Mimaki UV vs HP Latex

[artofacks1]

Hello,

We print a lot of white on clear and white as a base with color on top using clear. We been using Edge FX for years to accomplish this.

We do have several HP 300 series printers but want a large format printer that does white as well.

I narrowed down to the Mimaki UJV100/300 or the Latex 700W/800w

Needs: white on clear
Oder is important
Double sided prints?
Which has better quality
We laminate 90%of our prints
Which is faster at high quality settings
Which is more accurate to match colors seen on screen

Thanks for the feedback and help!

 

[balstestrat]

700/800 doesn't have automatic double sided. But if you are thinking about white then 3/5-layer print is no problem. However speed is not something you can measure there

 

[Splash0321]

I have a 700w. From the moment I send a print it takes easily 6-7 minutes or so to warm up before it will even start printing. I’ve watched video comparisons of the UVJ and the 700/800 series HPs and the Mimaki is halfway through the print before the HP starts printing. The hp has a faster print speed but they don’t tell you about the time it takes to warm up. 95% of what I do is on black or clear and it performs well in that arena.

The highest quality prints we do take about 10 minutes per foot. Six feet takes about an hour on 32 pass profiles. Alternatively. The same print at 8 pass only takes 8-10 minutes and is indistinguishable from the high quality print from about 12’ away.

The speed of the 700/800 makes up ground on the Mimaki ujv if you are printing long jobs or multiple jobs back to back and the printer doesn’t cool down and have to warm up again for the next print.

I would be curious to hear about the maintenance requirements of the UJV though. My HP latex is almost maintenance free.

When we print on white vinyl we have no problems with color matching. Printing on black and clear we have had to do test prints and make adjustments on the fly to get the desired colors. The color calibration feature isn’t available for most of the vinyl profiles we use…especially the black vinyl. Profiles for black vinyl is almost nonexistent.

 

[Scotchbrite]

We were in this debate ourselves recently. We got test prints of both the HP 700 and ucjv 300. They were very close but we felt the ucjv was just a little better. That on top of the other features it offers, we decided on the mimaki.

We also have an HP 560 that is still our "workhorse".

The mimaki does have daily cleaning to do. It takes less than 5 minutes but it's not as hands off as the HP. In line with that is weekly stuff to do and a few longer term maintenance items. Our first printer was a JV3 and the ucjv300 has much the same cleaning/maintenance requirements.

I like that the mimaki does not need to have the print loaded on the take up reel. It's not necessarily efficient but I can print on small scrap pieces of vinyl which is nice for testing out different materials and printing methods.

I'm very happy with the back-lit prints which is the main reason we bought it. All the other things we can do are bonus for our shop.

 

[artofacks1]

We were in this debate ourselves recently. We got test prints of both the HP 700 and ucjv 300. They were very close but we felt the ucjv was just a little better. That on top of the other features it offers, we decided on the mimaki.

We also have an HP 560 that is still our "workhorse".

The mimaki does have daily cleaning to do. It takes less than 5 minutes but it's not as hands off as the HP. In line with that is weekly stuff to do and a few longer term maintenance items. Our first printer was a JV3 and the ucjv300 has much the same cleaning/maintenance requirements.

I like that the mimaki does not need to have the print loaded on the take up reel. It's not necessarily efficient but I can print on small scrap pieces of vinyl which is nice for testing out different materials and printing methods.

I'm very happy with the back-lit prints which is the main reason we bought it. All the other things we can do are bonus for our shop.

How do you like the white on clear features?

 

[Superior_Adam]

If you are laminating the the latex will be the way to go. UV ink is much thicker especially adding white.

 

[balstestrat]

I have a 700w. From the moment I send a print it takes easily 6-7 minutes or so to warm up before it will even start printing.

Do you keep your white printheads in the carriage 24/7? It's not normal for it to take that long, unless it's the first print of the day.

 

[ikarasu]

hows thr white on the UV printer? I saw some samples when we bought our latex, and it was very see through and slightly yellowish - We dont print white much, so it didnt bother us, but a lot of people say how much better latex white is over any other white... and seeing those examples I could see why.

We also had white on our flatbed - We disabled it once we got our Latex white... again, no comparison! The latex was much whiter and more opaque

 

[artofacks1]

We were in this debate ourselves recently. We got test prints of both the HP 700 and ucjv 300. They were very close but we felt the ucjv was just a little better. That on top of the other features it offers, we decided on the mimaki.

We also have an HP 560 that is still our "workhorse".

The mimaki does have daily cleaning to do. It takes less than 5 minutes but it's not as hands off as the HP. In line with that is weekly stuff to do and a few longer term maintenance items. Our first printer was a JV3 and the ucjv300 has much the same cleaning/maintenance requirements.

I like that the mimaki does not need to have the print loaded on the take up reel. It's not necessarily efficient but I can print on small scrap pieces of vinyl which is nice for testing out different materials and printing methods.

I'm very happy with the back-lit prints which is the main reason we bought it. All the other things we can do are bonus for our shop.

Do you laminate your uv prints ?

 

[P Wagner]

I have a 700w. From the moment I send a print it takes easily 6-7 minutes or so to warm up before it will even start printing.

The highest quality prints we do take about 10 minutes per foot. Six feet takes about an hour on 32 pass profiles. Alternatively. The same print at 8 pass only takes 8-10 minutes and is indistinguishable from the high quality print from about 12’ away.

The speed of the 700/800 makes up ground on the Mimaki ujv if you are printing long jobs or multiple jobs back to back and the printer doesn’t cool down and have to warm up again for the next print.

I would be curious to hear about the maintenance requirements of the UJV though. My HP latex is almost maintenance free.

When we print on white vinyl we have no problems with color matching. Printing on black and clear we have had to do test prints and make adjustments on the fly to get the desired colors. The color calibration feature isn’t available for most of the vinyl profiles we use…especially the black vinyl. Profiles for black vinyl is almost nonexistent.

The newest firmware (PLS_40_22_52.1 released last week) is reducing the Preparing to Print time further. Note that the issue is not warm-up time, it is the time it takes to complete the Optical Drop Detection and auto-clean sequence. For the first print of the day, this time should be between 3-5 minutes. For subsequent jobs that day, the time should be between 50 seconds and 3 minutes per job. Note that if you have carriage crashes, this will elongate the PtP time as the printer will need to auto-remediate the effects of the crash on printheads.

 

[Scotchbrite]

How do you like the white on clear features?

Works good. I've done more of color on clear where I'm printing a white base and then a color over that.

hows thr white on the UV printer? I saw some samples when we bought our latex, and it was very see through and slightly yellowish - We dont print white much, so it didnt bother us, but a lot of people say how much better latex white is over any other white... and seeing those examples I could see why.

We also had white on our flatbed - We disabled it once we got our Latex white... again, no comparison! The latex was much whiter and more opaque

I'm happy with the white. It's definitely not yellowish at all. I printed white directly on a metallic blue vinyl and it looked good. Below is a picture of the print where you can see the printed white in comparison with the backing paper.

Do you laminate your uv prints ?

We laminate the prints for back lit faces. We've been using 3M 8518 laminate which is a thin cast material. The cast laminate was recommended to me by others because it conform to the UV print. Also highly recommend to use a heat assisted laminator. This has worked well for us.

 

[White Haus]

We laminate the prints for back lit faces. We've been using 3M 8518 laminate which is a thin cast material. The cast laminate was recommended to me by others because it conform to the UV print. Also highly recommend to use a heat assisted laminator. This has worked well for us.

How long have your sign faces been out in the wild? I'm curious how long it takes for these inks to start fading.

We wrapped a fleet of cube vans 1.5 years ago and they still look mint from what I've seen.

 

[Splash0321]

Do you keep your white printheads in the carriage 24/7? It's not normal for it to take that long, unless it's the first print of the day.

I only swap out the white printheads over the weekend or if im not printing with them the next day. This is the only printer I have ever owned but I've timed it on numerous occasions and first print of the day doesnt start for easily 5 minutes. If my next print isnt sent for an hour after a previous print it still takes several minutes before it will start printing.

I will note that I have had alot of problems with this printer and I finally had HP agree to swap this one out with a new printer. I was told by service techs that the earlier 700s/800s had alot of problems but most of that was worked out on later production models. I'll be happy to provide an up date on the new printer once I get it.

 

[Scotchbrite]

How long have your sign faces been out in the wild? I'm curious how long it takes for these inks to start fading.

We wrapped a fleet of cube vans 1.5 years ago and they still look mint from what I've seen.

We just got the printer in December so the few we've done still look great. Haha!

Zendavor Signs has had a UCJV300 for some time, maybe he can give some good feedback.

 

[Zendavor Signs]

We just got the printer in December so the few we've done still look great. Haha!

Zendavor Signs has had a UCJV300 for some time, maybe he can give some good feedback.

We put a cast laminate on all prints. We have had prints out for several years and have not noticed any fading or issues.

 

[artofacks1]

I finally got my 700w printer installed and the print quality with 100 underfloor white is awesome! The print speeds are slow though but I’m comparing them to my Gerber Edge FX. which is a pain in its own right since you need a manual operator to change colors out. May be faster but I don’t want to have to manually change colors out anymore lol

I could have printed this on white material but wanted to try the white on clear and provide a clear edge to the decal.

 

[Krissy Louderback]

Works good. I've done more of color on clear where I'm printing a white base and then a color over that.


I'm happy with the white. It's definitely not yellowish at all. I printed white directly on a metallic blue vinyl and it looked good. Below is a picture of the print where you can see the printed white in comparison with the backing paper.

View attachment 164174


We laminate the prints for back lit faces. We've been using 3M 8518 laminate which is a thin cast material. The cast laminate was recommended to me by others because it conform to the UV print. Also highly recommend to use a heat assisted laminator. This has worked well for us.

Does the heat assist laminator actually really make a difference on laminating UV? I recently got a UV printer and the first thing we laminated was black and I was so disappointed. I talked to my Mimaki rep and he siad "i guess I should have told you that you needed a heat assist laminator". I don't mind springing for one if it actually works well. But I also worry about the laminate stretching because it is heated, and then as it cools and shrinks back that it will pull the print. I had one shop owner tell me that within a week of installing the vinyl, the laminate pulled all the way off the print.

 

[Krissy Louderback]

hows thr white on the UV printer? I saw some samples when we bought our latex, and it was very see through and slightly yellowish - We dont print white much, so it didnt bother us, but a lot of people say how much better latex white is over any other white... and seeing those examples I could see why.

We also had white on our flatbed - We disabled it once we got our Latex white... again, no comparison! The latex was much whiter and more opaque

I have the Mimaki and the white is not yellowish at all, but the clear is.

 

[DL Signs]

Does the heat assist laminator actually really make a difference on laminating UV? I recently got a UV printer and the first thing we laminated was black and I was so disappointed. I talked to my Mimaki rep and he siad "i guess I should have told you that you needed a heat assist laminator". I don't mind springing for one if it actually works well. But I also worry about the laminate stretching because it is heated, and then as it cools and shrinks back that it will pull the print. I had one shop owner tell me that within a week of installing the vinyl, the laminate pulled all the way off the print.

Heat assist doesn't put that much heat into the mix, I'd say 110-120 degrees, about the same as the heaters on a roll printer, but it's enough to help it bond and conform better, especially to the rougher print surface latex & uv inks leave. Just like with anything printed, solvent, aquious, uv, it doesn't matter, always best to let it sit, cure, and off-gas before laminating too. That's the biggest cause of laminate prematurely failing.

 

[P Wagner]

I have the Mimaki and the white is not yellowish at all, but the clear is.

UV cure inks always contain photoinitiators, which are inherently yellowish in color. In order to hide the photoinitiators, UV white inks include dye-based colorants.

Dyes break down quickly when exposed to sunlight, so the UV white inks start out white, but yellow significantly over time with repeated exposure to sunlight or other UV sources.