Reviews of Mimaki UJF-6042 MKII printheads durability

[ArtBR]

Hello All
We are considering the purchase of the Mimaki UJF_6042 MKII printer. I have demoed the equipment and feel it will do well for us. My concern is the printhead costs @ $3000 a head + travel and there are four.
They are warranted for 2 years. I was told If I follow maintenance they should not have any problems with them. The dealer said they do fail but most of this is caused by either abuse or not doing maintenance.

opinions on this model or the 3042 or 7151?

thanks

 

[Bingleardicus]

i have a great deal of experience with all of the ujf series printers.

I find the Toshiba heads in the 7151 and the overall build quality of the 7151 to be the most robust. I run two side by side up to 16hrs/day.

One thing i have to add about the smaller ones is the laser.... THE LASER!!!! is so finicky its rumored your body temp alone can throw it off.

I havent had to adjust the laser on either 7151 since install, late last year.

 

[ArtBR]

dusty - thanks for the reply and thoughts on the ujf printers - it helps

 

[Randy H]

I own a Mimaki UJF 6042 MKII that is turning 3 years old this month. I am semi retired but still do awards maybe 6 times a year. I try to print something a few times a week. Seem like the best thing you can do to keep it printing right is the nozzle washes. I have always kept it cleaned and it was great right up to 35 months. Getting bands in the prints now. The odd thing to me is the test prints looked good but as it printed it would band. Had a Mimaki Printer Tech come out for 2 hours at a cost of $175 per hour but no change. Sent test prints to Mimaki USA tech and was told the test print appears to show some deflection in the back, cyan and magenta. Deflection is the cause when some lines are closer together or farther apart in the test print. It results in the jets printing at an angle instead of straight down - this causes gaps and overlaps in the print, which results in banding. Deflection requires a printhead replacement in most cases. I really expected to get better service out of a machine that at the time cost over $40,000 I was quoted more that the $3000 per head plus labor so a really large price to keep it printing right. Now I have it making 16 passes and converted the image to RGB so it could mix the color to help out and I am getting by but what happens the next time I have a mostly black to print on the acrylic. No more than this printer is used I really expected to get better print head life out of it. I do love it when it is printing right so I guess I have a love/hate with it now.