UV Printer Help

[bjt140]

I hate posting a "help what should I buy" question, but I am stumped in this arena and I would love to hear what everyone thinks about these machines. I know your input will be more truthful compared to a sales reps!

I currently have an engraving shop and I want and need to add UV printing to my awards offerings. Due to space and power limitations I am looking for a smaller unit that is still good for production work. I would love to have 48" x XX for a print area (my laser is 50x100 so I would like to use it as efficiently as possible), and I plan on printing on cast acrylic, metal, and wood to start with.

One machine I was considering was the Mimaki UJF-7151Plus, I have heard both good and bad reviews of Mimaki. If I had more room the Mimaki JXF200-2513 would also be a consideration. The other company I was considering was Direct Color Systems, but after talking to a rep at a trade show they seemed to have a lot of monthly costs due to parts wearing out.

Any tips from the pros would be greatly appreciated, I cant afford to invest in a machine that will leave us hanging or give poor results.

Thank you!!

 

[cmwpmm]

This may not be of any help, but we use a CET xseries-1000. It's the only flatbed I'm familiar with since it's the only one I've ever run, but for the most part we're quite happy with it. Has it had problems? Sure some, but every machine will need repairs at some point. I'm not sure about the flat beds you mentioned but thought I'd put in my two cents about ours.

 

[VISCOM]

CET has a 250 table model 48" x 60"

 

[Ditchmiester]

We just purchased a Mimaki UJF-6042 in November and we love it. We looked seriously at DCS in the past but their machines are over priced and the ink is super expensive compared to Mimaki. Not sure what your budget is but if you want speed you can also look at the Ink Cups Now small format Flatbed Printers.

 

[bjt140]

Thank you all for the replies so far! I just put a call in to CET to see what their unit is cost wise, and to see how well it will work for the materials I plan on using. The CET 250 looks like it could be perfect for the room we have, those of you that run a CET have you ever had any issues printing on acrylic, wood, or metal? I am hoping to be able to print my sheets and then send them to our laser to have them profile cut for awards and various signage tasks.

Glad to hear from someone with a Mimaki, I would like their UJF-7151Plus since it has a rotary option too but I am worried about the bed size and not being able to pack out the printer with awards properly. Are you using your Mimaki to print on already cut pieces, or are you cutting after the print process?

Thank you all for the help so far!

 

[VISCOM]

96 series ink is AWESOME for all that you want to print on

 

[Ditchmiester]

Thank you all for the replies so far! I just put a call in to CET to see what their unit is cost wise, and to see how well it will work for the materials I plan on using. The CET 250 looks like it could be perfect for the room we have, those of you that run a CET have you ever had any issues printing on acrylic, wood, or metal? I am hoping to be able to print my sheets and then send them to our laser to have them profile cut for awards and various signage tasks.

Glad to hear from someone with a Mimaki, I would like their UJF-7151Plus since it has a rotary option too but I am worried about the bed size and not being able to pack out the printer with awards properly. Are you using your Mimaki to print on already cut pieces, or are you cutting after the print process?

Thank you all for the help so far!

We mostly print on precut parts. We would have went for the 7151Plus but it had just been released at SGIA where we bought ours and we had a job we needed it for as quickly as possible and the 7151 wasn't going to be available until January at the soonest. That machine is really nice and its definitely faster than ours.

 

[Steve Weist]

Mimaki Specialist

I have a show room full of Mimaki UV flatbeds with over 100 happy Mimaki UV flatbed customers, feel free to call me any time to discuss the Mimaki UV Flatbeds. We know them inside and out. We have all of them in our demo center JFX 200, UJF 6042, UJF 7151, UJF 3042. If these machines are installed properly and you keep trained operators running them you will have no issues, Mimaki is a great machine.

check out our Mimaki UV Flatbed Videos

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLTrG0YfOMVK_4xKkSFcpww

Steve Weist
615-812-3001
Sweistsr@gmail.com

 

[truecolors]

We went through the same process of looking for a printer and we were very impressed with the CET printer. We ended up purchasing a Q5-500 and found that the ink CET uses had the best adhesion with acrylic and metal compared to the other printers we looked at. For wood we found pretty consistent results across the board with all the printers. In terms of getting them laser cut, the CET flatbed has great registration pins so that we can line it up perfectly each time and dont have any problems with accuracy.

 

[Bengrave]

We went through the same process of looking for a printer and we were very impressed with the CET printer. We ended up purchasing a Q5-500 and found that the ink CET uses had the best adhesion with acrylic and metal compared to the other printers we looked at. For wood we found pretty consistent results across the board with all the printers. In terms of getting them laser cut, the CET flatbed has great registration pins so that we can line it up perfectly each time and dont have any problems with accuracy.

This does not have a clear ink option, correct? Otherwise looks like a great printer. I've been looking at the Roland flatbed myself. Like the option of clear ink effects for doing gloss/matte/texture (ADA signage, among other things). What does the Q5-500 go for about?

 

[bjt140]

I'm still waiting on my quotes from CET. Almost bought a used vutek but decided to listen to advice given that it'd just cause problems.

Would love to hear what others have gotten their machines for and what previous trade show specials were.

Thanks!

 

[Dionysus]

I would say this: When at a trade show if you have a chance to see people setting up these printers, look at whats easiest to put in place. that mimaki flatbed took almost all day to set up. The CET we set up was in place up and running in 2 hours. Forget about Oce.

 

[MainostePrint]

I wouldn't make my decision based on how long it took to install the printer. They are serious machines and install obviously takes a lot of time!

We have AGFA Anapurna mW. It's not new and we actually bought it as used machine but does it job for our production very well. I love that it's hybrid printer. takes less place than a true flatbed and printing on roll and rigid materials is easy once you master the machine. It has white ink but it's pretty much useless feature for us.

 

[GaSouthpaw]

I'm late to the party, but I would advise you to avoid Direct Color Systems printers at all costs. My experience with their 1024UVMVP (the MVP moniker is laughable, unless the M stands for "minimally") leads me to conclude they are wildly overpriced, mechanically outdated, woefully underdeveloped, temperamental, and wouldn't do what they advertised them to do unless you were able to get 100% perfect, laboratory-style testing conditions- and were able to devote 100% of your efforts to achieving them.
They also require a USB connection (not networkable, unless they've corrected that glaring oversight), their own (dedicated) workstation, terrible software, and yeah- they're insanely overpriced, as are their consumables.