Roland to Mimaki

[peavey123]

Hey All,

I've just been hired to run a printer and do design work for a local sign shop. My last job (my introduction to the industry) was a similar situation but we had a Rolands. First the SP-540 then the VP540V.

Basically, what I want to know is if anyone has used both and if there are any major differences between the two brands as far as maintenance or functionality etc...

thanks

 

[ProColorGraphics]

I have a Roland and I am getting a new Mimaki JV33. From what I have been told, from the rep who has sold me both machines, that they are both very similar. I just liked what the JV33 had to offer, as well as the price difference. The main difference with mine is that I am going from eco solvent ink to strong solvent ink.

 

[Letterbox Mike]

I don't know much about the Roland but I'll say you really need to perform your daily and weekly cleanings on the Mimaki. Alot of ink builds up around the heads and it needs to be cleaned off regularly. Clean very well around the heads, the capping station, and the wiper assembly. Change the wiper regularly too.

Learn to do the bidirectional calibration too. You'll probably change head heights from time to time (to go from thinner vinyls to thicker baanner materials), to get really good prints the bidir calibration musst be spot on. it's easy to do, directions are in the manual. It takes me about 2 minutes to do it and makes a big improvement in print quality.

 

[peavey123]

Oh sorry, the machine is a JV33 that I"m going to be running...and yes solvent ink is the main difference that I've noticed. Although Eco-Sol is just a mild solvent correct?

Do the JV33's have a reader/encoder strip like the Roland SP machines? Where you have to clean it pretty damn often or else your prints do funny things?

 

[ProColorGraphics]

Oh sorry, the machine is a JV33 that I"m going to be running...and yes solvent ink is the main difference that I've noticed. Although Eco-Sol is just a mild solvent correct?

Do the JV33's have a reader/encoder strip like the Roland SP machines? Where you have to clean it pretty damn often or else your prints do funny things?

That it interesting, I have never cleaned my encoder strip. I have had my printer for 2 years. I have never had a problem either.

 

[Letterbox Mike]

Yes they have an encoder strip. Not sure about the 33, but we've had our JV3 for a little over 3 years and have never had to clean it.

 

[Dice]

Like insignia says, keep it clean. If it starts doing anything strange you can run a clean cycle while in the middle of a print. Just put it on "local" then do a normal clean. This will normally get anything that sticking to the head.

You'll notice that after you run a clean cycle it dirties up the machine so you'll definitely do your daily clean.

When doing your weekly make sure you use a flash light and actually look at the head. I was cleaning for about 6 months until i used a flash light and noticed that i was missing it on the backside creating a build up.

 

[ProColorGraphics]

I don't know much about the Roland but I'll say you really need to perform your daily and weekly cleanings on the Mimaki. A lot of ink builds up around the heads and it needs to be cleaned off regularly. Clean very well around the heads, the capping station, and the wiper assembly. Change the wiper regularly too.

Learn to do the bidirectional calibration too. You'll probably change head heights from time to time (to go from thinner vinyls to thicker banner materials), to get really good prints the bidir calibration must be spot on. it's easy to do, directions are in the manual. It takes me about 2 minutes to do it and makes a big improvement in print quality.

That it good to know. I am guessing the bidirectional adj. is about the same as on the Roland, which is very easy to do. I clean my Roland about once a week, but it seems that I never have hardly anything to clean up around the heads and cap tops. I will definitely keep in mind to do the manual maintenance more ofter. Especially since I will be using the SS21 inks.

 

[peavey123]

Thanks all. I'm now up and running and I gotta say, I like the Mimaki a lot better than the VP540 I was using at my other job. I'm sure the JV33 is more equal to a Roland XC price-wise? but as long as this thing doesn't band I may be a Mimaki fanboy in the making. lol

On another note, what do most of you Mimaki users use for your rip? The one we have at the shop now is Photo Print 6 or something to that effect? seems basic compared to Versaworks.

 

[Dice]

We've been using Rasterlink (comes with the jv33). It does a good job except it has issues with CS4 files, and its nesting sucks.

Right now we are testing Onyx, trial version.

So far the Onyx rip is about 5-10x faster than Rasterlink, Color is great and nesting is pretty good. It also doesn't crap out on CS4 PDF's. Problem with Onyx so far is profiles. You have to have a square resolution profile for Onyx to Auto Rotate in a nest so it looks like we may have to do our own profiling to really get the maximum out of Onyx and the JV33.

 

[Vital Designs]

I have both, SC-545ex and JV33-160 and I maintain both of them often. I run the SS21 inks on the Mimaki which are not quite as aggressive as the ss2's(JV3). The roland I clean about once a week around the heads and caps and all is good. The Mimaki I clean around the head and the scrapper every day I use it. It takes a minute, no big deal.
Both printers are not bad to keep running as long as you use them often.

I was running 400-600 sqft a day for a while on the Roland and I had to clean the decoder strip about once a month and the encoder a couple of times.

 

[DRamm76]

I have heard a great deal of commentary over the Mimaki JV3, and for years I have seen them try to produce something close to the Roland. Now while I have heard more POSITIVE things about THIS Mimaki, you may want to ask yourself this. It's taken Mimaki THIS long to catch up to the VP models alone. At this rate, Roland is light years ahead with the technology in my opinion. They have truly perfected the print cut art.

As for maintenance, consider this..when you spend $29,995 on a Roland XC-540, why WOULDN'T you do everything you could to keep that machine in top working order. Believe it or not, the more I hear people stating that they are dealing with issues on their Roland, the more I wonder how well they take care of it. I Have people that buy machines from dealers who do not properly explain how to care for their machine, and I have dealers who go that extra mile. (And i'm not even talking about my own company..I am staying totally neutral)...

I think whether you are a Roland guy or a Mimaki guy, it all boils down to two things..

1-How reliable a dealer is when it comes to PROPER training, reliability, support and service.
2-How well you care for your machine.

I have seen so many people go to dealers, tradeshows, etc just looking for a "great deal" and then don't get the training & support and dont care for their machine properly and wonder WHY they aren't successful. I am sorry if I seem like I am ranting here, but you get out of your machine and your business what you put into it..and short cuts NEVER work out..When things seem like they are too good to be true..well..you know the rest..

 

[Robert M]

Mimaki vs Roland

The JV33 has one head and one capping station, the Roland XC series has six of each. The capping station on the Mimaki is a much better design and can last years while the Roland cap tops are a consumable and not even covered under the warranty

 

[Case]

Mimaki blows the Roland away... Roland print/cut units cutters are butt slow... Mimaki ink is more durable.... I wouldn't waste my time with a Roland....I can't think of many brands of printers that I wouldn't choose before going with a Roland...

Case

 

[thewood]

Pat, I can't knock the Rolands as I've never operated one. However, I can tell you that our Mimaki JV3 has been a workhorse for several years now and that I am extremely satisfied with the quality of both the printer and the output.

 

[ChicagoGraphics]

the JV3 put's all Rolands to shame in my opinion.
You can have your printer/cutter all in ones, with that setup you can only do one thing at a time. Unlike with having 2 seperate mahines. My Mimaki JV3 has been trouble free going on over 3 years now. What's an encoder stip?

 

[particleman]

Anyone else agree with this...?

You're going to be hard pressed to find a Mimaki JV3 owner that doesn't like their printer. The JV33 has shaped up to be a respectable replacement. We run the time out of our mimaki printers, they are consistent and dependable!

 

[Letterbox Mike]

Anyone else agree with this...?

Definately. We jsut bought a new JV33 to run side-by-side with our JV3. Demo'd several Rolands, including the upper-end soljets and the lower-end Versa-Arts. The JV33 is priced more in line with Roland's lower level units, but I think after extensivly running some demo units that the Mimaki's are superior to the high end Rolands. They feel more industrial and substantial. Print quality is about the same, splitting hairs there. I think you can squeeze a bit more speed out of a top level Roland but I don't think it's worth twice as much money. We've been running our JV3 for a bit over 3 years, it's got nearly 1.5 million square feet run through it, and has had exactly 3 service calls. One to replace the wiper assembly that I broke, one to replace a head cable, and one to replace a bad head. All under warranty. That speaks volumes about Mimaki's quality.

We've only had the JV33 up and running for a week but so far I think it's actualyl quite superior to the JV3. We'll see how it holds up over time but so far, it's an unbelievable unit for the price. Speaking of price, you can pick these things up dirt cheap right now. We paid $16,500 for our JV33 installed, that's the same as most dealers are selling the Roland 64" Versa-Art printer, which is just a stripped down versacamm withour the cutting capabilities.

 

[DigitalBBQ]

We've only had the JV33 up and running for a week but so far I think it's actualyl quite superior to the JV3. We'll see how it holds up over time but so far, it's an unbelievable unit for the price. Speaking of price, you can pick these things up dirt cheap right now. We paid $16,500 for our JV33 installed, that's the same as most dealers are selling the Roland 64" Versa-Art printer, which is just a stripped down versacamm withour the cutting capabilities.

Hi insignia, is the 16,500 installed including the exhaust system or just the JV33 alone ?