Who is running their Mimaki 24/7?

[StopSignGraphics]

I had a fantastic start to the weekend. A customer just placed an order for 177 trucks...nope that's not a typo, 177 trucks.

After I picked my jaw up off the floor and had a couple of celebratory beverages I started thinking about the logistics of making this happen. The order is getting spaced out over 6 months. I'll probably have to run my JV33 24 hours for 7-10 day at a time once a month to meet their production deadlines.

What should I expect as far as wear and tear? Should I plan on replacing a print head with that much production? Should I plan on having a tech come out and take a look at the machine after so many hours of production? The machine is only a year old and has only had a modest amount of print time.

Thanks,
Chris

 

[ProWraps]

i would buy another machine for redundancy and a 100% increase in speed. the job will easily pay for it.

 

[StopSignGraphics]

You are reading my mind. I emailed the sales rep I bought the current machine from right after I got off the phone with the client for a quote.

 

[Letterbox Mike]

We've run our JV3 and JV33 like that a few times without any trouble, but I wouldn't run them like that all the time month after month, they're not made for that kind of volume. But I have to agree with prowraps, with a job like that you should easily be able to justify bringing in an additional couple machines to handle to workload.

However, if this kind of workload is not common for your company, you might be better off investing in one heavier duty faster printer than multiple smaller ones (i.e. one JV5 instead of 2 JV33s, or 1 Roland AJ1000 instead of 3 SC540s). That way, when the volume slows down, you don't have a bunch of printers sitting idle, creating maintenance headaches, you just have one additional faster machine to compliment the other printers. Not sure if that made any sense how I wrote it but it does in my mind...

I guess I'm saying, I'd rather have 2 JV33s and a JV5 than 5 JV33s if the total throughput is the same either way. The redundancy is nice if the volume is steady, but if it's up and down, I'd rather have less equipment.

 

[StopSignGraphics]

A JV-5 would be an optimal solution but I would have to wait until I had a little more money in the bank before I could possibly consider it. Picking up a second JV33, especially a used one, is more in line with the budget at the moment.

I believe the JV5 can handle 300 foot rolls. Is that correct? Can it handle longer than 300 foot?

I wonder how much I would lose if I bought a used JV33 to solve the problem in the short term and traded it in or sale it later in the year and bought a JV5.

Whatever the solution it's a great problem to have.

 

[Letterbox Mike]

I wonder how much I would lose if I bought a used JV33 to solve the problem in the short term and traded it in or sale it later in the year and bought a JV5.

Probably the difference between the JV33 and JV5 in the first place.

If you shop around you can get smoking deals on demo JV5s for in the mid $20k range. I know that's still a whole lot more than a new or especially a used JV33, but it's a heck of alot of printer for the money. I'd say if you're going to do it, do it right and don't buy a "bandaid" printer to get you by for now, buy a machine you can grow into. Even if you had to finance of lease half of the purchase price of a JV5, if you're capable of selling a fleet job of this caliber the future payments shouldn't be a burden. Leasing costs money sure, and in an ideal world with unlimited funds, cash is king, but in the real world, cashflow is king. If it costs you more in the long run but preserves your cashflow and allows you to invest in a machine you'll have long term, lease it for 3 or 5 years.

 

[Salmoneye]

It is one big job, I say check prices on subbing out the print work to a high volume printer like Merritt or ??? Why buy a thing when you can have it delivered to your doorstep without lifting a finger?

 

[CheapVehicleWrap]

I agree.. might be time to start thinking of subbing out. Are these full wraps?

 

[Dice]

We run our JV33 for about 7 hours a day for the past year and have had very little problems.

I would slow your media feeds down to 70% on long runs. If you don't it will jerk the material on each pass and can create issues. I would not use the media guides either we've had issues on long runs with the material getting caught mainly due to the material not being perfectly flat form the roll.

I've heard a lot of bad things about the JV5. They are fast and print great from what i understand, but it's like having a 457 in a Honda. Issues with the vibrations and fast moving head causing issues. It's not a solid machine. If you talk to any tech about them they say stay away or have a great service contract.

I would get 1-2 more JV33's, even used, over a JV5.

 

[StopSignGraphics]

Subbing it out is not an option. The customer passed up a cheaper printer to have me personally do the work, I can't honestly send it to someone else under those circumstances.

Actually these are box trucks and the customer is handling the installs. I'm simply printing the job for them. I suspect I'll be helping with some of the installs before its over with. Nice easy steady work for a change.

I was talking to a sales rep earlier today he actually recommended a second JV33 over a JV5. I was kind of shocked (if for no other reason he would had a much larger commission on a JV5). I'll have to do some more research about this one, regardless we will be adding another machine to our production in the next two to three months.

Thanks for all the input.
~Chris

 

[TheSnowman]

That's too bad. My customers have had me print stuff for them all the time, and all I do is sub it out, and collect a lot of money.

 

[mark galoob]

im going to have to agree with subbing it out...your customer chose you because they trust you and your "business sense..." why tie up your whole production team for a whole week every month when you can sub it out, prob pay about the same for it, get a great product, ZERO waste, ZERO headache, Zero taxes on additional emp-loyee time...

seems like a no brainer to me...besides, you dont have to tell your cust your subbing it out...

mark galoob

 

[Salmoneye]

As long as you put your name behind the work I would call it good.

 

[Rooster]

Buy a new JV33 for the project and if business slows when it's complete then sell it.

You could have the second machine running just that project and save yourself the late nights. 3 shifts a day for 7-10 days is only one shift a day for an extra machine with a ton of extra time left should you encounter hick-ups.

Using a single JV-33 for the job will prevent any color inconsistencies between machines as well.

Even if you blew the machine out at half price when you were done it should still cost less than the labor for the extra shifts (if you're not already running them).

 

[ProWraps]

subbing out equals:
zero waste, zero headache, zero taxes, and on a job like this ZERO profit (fleet jobs have very little profit to begin with and as mentioned above, this is one of those cases). buy a printer. let the job pay for it. keep the printer and profit from it for the rest of its life.

 

[Mosh]

Buy another machine. This job will pay for it AND you will have the machine after the job is done. As long as you pay for the machine (not lease or make payments) you will be ahead in the long run.

 

[WB]

We run ours 24hrs a few times a month or large jobs.. Had a few hickups but nothing really bad.. Make sure your take-up is tight, if your printing full rolls I've had it slip and stop taking up when you get about 90% on the take up roll.. Make sure your inks are full when you leave.. Last thing you want is to come in in the morning to find that it only printed 1 panel because 1 of the cartridges empytied. If your running it 24/7 take the time and do some maintance don't just let them go full out with some cleaning.

 

[Pat Whatley]

This isn't one of those deals where they tell you they're going to do 177 trucks, you give them a price based on that, and after you do the first 10 they decide to "go another direction" is it?

It's just the first thing that popped into my head. I'd hate to spend $20,000 on a printer to do a job and then have the job disappear.

 

[Bob Cornett]

Jv3

Only problem I've ever had is the take-up reel tube coming loose, that is not a pretty sight when you come in the next morning,

 

[StopSignGraphics]

They've got a contract with the end customer. Unless I screw up it'll be 177 trucks plus I know and trust the people purchasing the graphics from me. Either way I want purchase anything until month 2-4 of this project.

If anything I expect the number of trucks to increase slightly.

I think a second printer would be the way to go but I'm debating if I want to buy another 54 or 64 inch machine or wait until I can afford larger. Currently I've got a 54 inch adding a 64 inch would open up a few doors for me. If I can wait and business continues to grow I could possibly add a 10 foot machine next year. That would open up a lot more opportunities.

~Chris