Anyone have the Mutoh 1641SR Pro yet?

[LenXIII]

Just curious about the pro model. I have owned Mutohs for 15 years now and really love them. I see that the 1641SR Pro went away from having a DX printhead to some Mutoh designed printhead which makes me excited and nervous at the same time. Anyone have any opinions or input on this? I already purchased the machine so I will find out soon enough if I regret that decision or not lol. I'm also wondering if anyone knows the picolitre size of the ink drops on the new head.

 

[Solventinkjet]

As far as I can tell the new head is an Epson I1600 print head. They print 3.8pl - 8.7pl which might seem high compared to a DX7 but keep in mind that the DX7 head had 180 nozzles per inch where the I series has 300. The I series also has a longer print area at 1.33" instead of 1" so each channel is dropping 400 nozzles in one pass instead of 180. It should be a fairly good improvement over the old model.

 

[LenXIII]

As far as I can tell the new head is an Epson I1600 print head. They print 3.8pl - 8.7pl which might seem high compared to a DX7 but keep in mind that the DX7 head had 180 nozzles per inch where the I series has 300. The I series also has a longer print area at 1.33" instead of 1" so each channel is dropping 400 nozzles in one pass instead of 180. It should be a fairly good improvement over the old model.

Thanks for this information! I did a quick google on that printhead and I think you might be correct on the head they used. I'm a little confused on the appearance though - The L1600 looks like it only has 2 channels of nozzles but I can't find much info to really see how it's setup. It looks like the DX7 nozzle area is much much wider (but not as deep) as the L1600 but again I'm basing this only on appearances. Like I think the DX7 has 4 channels at about 1" deep and I'm only seeing 2 on the L1600 at 1.33" deep. Is this right or am I looking at this all wrong?

It's great to see the nozzle density is much higher but that is a little concerning about the picoliter size. It's funny Mutoh claims to have made their own printhead and I've heard from techs and salesman it's because Mutoh is trying to get away from relying on Epson for certain things but this was obviously smoke. I'm sure the printer will print nicely but I really liked my solid colors from the DX7 and I hope this printer can match that quality with the larger droplets.

Edit: I found this photo of the 1642WR which looks like it uses 2 of those heads. Do you think the 1641 is setup the same way? That would make sense..

 

[Solventinkjet]

Thanks for this information! I did a quick google on that printhead and I think you might be correct on the head they used. I'm a little confused on the appearance though - The L1600 looks like it only has 2 channels of nozzles but I can't find much info to really see how it's setup. It looks like the DX7 nozzle area is much much wider (but not as deep) as the L1600 but again I'm basing this only on appearances. Like I think the DX7 has 4 channels at about 1" deep and I'm only seeing 2 on the L1600 at 1.33" deep. Is this right or am I looking at this all wrong?

It's great to see the nozzle density is much higher but that is a little concerning about the picoliter size. It's funny Mutoh claims to have made their own printhead and I've heard from techs and salesman it's because Mutoh is trying to get away from relying on Epson for certain things but this was obviously smoke. I'm sure the printer will print nicely but I really liked my solid colors from the DX7 and I hope this printer can match that quality with the larger droplets.

Edit: I found this photo of the 1642WR which looks like it uses 2 of those heads. Do you think the 1641 is setup the same way? That would make sense..

Each one of those green areas actually has 2 channels so one head is 4 channels. So the 1641 would have one head and the 1642 would have 2.

Out of all the major manufacturers, Mutoh is the most closely tied to Epson. Mutoh actually made the Epson GS6000 before Epson started making their own solvent printers. Pretty much everyone is moving away from Epson but Mutoh will probably drag on longer than most. Roland and Mimaki have gone with Ricoh, Panasonic, and Brother recently. But none of them have the capability or funds to make their own heads.

 

[FrankW]

… But none of them have the capability or funds to make their own heads.

I remember when printer manufacturer Calcomp (summa were part of them) have closed down by the head company Lockheed Martin because they have tried to create a printer named Crystaljet with own heads, what leads to a money pit for them. Looks like that it is not so easy to make own heads, there are rumours that time that they only have successfully produced 50 working heads per month, most of monthly production was trash. It was at the end of the 90s as far as I remember.

It looks like that not the manufacturers are moving from Epson, but the other way round. We sell some special printers for special applications with epson engines, and it will be more and more expensive and more and more difficult to get epson replacement heads for that machines. Even spare heads for mutoh machines have increased in price a few years ago. Looks like Epson will not longer support competitors.

 

[fuzzy_cam]

We're running two of them.

 

[LenXIII]

As far as I can tell the new head is an Epson I1600 print head. They print 3.8pl - 8.7pl which might seem high compared to a DX7 but keep in mind that the DX7 head had 180 nozzles per inch where the I series has 300. The I series also has a longer print area at 1.33" instead of 1" so each channel is dropping 400 nozzles in one pass instead of 180. It should be a fairly good improvement over the old model.

So I just got an email from my salesguy who contacted Mutoh for me to ask what the picoliter drop size was before I bothered to post here. The reply I got claims the drop size is 1.6 - can this be right? That seems incredibly small, almost half the DX7 from what I remember.

 

[Solventinkjet]

So I just got an email from my salesguy who contacted Mutoh for me to ask what the picoliter drop size was before I bothered to post here. The reply I got claims the drop size is 1.6 - can this be right? That seems incredibly small, almost half the DX7 from what I remember.

Since it's a brand new printer I can't be 100% sure but the head in the mechanical drawing looks exactly like an Epson I1600. Here's the spec sheet for that head. According to that sheet the minimum drop size for solvent inks is 3.8pl.

 

[LenXIII]

Since it's a brand new printer I can't be 100% sure but the head in the mechanical drawing looks exactly like an Epson I1600. Here's the spec sheet for that head. According to that sheet the minimum drop size for solvent inks is 3.8pl.

Where did you see the mechanical drawing for the head? I see your attachment but where did you find it mention that this is the drawing for the SR41 pro? I appreciate your time with these replies btw!

 

[Solventinkjet]

Where did you see the mechanical drawing for the head? I see your attachment but where did you find it mention that this is the drawing for the SR41 pro? I appreciate your time with these replies btw!

No problem! We're a Mutoh dealer so I have access to all of the manuals. I actually just took a second look and it says I1600 right on the drawing

 

[LenXIII]

No problem! We're a Mutoh dealer so I have access to all of the manuals. I actually just took a second look and it says I1600 right on the drawing

Hahahaha - thanks. I thought 1.6 sounded too good to be true. I appreciate it, at least I know what's coming now!