Mimaki vs Roland

[aboom]

So, I have had my Mimaki CJV150-130 for about 3 years now and I have had nothing but issues with it. It is never the same issue twice either, its always something new. It is my first printer so I still consider myself a rookie. I have taught myself everything except for the LIMITED amount I have been able to find on the internet.

With that being said it just seems like I am always fighting to keep this printer going. Is the Roland a much more consistent machine? It seems like no one uses a Mimaki in the area of graphics I make - mostly motocross and snowmobile graphics. Everyone seems to have Roland.

Are you able to expect the same results every time with a Roland? My Mimaki has a Jekyl and Hyde personality. Sometimes it works GREAT, sometimes it has a mind of its own it seems like.


Thanks in advance for any input!

 

[netsol]

seems like you want to keep WHATEVER equipmentbyou have under contract with SOMEONE.
our rolands are OLD, but we maintain our own. get a good working relationship with a service company.
i am not sure IF THERE ARE independents willing to maintain your equipment with an extended warranty.

 

[aboom]

seems like you want to keep WHATEVER equipmentbyou have under contract with SOMEONE.
our rolands are OLD, but we maintain our own. get a good working relationship with a service company.
i am not sure IF THERE ARE independents willing to maintain your equipment with an extended warranty.

I had a lot of issues with Mimaki Techs working on this thing and I believe that is part of the issue. There was loose hardware all over the place after assembly.

I've learned my lesson on letting other people work on my stuff. Thanks for the input though!

 

[IsItFasst]

I feel your pain but a tech is a tech sometimes. I have a couple of Rolands. One I have had for over 12 years and I bought it used (SP-300V). A year or two after I got it I had some problem (can't even remember the issue now). Had a tech come out and their response was "lets replace part xxxx first because it is cheapest". I was amazed to learn this is kind of industry standard (just throw parts at it until it starts working). Well every trip he showed up with a new part and nothing fixed it. He finally gave up and just had no idea what the issue was. After some exploring the machine myself I noticed he had plugged in one of the ribbon cables backwards. This is a very rookie mistake and would have saved me thousands of dollars if he would've noticed HE did that when replacing one of the first items. Since then, no one but myself has worked on my machine. I too prefer to work on my own vehicles for similar experiences with mechanics. There are plenty of good ones out there, but sometimes they overlook the obvious. If I do it, it's normally MUCH cheaper.

I will say my Rolands have gotten better with age...but that is partially because of more preventative maintenance. I keep most disposable items in stock (like dampers, cap tops, wipers, etc.) and change them as soon as it shows signs they need to be replaced. I did have one Roland years ago that I bought refurbished that only made about 3 good prints. I spent thousands of dollars on that machine replacing about everything possible trying to get it to work and finally just threw it in the dumpster.

 

[Solventinkjet]

The reason techs are so hit and miss is because the training usually consists of learning how to install the printer and not how to troubleshoot and fix it. It does go through how to change a head but that's mostly so you can learn how to do the alignments at install. After that the tech has to just rely on the tech manual and experience. In a lot of cases, the tech manual literally tells you to throw parts at it and gives you the order you should change them. So an experienced tech is usually better at skipping the ones they know won't fix it and getting to the right one quicker. But if you get a newbie they will just follow the manual. The problem is that in order to get experienced techs you need to let the newbies learn in the field.

As far as OP's question goes, take this with a grain of salt because I'm a Mimaki dealer but, Roland has become very aggressive against self repair recently and Mimaki is still relatively open. Roland's old models were bombproof and easy to work on yourself when they did go down. The new ones lock you out of service mode so you can't do head alignments etc. So if you want to be able to repair on your own, Mimaki is probably better.

 

[Gene@mpls]

We are on our 3rd RF-640 and have not had a problem that I did not cause.

 

[signheremd]

We have a Roland XR-640 and it has been bulletproof. But then the company that sold it to us has been a great resource too. I don't know if the newer Rolands are still as good, but the only issue we have had was a head went bad under warranty (head crash). It has just been a workhorse. That said, we leave it plugged and on in all the time and run it through a cleaning cycle every weekday morning.

 

[Notarealsignguy]

A lot of problems are operator error. As with any business, you have to know how to fix your own tools if you don't want to be at the mercy of someone else. Doesn't matter if it's new or not, it all breaks. Think of a warranty more as catastrophic coverage rather than a service plan and you cant expect any dealer or manufacturer to be at your beck and call. . All of these printers are virtually the same, if you can't figure one out, you're gonna struggle with all of them.