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serioussly looking into the Mimaki UCJV300-160

bigben

bigben

Not a newbie
Since the consumable of my HP L26500 are officialy discontinued, I'm looking for a new printer. I want white ink. I was waiting for HP to come out with a model similar to mine with white ink, but I'm looking for other options.

Right now, the UCJV300-160 is on the top of my list. We do mostly murals, posters, backlit film and contour cut decals. I think the clear ink option could be a good feature to make some effects/textures on murals and stickers. The white ink will be mostly to create gradiant/pattern frost like vinyl. We buy several rolls of the fasara cloud per month and many demand to have different size of this model. The white ink will be needed in almost 40% of our jobs.

That been said. What should I know about this printer? It capability and flaws. How is the maintenance and is there material on this printer I can't do on my current printer? I would love to print on thin styrene for outdoor backlit. Right now, I have to print on a vinyl and stick it to a styrene sheet.

Thanks. Ben.
 
bluehammer

bluehammer

New Member
bigben said:
Since the consumable of my HP L26500 are officialy discontinued, I'm looking for a new printer. I want white ink. I was waiting for HP to come out with a model similar to mine with white ink, but I'm looking for other options.

Right now, the UCJV300-160 is on the top of my list. We do mostly murals, posters, backlit film and contour cut decals. I think the clear ink option could be a good feature to make some effects/textures on murals and stickers. The white ink will be mostly to create gradiant/pattern frost like vinyl. We buy several rolls of the fasara cloud per month and many demand to have different size of this model. The white ink will be needed in almost 40% of our jobs.

That been said. What should I know about this printer? It capability and flaws. How is the maintenance and is there material on this printer I can't do on my current printer? I would love to print on thin styrene for outdoor backlit. Right now, I have to print on a vinyl and stick it to a styrene sheet.

Thanks. Ben.
Click to expand...
We just purchased one... We like it. Its slow though. The clear ink feature is cool and it prints nice whites on clear for window films. You just missed the 8K discount Mimaki was having unfortunately. UV is not great when it comes to laminating FYI, it can be problematic with "ridging" around the high points of ink. Have you also looked at the Epson S80600?
 
S

Superior_Adam

New Member
Look into the EFI Pro16h. Does not have clear ink but does have white. It is a belt fed hybrid which is best for substrates where the Mimaki is pinch rollers.
 
I

iPrintStuff

Prints stuff
Think he’s looking for a r2r instead of a hybrid/flatbed. Unless he can get the hybrid for the same price as that mimaki!

To the OP, we looked at getting the mimaki and settled for a Colorado - though I definitely wish we had the white ink.

The print speeds do seem relatively slow (compared to the Colorado lol) but obviously you can laminate/finish right away.

I guess you’d have rip support with onyx etc because I definitely wouldn’t recommend rasterlink. It get the job done but takes three more steps and has a lot less features than any standalone rip.
 
S

Superior_Adam

New Member
iPrintStuff said:
Think he’s looking for a r2r instead of a hybrid/flatbed. Unless he can get the hybrid for the same price as that mimaki!

To the OP, we looked at getting the mimaki and settled for a Colorado - though I definitely wish we had the white ink.

The print speeds do seem relatively slow (compared to the Colorado lol) but obviously you can laminate/finish right away.

I guess you’d have rip support with onyx etc because I definitely wouldn’t recommend rasterlink. It get the job done but takes three more steps and has a lot less features than any standalone rip.
Click to expand...

The EFI is a R2R hybrid machine. The difference is it uses a vacuum belt feed system instead of pinch rollers. In my opinion with using both types or systems the vacuum belt is better for substrate. He mentioned printing on styrene so I believe the EFI would be a better option. Yes the EFI will be more money but it is also a lot faster than the mimaki. I am not seeing print speeds for the mimaki but the EFI is 976 sqft/hr. I print at POP Quality which is 178 sqft/hr.
The EFI also opens up more possibilities with being able to print thicker substrates.
 
balstestrat

balstestrat

Problem Solver
Superior_Adam said:
The EFI is a R2R hybrid machine. The difference is it uses a vacuum belt feed system instead of pinch rollers. In my opinion with using both types or systems the vacuum belt is better for substrate. He mentioned printing on styrene so I believe the EFI would be a better option. Yes the EFI will be more money but it is also a lot faster than the mimaki. I am not seeing print speeds for the mimaki but the EFI is 976 sqft/hr. I print at POP Quality which is 178 sqft/hr.
The EFI also opens up more possibilities with being able to print thicker substrates.
Click to expand...
Price difference is what, 3-5x more than the Mimaki? Don't you think that's kinda off?
Even if you have more speed and capacity it's useless if you can't utilize it.
 
I

iPrintStuff

Prints stuff
balstestrat said:
Price difference is what, 3-5x more than the Mimaki? Don't you think that's kinda off?
Even if you have more speed and capacity it's useless if you can't utilize it.
Click to expand...

My thoughts too. My life would be a lot easier if I could recommend a SwissQ to anyone asking about a mimaki JFX lol

If someone’s asking about a roll to roll, at least suggest a R2R within the same price ballpark.
 
bigben

bigben

Not a newbie
Superior_Adam said:
Look into the EFI Pro16h. Does not have clear ink but does have white. It is a belt fed hybrid which is best for substrates where the Mimaki is pinch rollers.
Click to expand...

It would be a great machine, but the price point is not the same. Also, I would prefer to have a separate true flatbed and a roll-to-roll if I go that route.

iPrintStuff said:
Think he’s looking for a r2r instead of a hybrid/flatbed. Unless he can get the hybrid for the same price as that mimaki!

To the OP, we looked at getting the mimaki and settled for a Colorado - though I definitely wish we had the white ink.

The print speeds do seem relatively slow (compared to the Colorado lol) but obviously you can laminate/finish right away.

I guess you’d have rip support with onyx etc because I definitely wouldn’t recommend rasterlink. It get the job done but takes three more steps and has a lot less features than any standalone rip.
Click to expand...

The colorado is interesting but I need white ink. Almost 40% of our job will use white ink if not even more. Printing directly on styrene would be a plus value but not a must have.

There some speculations the next HP roll-to-roll will have white ink similar to the R series. I was hopping they would announce it this fall. Somone told me it would go by the end of the year or next spring. Mimaki also annonce new machine on november 4. We will see what they offer.
 
White Haus

White Haus

Not a Newbie
Hey Ben, we've had one of these UCJV units for just over a year now.

White is really nice and opaque. As long as you use it regularly the maintenance is fairly minimal (5 mins every morning, 10 mins once a week)

I've tried running thicker materials through it and wouldn't count on being able to do that on a regular basis. I did get it to print .010 polished velvet lexan in cmyk, but when backing with white ink it spends too much time under lamps and eventually causes headstrikes. I'd be hesitant to try anything thicker than .010 / 10mil material on it.

Prints great on most materials, and doesn't show ANY fingerprints or handling which is nice.

Tracking/media handling is pretty solid, you can load a full roll and a few hours later (depending on what profile/settings you're using) have a roll printed and lined up perfect on the take up.

I personally can't stand Rasterlink (Mimaki's RIP software) or the cutting function on this unit, so I don't use either.

We're driving it with Onyx Thrive and cutting on either Summa S series roll plotter or Summa F series flatbed cutter. Works really well once you get it dialed in and leverages the unit's ability to print at a decent speed, while cutting on machines made to do so. I have to warn you the Onyx drivers (especially when it comes to cmyk+white printing) are a little sketchy - it took us a FULL day with an ND tech on site just to create one custom cmyk+white profile since we had to try a million different combinations before finding settings that work. I would imagine this would be even more challenging if you're using cmyk+white+clear. Rasterlink "should" be able to handle this better but again, I can't stand the software. I swear it was written by programming intern that has a month worth of English training under his belt.

There's probably more I could add but can't think of it for now.

Again, if you have any specific questions just let me know.

Cheers,

Pat
 
White Haus

White Haus

Not a Newbie
Couple more notes regarding ink as I'm having lunch...

We went with LUS-170 for CMYKLcLm and LUS-200 for WW. Thought the clear looked really cool but stuck with white because we already had a use for it. There are times were I've thought that for the price point of these units, you could have a CMYK x2 for more production work and a CMYKWV for the specialty stuff and still come in way under the price of a Colorado, but those aren't really fair comparisons.

The color gamut is fairly good considering it's UV, and with custom profiles it can get even better, while cutting down ink consumption. The ink gets laid down fairly thick out of the box which shows how much you're using and also can create some issues when laminating. Full coverage graphics (such as wall wraps etc) are not a problem, it's more spot graphics w/ white or clear backgrounds. In this case you can run into some silvering around objects but this can be improved by using a cast laminate and/or heat when laminating.

Scratch resistance is really good in my opinion, far better than our Roland or Oce printers. It is a harder inkset which makes it more resistant to scratching and does not show fingerprints when handled.
We've done thousands of decals and product labels unlaminated, and it has worked very well for this.

I'll be printing some wall wraps for our showroom and leaving them unlaminated, just to see how they install/hold up. I'm fairly confident that for temporary or low-traffic walls, you could get away without laminate to provide a more cost-effective solution for your clients.

Ink (in liquid form and while printing) does have a fairly strong odor but does go away after curing. UV ink so this is to be expected. Air filtration probably wouldn't be a bad idea if you were in a smaller shop. I'll usually kick in our fans/exhaust fan while printing heavy coverage for hours as it does get a little stinky. (Not much worse than our Roland eco-sol or Oce UV printers)

One other small(ish) complaint is the shelf life of the inks, which come in 1L bottles. At first we were cranking enough work through it to not worry about shelf life and expiry dates, but these last couple of months we've slowed down and are having to throw some out when it gets rejected by the printer. (You get 2+ months after expiry) I guess that just means I need to get some more work for this thing, but definitely sucks throwing $$ out.
It uses bottles and chips, and the levels really aren't that accurate, so you CAN technically swap the chip when it gets rejected, and try to use up the rest of the bottle before swapping it out. Techs probably wouldn't recommend this but we all know ink doesn't magically go bad at a certain date.

I don't have any tests done on the outdoor durability with and without laminate, but still hoping to throw some outside to see how fast the inks fade compared to other methods.
 
bigben

bigben

Not a newbie
White Haus said:
Couple more notes regarding ink as I'm having lunch...

We went with LUS-170 for CMYKLcLm and LUS-200 for WW. Thought the clear looked really cool but stuck with white because we already had a use for it. There are times were I've thought that for the price point of these units, you could have a CMYK x2 for more production work and a CMYKWV for the specialty stuff and still come in way under the price of a Colorado, but those aren't really fair comparisons.

The color gamut is fairly good considering it's UV, and with custom profiles it can get even better, while cutting down ink consumption. The ink gets laid down fairly thick out of the box which shows how much you're using and also can create some issues when laminating. Full coverage graphics (such as wall wraps etc) are not a problem, it's more spot graphics w/ white or clear backgrounds. In this case you can run into some silvering around objects but this can be improved by using a cast laminate and/or heat when laminating.

Scratch resistance is really good in my opinion, far better than our Roland or Oce printers. It is a harder inkset which makes it more resistant to scratching and does not show fingerprints when handled.
We've done thousands of decals and product labels unlaminated, and it has worked very well for this.

I'll be printing some wall wraps for our showroom and leaving them unlaminated, just to see how they install/hold up. I'm fairly confident that for temporary or low-traffic walls, you could get away without laminate to provide a more cost-effective solution for your clients.

Ink (in liquid form and while printing) does have a fairly strong odor but does go away after curing. UV ink so this is to be expected. Air filtration probably wouldn't be a bad idea if you were in a smaller shop. I'll usually kick in our fans/exhaust fan while printing heavy coverage for hours as it does get a little stinky. (Not much worse than our Roland eco-sol or Oce UV printers)

One other small(ish) complaint is the shelf life of the inks, which come in 1L bottles. At first we were cranking enough work through it to not worry about shelf life and expiry dates, but these last couple of months we've slowed down and are having to throw some out when it gets rejected by the printer. (You get 2+ months after expiry) I guess that just means I need to get some more work for this thing, but definitely sucks throwing $$ out.
It uses bottles and chips, and the levels really aren't that accurate, so you CAN technically swap the chip when it gets rejected, and try to use up the rest of the bottle before swapping it out. Techs probably wouldn't recommend this but we all know ink doesn't magically go bad at a certain date.

I don't have any tests done on the outdoor durability with and without laminate, but still hoping to throw some outside to see how fast the inks fade compared to other methods.
Click to expand...

Thanks for all the details. I've staked up my consumable to last until next spring. Mimaki will announce new machine on november 4 and I'm hoping HP will come up with their new model before next spring. The new epson with the resign ink is interesting, but there is no white ink.
 
White Haus

White Haus

Not a Newbie
bigben said:
Thanks for all the details. I've staked up my consumable to last until next spring. Mimaki will announce new machine on november 4 and I'm hoping HP will come up with their new model before next spring. The new epson with the resign ink is interesting, but there is no white ink.
Click to expand...
No problem. Curious to see what this new Mimaki printer is.... a faster, non-cutter version of the UCJV would be cool to see!
 
Sean@CedarHouse

Sean@CedarHouse

Printing Money
bigben said:
Since the consumable of my HP L26500 are officialy discontinued, I'm looking for a new printer. I want white ink. I was waiting for HP to come out with a model similar to mine with white ink, but I'm looking for other options.

Right now, the UCJV300-160 is on the top of my list. We do mostly murals, posters, backlit film and contour cut decals. I think the clear ink option could be a good feature to make some effects/textures on murals and stickers. The white ink will be mostly to create gradiant/pattern frost like vinyl. We buy several rolls of the fasara cloud per month and many demand to have different size of this model. The white ink will be needed in almost 40% of our jobs.

That been said. What should I know about this printer? It capability and flaws. How is the maintenance and is there material on this printer I can't do on my current printer? I would love to print on thin styrene for outdoor backlit. Right now, I have to print on a vinyl and stick it to a styrene sheet.

Thanks. Ben.
Click to expand...

We run a UCJV300-160. We have not been able to print to styrene directly (several thickness attempts). The ink reaction to the material is just enough to make the head strike. So if that is a deal breaker for you, you need to go with a flatbed or hybrid printer.
 
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