Roland or Mimaki UV for Glass

[msheffield]

I'm considering the Roland VersaUV LEF-200 or the Mimaki UJF 3042HG for printing mostly on glass and acrylics. I've read several posts and pages but haven't really seen enough to make me choose one over the other. I've seen people say they have had ups and downs on both with it. From the people who own one, what has been your experience with them and what worked / what didn't? Really don't want to make a $30k mistake. Thanks

 

[chinaski]

I work in a glass business and we do a lot of glass/acrylic printing. I would seriously question both these models since they are using led-curing as opposed to mercury-curing lamps. Good adhesion on glass is difficult to achieve even with primer and printing on correct side of glass (tin vs. atmospheric).

If you're set on these models, then I'd ask for test prints with large ink laydown (rich black with white ink). Maybe led lamp/ink chemistry has improved and is most likely the way of the future, but I'd seriously question the adhesion.

 

[Pauly]

I work in a glass business and we do a lot of glass/acrylic printing. I would seriously question both these models since they are using led-curing as opposed to mercury-curing lamps. Good adhesion on glass is difficult to achieve even with primer and printing on correct side of glass (tin vs. atmospheric).

If you're set on these models, then I'd ask for test prints with large ink laydown (rich black with white ink). Maybe led lamp/ink chemistry has improved and is most likely the way of the future, but I'd seriously question the adhesion.

Are you saying that you're getting direct adhesion to glass with out any adhesion promotors with UV?

 

[chinaski]

Are you saying that you're getting direct adhesion to glass with out any adhesion promotors with UV?

Yes, but of course, adhesion promotors improve the bond. It's important for us because we normally laminate prints in glass oven and post-processing can break the bond between ink and glass, if the adhesion isn't very good. Less ink also improves the bond, so a good "stress test" is to print maximum ink to see what these machines are capable of.

We wash glass with a glass washing machine, apply primer and then straight to printing. I think the washing makes a great difference in adhesion, because glass sheets have small powdered coating that keeps away friction/scratching but most people won't have this machinery unless they are operating primarily within glass industry.

 

[Pauly]

Yes, but of course, adhesion promotors improve the bond. It's important for us because we normally laminate prints in glass oven and post-processing can break the bond between ink and glass, if the adhesion isn't very good. Less ink also improves the bond, so a good "stress test" is to print maximum ink to see what these machines are capable of.

We wash glass with a glass washing machine, apply primer and then straight to printing. I think the washing makes a great difference in adhesion, because glass sheets have small powdered coating that keeps away friction/scratching but most people won't have this machinery unless they are operating primarily within glass industry.

I have not seen ink stick to glass with out any adhesion promoters. Usually apply a knife to it and you can peal the ink off.
90% of my work is glass, and i have done plenty of laminated glass. We use an adhesion promoter for our glass.

Glass printing specialists some of my work is on the site, a lot of it doesn't make it to the website as i can never get to the final product. We do australia wide.

 

[chinaski]

I have not seen ink stick to glass with out any adhesion promoters. Usually apply a knife to it and you can peal the ink off.
90% of my work is glass, and i have done plenty of laminated glass. We use an adhesion promoter for our glass.

Glass printing specialists some of my work is on the site, a lot of it doesn't make it to the website as i can never get to the final product. We do australia wide.

I've done the same with scraping ink off with a utility knife, but I wouldn't describe it as "pealing" off in my case. When I was initially using cheap Chinese lamps and Chromo inks, then it would peal off cleanly. I've since switched to Marabu inks and higher quality lamps it's made a big difference. I've tried a few different glass primers and this has produced the best results and efficient coverage.

Your website looks really nice. Seems like there's a lot of glass printing in Australia from what I've seen.

 

[chinaski]

uvled Chromoink has a tendency to absorb humidity and become "SHORT".I learned the hard way when the inks kept on developing restricted flow in the pipes and eventually needed to flush out the ink from the head and pipes,It was a nightmare as I lost precious orders and the head went Kaput.What is the price of Marabu?

For DUV-A:
155€/liter for white
130€/liter for cmyklclm

White ink is notoriously difficult to work with but considering I don't have a circulation system installed, it works fairly well and I use it everyday.

 

[Oroscoe]

Find a dealer for each and send them a sample for them to print on using your file.

 

[Weizhen Wu]

$30K for a small UV printer? We can offer you a printer with similar function at half of the price to reduce your investment risk.
Welcome to send samples and files to us to do printing test.
E-mail: weizhen.wu@kingtuvprinter.com