoughts/comments: I have never used the cutter feature after the original demo/install - I can't be bothered to use Rasterlink. ever. again. We got set up with Onyx Thrive and drive all our cutters/printers from there.

We have CMYKLcLmW - I wish we just had CMYKx2 now as our white work has dried up (no pun intended). I will say the white printing is phenomenal, albeit on the slower side. If you've got any demand for it, this would be a great printer for it.

We also have Summa roll/flatbed cutters and do all of our cutting there.

 

[FatCat]

Well, we settled on the UJV100, seems like a better deal considering we don't need the features of the UCJV.
Will report back with an update once we get it installed and printing!

 

[SLord]

Good day,
We have been the user of this UJV100-160 printer for almost a year.
Everything is fine, but there are problems:
1. Magenta (stops printing), we are told "ink defect", they clean the channel and replace the ink. They put a filter, it doesn't help. We are waiting for the next stop, it's good that not often, for the whole time, this happened twice.
2. The ink cans are not easily removable, the mechanism is plastic, we are afraid to break it. Now, to put a new can, lubricate the rubber rings with silicone. We consider the system with banks to be unsuccessful.

PS: RIP RasterLink is a separate topic, but you get used to everything and adapt to everything.

 

[White Haus]

Well, we settled on the UJV100, seems like a better deal considering we don't need the features of the UCJV.
Will report back with an update once we get it installed and printing!

Congrats! Please do keep us updated once you get it up and running.

 

[APCInk]

the UJV100 is a good choice! Solid technology let us know if we can be of assistance-
CALL US 855-927-2465

 

[1leonchen]

keep us posted. i in the same boat looking a uvj100

 

[JardeRich]

I’ve had a UJV100-160 since April and all is good here. I opted for a separate cutter to maximise throughput. I went for a cmykww version but one thing to consider here - when ordering I had to specify whether the white was laid down before or after the cmyk, you can’t have both. As I understand it you can change the print order on a UCJV.

 

[White Haus]

I’ve had a UJV100-160 since April and all is good here. I opted for a separate cutter to maximise throughput. I went for a cmykww version but one thing to consider here - when ordering I had to specify whether the white was laid down before or after the cmyk, you can’t have both. As I understand it you can change the print order on a UCJV.

Really? Based on the ink configuration/order? That seems really strange.

With our UCJV we've created profiles to do cmykww, wwcmyk, and ww. It was definitely a challenge due to Onyx not having great drivers for the printer when we first got it.

 

[dudeinthemoon]

UCJV has ricoh gen5 printheads which is reliable in one hand but it is a cutter too so there is an ussues with the rollers position always in the other hand. And UCJV has known problems with weak vacuum on the print table but its solvable. UJV has a new modified Brother printheads which was used in textile TS55 printers and has a bad reputation nowadays. UJV still can't print both color and special inks in the same time and has firmware problems. So overall UCJV will be more expensive but efficient

 

[White Haus]

UCJV has ricoh gen5 printheads which is reliable in one hand but it is a cutter too so there is an ussues with the rollers position always in the other hand. And UCJV has known problems with weak vacuum on the print table but its solvable. UJV has a new modified Brother printheads which was used in textile TS55 printers and has a bad reputation nowadays. UJV still can't print both color and special inks in the same time and has firmware problems. So overall UCJV will be more expensive but efficient

When you say the weak vacuum is solvable, do you mind sharing what the fix is? We have had issues with banner media buckling and causing headstrikes on our UCJV. Even with heads raised it's still hit and miss.

Thanks.

 

[dudeinthemoon]

When you say the weak vacuum is solvable, do you mind sharing what the fix is? We have had issues with banner media buckling and causing headstrikes on our UCJV. Even with heads raised it's still hit and miss.

Thanks.

The "fix" is very simple but requires disassembling the print table. UCJV was built on JV150 base which uses the heaters in all three table sections but UV printers doesn't need it so Mimaki just replaced the pre and post heating tables with a few separated pieces of plastic and left insides intact without rebuilding the base. And now there is many unneeded holes in partitions which was used for the wiring plus bad design of plastic tables all this things makes table vacuum useless.
So all you have to do is seal the holes in inner partitions with tape and seal the gaps between the mid table and plastic on both front and rear sides with regular weatherstrip.

 

[White Haus]

The "fix" is very simple but requires disassembling the print table. UCJV was built on JV150 base which uses the heaters in all three table sections but UV printers doesn't need it so Mimaki just replaced the pre and post heating tables with a few separated pieces of plastic and left insides intact without rebuilding the base. And now there is many unneeded holes in partitions which was used for the wiring plus bad design of plastic tables all this things makes table vacuum useless.
So all you have to do is seal the holes in inner partitions with tape and seal the gaps between the mid table and plastic on both front and rear sides with regular weatherstrip.

Great, thank you for sharing that info! I will have a look and see if we can get it taped off.

 

[micadesign]

The "fix" is very simple but requires disassembling the print table. UCJV was built on JV150 base which uses the heaters in all three table sections but UV printers doesn't need it so Mimaki just replaced the pre and post heating tables with a few separated pieces of plastic and left insides intact without rebuilding the base. And now there is many unneeded holes in partitions which was used for the wiring plus bad design of plastic tables all this things makes table vacuum useless.
So all you have to do is seal the holes in inner partitions with tape and seal the gaps between the mid table and plastic on both front and rear sides with regular weatherstrip.

i will give a try too.

 

[micadesign]

thanks for sharing

 

[Pablo583]

I would have gone with the UCJV the Ricoh heads are better. The 100 if your doing white you can’t can’t switch from first surface to second surface. Brand new head Mimaki head no track record. Lower quality print. I’ve installed many UCJV and it’s a cool machine.

 

[xtreme872]

Any updated on these. I have a cjv160-160 and looking at upgrading to a ucjv300 demo my dealer has. Any downsides to uv vs solvent

 

[Solventinkjet]

Any updated on these. I have a cjv160-160 and looking at upgrading to a ucjv300 demo my dealer has. Any downsides to uv vs solvent

I have installed 3 UCJV300 machines and my customers are running them hard. The main drawback of UV is when laminating, you might need heat assist to get the adhesive to lay down into the texture of the ink. Basically, you can feel UV ink sitting on top of the vinyl. Heat assist isn't as popular as it used to be so a lot of people end up having to buy a new one. Other than that, it's less toxic (although you might see the post recently about the guy who has a reaction to the inks) and they don't require heat or time to out gas. Have your dealer print out a job you've already done with solvent to compare.

 

[Notarealsignguy]

I have installed 3 UCJV300 machines and my customers are running them hard. The main drawback of UV is when laminating, you might need heat assist to get the adhesive to lay down into the texture of the ink. Basically, you can feel UV ink sitting on top of the vinyl. Heat assist isn't as popular as it used to be so a lot of people end up having to buy a new one. Other than that, it's less toxic (although you might see the post recently about the guy who has a reaction to the inks) and they don't require heat or time to out gas. Have your dealer print out a job you've already done with solvent to compare.

How does the unlaminated UV ink off of these hold up when compared to SS21?