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Mimaki UCJV-300 Reviews

Norman Clifton

New Member
we haven't had much luck with 2 sided graphics - the double white always is discolored and I follow the specs in layered printing - Mimaki says this is not an issue but they have not been able to help me - gave up on it awhile a go
 

TrustMoore_TN

Sign & Graphics Business Consultant
We upgraded our laminator for heat assist and it makes a big difference for us and gets rid of silvering - heating the laminate as it applies makes it softer and more pliable - before that we were using a laminate with thick adhesive to help reduce silvering
Norman, What laminate are you running and what heat settings do you find work the best so far?
 

Scotchbrite

No comment
We're thinking pretty hard about getting one of these printers. Any new updates on opinions of those that have one?
 

White Haus

Not a Newbie
We're thinking pretty hard about getting one of these printers. Any new updates on opinions of those that have one?

It's been a pretty good printer so far. We just ran into our first ongoing issue and sounds like we just have to replace captops. (First real problem or parts we have to replace after having it for 3 years)

You need to keep it printing and keep burning through ink - expiry dates suck on a printer that is only used so often.

White ink isn't being used much anymore, I would probably switch over to dual CMYK if I could at this point.

My advice would be to make sure you have white ink work lined up until the thing is paid off, otherwise you'll just end up burning money/ink.

Plotter feature is useless as far as I'm concerned - we ditched Rasterlink for Onyx quickly after getting set up. Plays fairly well with Onyx thrive although it has it's bugs.

All in all, good printer for the money. We've run a ton of wall wraps through it and it's been great for that. Consistent color/quality for the most part and panels are always the correct size.

Ink does lay down pretty thick, so keep that in mind. Unless you're laminating with cast & heat, you'll see silvering around spot graphics and areas where it goes from dark print/unprinted. No one has ever complained about it, but I personally don't love that part of it.
 

dariusaleksas

New Member
We had one of those installed this spring. Previously we used Roland XR640. Overall I am already disappointed, but there are also good things about it. The white color is really good, but our white head started dropping out just after a few months of use. It takes a number of head cleaning cycles to get it fully back. The paint from the bottom of the carriage started flaking off. Mimaki said it is fine... It is not, I started getting those flakes dropping on my prints here and there, and I am cleaning this printer after each time it was used. The software, RasterLink6 is not user-friendly, it feels ancient and overly complicated (compared to VersaWorks). You'll need a dedicated PC or a very long USB cable (in our case) to reliably run it because over the local network it would not properly run. One major problem in my opinion is that the inks do expire and the salespeople did not tell us that. Right now I have unopened inks that already have expired. If you do not use a lot of white or clear or in general do not print a lot then really think about it. It is nice that the prints are ready to go right after they were produced, but them sitting on top of the media makes colors look plastic and unnatural. I cannot get the colors to look right. In some instances that is what we need, but sometimes we need that organic merge between media and solvent inks and the color perception it produces. You cannot have it with UV inks. You cannot get clear/translucent color prints with UV unless you lay down clear ink too, and that slows down the printing time considerably. I would say this printer would be a nice addition to the solvent printer because it cannot completely replace it. It prints fast, but pre-printing preparations can be ridiculously long. Cleaning is much easier and less messy as compared to solvent inks. You cannot have direct sunlight in that room.
 

White Haus

Not a Newbie
We had one of those installed this spring. Previously we used Roland XR640. Overall I am already disappointed, but there are also good things about it. The white color is really good, but our white head started dropping out just after a few months of use. It takes a number of head cleaning cycles to get it fully back. The paint from the bottom of the carriage started flaking off. Mimaki said it is fine... It is not, I started getting those flakes dropping on my prints here and there, and I am cleaning this printer after each time it was used. The software, RasterLink6 is not user-friendly, it feels ancient and overly complicated (compared to VersaWorks). You'll need a dedicated PC or a very long USB cable (in our case) to reliably run it because over the local network it would not properly run. One major problem in my opinion is that the inks do expire and the salespeople did not tell us that. Right now I have unopened inks that already have expired. If you do not use a lot of white or clear or in general do not print a lot then really think about it. It is nice that the prints are ready to go right after they were produced, but them sitting on top of the media makes colors look plastic and unnatural. I cannot get the colors to look right. In some instances that is what we need, but sometimes we need that organic merge between media and solvent inks and the color perception it produces. You cannot have it with UV inks. You cannot get clear/translucent color prints with UV unless you lay down clear ink too, and that slows down the printing time considerably. I would say this printer would be a nice addition to the solvent printer because it cannot completely replace it. It prints fast, but pre-printing preparations can be ridiculously long. Cleaning is much easier and less messy as compared to solvent inks. You cannot have direct sunlight in that room.

^^^That's exactly it. Nice to have, but I wouldn't ever recommend anyone buy one to replace a solvent printer.

We've come across most of the things you have mentioned, aside from the paint flaking off the carriage.

When you say it won't work over a local network - were you having issues with the IP address changing or getting dropped/forgotten? We've had to reinstall it 3 times in Onyx as out of the blue it will no longer "see" the printer. Every couple of months I'll have to update IP settings in Onyx because the printer will change them, even though it's set to keep the address. Other than when that happens, we use it over the network w/ Cat5 cable without issues.
 

White Haus

Not a Newbie
White Haus curious what your ongoing issue is with the captop?

Random nozzles dropping out, cleanings only move them around. Tech suggested I have a close look at captops and sure enough the lip that is supposed to seal around the heads is all warped and deformed. (Which you can only see when looking closely down the edge of it)

Captops are supposed to be in tomorrow and hopefully they'll solve the issue. They're definitely pretty expensive compared to the Roland solvent ones, but if it does the trick then it's not the end of the world after 3 years of use.
 

dariusaleksas

New Member
^^^That's exactly it. Nice to have, but I wouldn't ever recommend anyone buy one to replace a solvent printer.

We've come across most of the things you have mentioned, aside from the paint flaking off the carriage.

When you say it won't work over a local network - were you having issues with the IP address changing or getting dropped/forgotten? We've had to reinstall it 3 times in Onyx as out of the blue it will no longer "see" the printer. Every couple of months I'll have to update IP settings in Onyx because the printer will change them, even though it's set to keep the address. Other than when that happens, we use it over the network w/ Cat5 cable without issues.
Regarding network issues. Yes, RasterLink would just lose the printer and I would need to restart both RasterLink AND Printer. Sometimes this would happen in the middle of printing. As suggested by one of the Mimaki sales guy, we bought a long USB cable off Amazon and all of the problems went away 100%.
Regarding the paint flaking off. There is a topic created by me not too long ago with photos: https://www.signs101.com/threads/ucjv300-160-print-carriage-major-design-flaw.169947/ . I think it could be a quite rare problem because only one person said they had the same issue with their printer.
 

Solventinkjet

DIY Printer Fixing Guide
Random nozzles dropping out, cleanings only move them around. Tech suggested I have a close look at captops and sure enough the lip that is supposed to seal around the heads is all warped and deformed. (Which you can only see when looking closely down the edge of it)

Captops are supposed to be in tomorrow and hopefully they'll solve the issue. They're definitely pretty expensive compared to the Roland solvent ones, but if it does the trick then it's not the end of the world after 3 years of use.
Mimaki recommends changing the cap once a year so 3 years is probably a good time to change them out.
 

InkHead

New Member
Like you guys, I have been fighting with white ink dropping out on channel 7. It will come back with multiple cleanings but disappear the next day or sometimes the same day. New head didn't solve it either
 

White Haus

Not a Newbie
Mimaki recommends changing the cap once a year so 3 years is probably a good time to change them out.

Interesting. That's good to know, thanks. Is there a recommended preventative maintenance schedule for the UCJV models?

I've yet to find anything helpful aside from the usual wipers, filters etc. I don't like running machines until they break and would like to make sure we stay ahead of potential issues.
 

White Haus

Not a Newbie
Like you guys, I have been fighting with white ink dropping out on channel 7. It will come back with multiple cleanings but disappear the next day or sometimes the same day. New head didn't solve it either

Yikes, that's not good. New head should have solved that. Did they replace the ink lines and any other parts along the ink train for the W channels? Probably settled/clogged somewhere along the way.
 

Solventinkjet

DIY Printer Fixing Guide
Interesting. That's good to know, thanks. Is there a recommended preventative maintenance schedule for the UCJV models?

I've yet to find anything helpful aside from the usual wipers, filters etc. I don't like running machines until they break and would like to make sure we stay ahead of potential issues.
I have a manual that shows it but I'm not allowed to give it out. They generally go overboard and want you to even change the pumps every year which in my experience usually last many years. I would say the most important things are going to be the cap tops every 1 to 2 years, wiper once every 6 months to 1 year, and flush the waste pump/tubes once a year or so.


When the ink expires, will the printer refuse to operate with it?
They will allow you to use them for 60 days after expiration and then lock you out.
 

InkHead

New Member
The
Yikes, that's not good. New head should have solved that. Did they replace the ink lines and any other parts along the ink train for the W channels? Probably settled/clogged somewhere along the way.
We replaced the head, subtank and cap top and that didn't solve it. I replaced the tube from the bottle to the head. There is smaller tubes that I need to replace still but I'm messing with the captop adjustments now to see if that helps
 
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