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Advice for replacing a Mimaki JV3

Lindquist

New Member
I have a Mimaki JV3 that is 10 years old this summer. We bought it alongside a Colorspan 72 UVX.

The Mimaki was reliable for the time, but we replaced the Colorspan a couple of years ago with an HP Scitex FB700. When that happened, 95% of everything we printed on the Mimaki was moved to the Scitex. We used to print banners on the Mimaki, but it didn't make any sense to spend hours printing, and then waiting overnight for curing, when we could print it on the Scitex in a few minutes and be ready to go immediately.

A similar logic has been applied to almost every project: the Mimaki is just too slow for our workflow.

The only advantage to using it is that it prints a much more vibrant color, but I rarely have a project where that outweighs the time required to use it.

As a result, the Mimaki usually just sits there. The daily maintenance doesn't occur often (how do I justify spending an hour every day cleaning a machine we aren't operating more than once a week?), but that has lead to a host of other problems. Namely, the ink builds up on the heads, everything sticks together, and then the capping station is ripped out of place when the carriage tries to move. If I don't notice, the ink dries up in the heads.

The Scitex is overloaded with work frequently (I'd rather not have to switch off of corrugated plastic to print one banner and switch back again), so there's definitely room in our workflow for a second printer. I'm thinking it's time to start looking for something new - something faster - that would help fill in the gaps.

Grimco has been trying to sell me an HP Latex for years, and looking into that was my first thought. They advertise "no daily maintenance," and that's one of my biggest problems running the Mimaki. But then there are the user replaceable printheads that apparently have to be replaced frequently - and that has me concerned about the costs to operate the machine (I generally don't replace printheads even if some jets aren't firing - the printhead has got to be really, truly damaged and causing a significant color problem).

I'm not opposed to using another solvent printer. The Mimaki has been reliable for the most part. The Mimaki just wasn't designed to handle not being used, and requires too much daily maintenance. It's also obscenely slow. My concern is that another solvent printer will have the same maintenance problems. I don't have a large crew. The Scitex mostly maintains itself, and then prompts me to perform periodic maintenance that only takes a few minutes at a time.

I realize there's a lot of people on both sides of the Latex vs. Solvent issue, but does anyone had advice for what might work best for my particular situation? I would hope to keep a new printer busy most of the time - since speed is what took the work away from the Mimaki in the first place - but I can't guarantee that.
 

myront

Dammit, make it faster!!
We used a Mimaki for years and didn't wait overnight before finishing our banners. Couple of hours maybe, longer for full color backgrounds and such.
I wish there was a way to see these new printers in action and in person before settling on one. My company opted for a latex HP and I'm not happy with it at all.
I would've looked into the latest Mimaki or just spending the money to fix the one we had. Sales pitch is what got 'em. Laminate immediately, faster print (not really), load from the front...uh wasn't even an issue in our shop.
 

tylercrum

New Member
We switched from a jv3 to latex 6 years ago (give or take) and never looked back. Now we're running multiple generations of latex printers. The cost to replace a head is negligible really, especially if you're not using the machine terribly often. And they're $85-120 each depending on the model of printer you have. We love the latex printers here. They're insanely simple to use. I was out having surgery and one of our customer service reps moved back here and ran the machines while I was out, with no training.

I should specify that we really love the HP latex printers. We also have mimaki's latex printer and it's a gigantic paper weight. It's terrible, horrible, stay far away from it, I don't actually think they're even selling them anymore.
 

n893

New Member
Maybe Epson surecolor s40670

Maybe you should consider epson s40670... Abit fast and quick drying too...
 

Morph1

Print all
We switched from JV3 to JV300 solvent 2xCMYK bag system , I will tell you only one thing... this new JV300 simply flies !
It is an incredible machine, I believe I can print a 4x8 in about 10 min, I printed some banners in 3 pass and they look great, it has either dx5 or dx6 x2 heads that print very fast,
we still got the JV3 but it just sits here on stand by, the JV3 has over 24 km of vinyl printed and I think 20000 print hours lol and we only replaced 2 heads ever...
JV3 was the best and the least maintenance demanding printer I have ever operated.
 

Solventinkjet

DIY Printer Fixing Guide
We switched from JV3 to JV300 solvent 2xCMYK bag system , I will tell you only one thing... this new JV300 simply flies !
It is an incredible machine, I believe I can print a 4x8 in about 10 min, I printed some banners in 3 pass and they look great, it has either dx5 or dx6 x2 heads that print very fast,
we still got the JV3 but it just sits here on stand by, the JV3 has over 24 km of vinyl printed and I think 20000 print hours lol and we only replaced 2 heads ever...
JV3 was the best and the least maintenance demanding printer I have ever operated.

The JV300 has 2 DX7 heads and it does fly. The JV300/150 series is, in my opinion, the best solvent machines out there right now. Other than the fact that they only run on USB and not Ethernet, they have all the features you could need and the speed and quality is on par or better than their competitors. I have about 15 - 20 in the field at the moment and I have not been on a service call for one yet. I believe Mimaki has put more effort into building robust machines and it is showing in the latest models. Compared to a Latex, I believe the Mimakis will stand up to time better as the latex machines are built to be cheap and replaceable.
 

usdsoccer

New Member
New Epsons

Check out the new Epson S-Series. From what we've seen, best image quality available, fast speeds, same day lamination. epson.com/sseries
 

jfiscus

Rap Master
Check out the new Epson S-Series. From what we've seen, best image quality available, fast speeds, same day lamination. epson.com/sseries
I have to agree with this user. We ran two JV3s here for 10 years, then our workload increased so much that even running both machines around the clock wasn't enough. We built a special "degassing" box to speed up production time also so that within 12 hours we were able to laminate after printing. But we had to add a 3rd machine so we were stuck between deciding on an Epson and an HP. The boss decided on HP as it was instantly dry. We don't get consistent color out of it and the colors are not as vibrant as solvent, so now we are not printing anything that has "tiles" in the artwork that have to match up. HOWEVER, our distributor had a demo model Epson come available and we purchased it also; prints are able to be laminated within a few hours and the colors are GREAT (vibrant) and consistent. It is just about as fast as the HP and is the preferred "go-to" printer here now, ours is the previous generation and the current generation is supposed to be even faster!

As far as maintenance goes: The HP doesn't have that much maintenance at all besides changing inks and print-heads. The Epson requires a weekly cleaning (30 minutes tops), but that is all our JV3s required also unless we were REALLY running them heavy ink 24/7.
 

BigfishDM

Merchant Member
If your looking for speed and literarily no maintenance then LATEX is your only real option I think. The new 500 series is coming out in just a few months and I would take a good look at those units.
 
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