Ultimate JV33 Bulk System

[SightLine]

Sneaky preview...... mmmmm 2 chunky liters of ink in a bag goodness. Thats darn near pushing wide into grand territory on ink size for a single color. Going to take me a bit but I'm taking photos and will be posting my full review very soon.

Guess the setup and win a cheesy prize.

 

[SightLine]

Another teaser shot.... I know some of you saw this setup installed on a couple different type machines at the ISA show and other shows in the past.

 

[rjssigns]

Umm...Russian Army surplus?

2 fricken liters! Plan on buying ink every decade or so don't ya?

 

[SightLine]

Lol. Okay I'll let on. After getting tired of buggy cartridges and having worked with a few different bulk systems in the past I was looking for something better. In another thread I detailed my thoughts on bulk systems and why most are ultimatley problematic. I've known that Mimaki's own MBIS system solved the pressure and air problems by going with bagged bulk ink and had known that a couple of other ink bag based bulk systems had been on the market for some time for these machines. Mimaki's of course, Bordeaux has one, Triangle has one, and one other I think is out there now as well.

While I had some ongoing and severely aggravating problems with Triangles JVV cartridges recently they ultimatley made good with us on the problems we had. I will also clearly state we have never had a problem with their actual ink - that has been fantastic. We create our own profiles and I can say 100% that the color gamut is greater than OEM inks, and after a couple of years of running Triangle inks they hold up every bit as well as OEM and the inks have caused zero problems with our machines. The problems we did have was a problem with the physical plastic cartridges and they have fixed that.

So - the choice was made - no need to create all new profiles, excellent inks, excellent company that does stand by their products. The bulk system is Triangles full Eco Bulk system. It uses 2 liters of ink per color which comes in cardboard boxes. As installed it is effectively a sealed ink system with the ink in a bag which collapses as it is used just like your printer was designed to work best with. I got the Eco Bulk Plus system which also includes Triangles EasyresetV3 which is a fully automatic permanent chip resetting system. Unlike chips themselves this actually connects to the printers chip connection board behind the cartridge slots where it gets it's power and interfaces directly with the printers mainboard.

A picture of a whopping 8 liters of ink loaded on a JV33.... I will post again soon going much more in depth on how the system installs and works along with my thoughts on it after using it for a short bit. The bit on the left end of the printer is the Easyreset which has a button you can press to make the printer go to all 9's on ink levels. You could realistically mount that inside the back and never use the button. Simply powering the JV33 off and on again also does the same. Also notice - no long cartridges - so no need for that big support shelf for them which I promptly removed.

 

[Letterbox Mike]

How difficult as the installation? We're going to move to this system later this year. Triangle implies the install requires a technician to install, is that true?

 

[Tigertron]

Ah thanks for the pictures too. Worth a thousand words. I'll be waiting to see what you think of it. If they would just make it for the Roland...

 

[SightLine]

Well - to be honest if you are comfortable doing something about as complex as say - removing the head carriage cover and changing your own dampers or capping station top then installing this is simple.

Took me about 30 minutes in total. That being said - their ink train warranty paper does require that an official dealer "certified" tech do the install. The instructions which are pretty well laid out and self explanatory does want you to flush the entire printer during the changeover which I can understand if you are running any other ink. However the instructions do want you to flush even if you are already running Triangle ink which I dont really get, nor did I do.

There are a couple of minor quirks I'm not too fond of. One being that this only uses 4 of the cartridge slots (this in itself I'm fine with) but they do not have any method to fool the printer into thinking at least those unused slots have something in them. As a result - (and the install guide even mentions this) your printer beeeeeeeps every 5 minutes complaining that 4 cartrdiges are missing - of course those 4 slots have their red lights on all the time too. Does not hurt anything or prevent printing in any way but somewhat annoying if your printer is nearby you all day. I found that I can simply stick 4 empty cartridges (does not even matter if they are full, empty, or even the right color or type of ink) in those slots though and it shuts up but this comes with a caveat. The printer could try to switch to those since it thinks they are now full and in place.

I am working on a solution for this myself though and will keep this updated with what I do.

 

[Letterbox Mike]

Interesting about the empty slots and the beeping. That would drive me nuts... Let me know if you find a solution to it.

BTW, what problem did you have with the Triangle cartridges? I'm considering trying them for a few months prior to switching to a bulk system just to make sure we like the actual ink.

 

[rjssigns]

Disconnect the beeper. I have a bad habit of "falsing" sensors on laminators or printers to get something useless out of the way or quieted.
Could be bad foo if you have employees though. OSHA likes all that chit operating when they pop by.

 

[SightLine]

For quite some time the physical cartridges were being made were the plastic panel inside that has the empty tab that comes out - it was not being stuck on the ink bag inside in the correct place or the adhesive that held it to the ink bag was coming loose. This would cause the empty tab to not align with the hole in the cartridge. On a JV33, many are not aware but a cartridge will be accepted indefintiley. It will start at 9 as usual and go down to 1 - it will remain forever at 1 as long as the empty tab does not pop out and trigger the switch (effectively ghetto permanent chips if you can keep ink in it). What happens though is when it does not pop out the printer will literally suck the ink bag inside the cartrdige completely dry and keep right on going thinking it is still getting ink. Of course nothing is actually coming out of that print channel but the printer thinks there is so it keep happily printing away ruining materials since a color is missing.

Again - they have fixed this though. The new cartrdiges are visibly different and have not seen the issue since and they are about $50 less per cart than OEM.

I would reccomend creating your own custom color profile for the Triangle ink. It does have a wider available gamut but OEM profiles will work - just not as well.

Rj - would rather not disconnect the printers beeper. It is helpful when it beeps because it's letting you know things that might be going on with the printer. Just highly annoying if it goes off every 5 minutes when it does not need to.

 

[Letterbox Mike]

Good info, thanks!!

 

[4R Graphics]

Very awesome

I use Trangle bulk ink with cheapo refill carts and permanent chips never really had any problems but do like the 2 liters and bagged.