DSF

We are wondering if the time is right to get into cheap promotional gift printing and looking at the Mimaki UJF-3042FX whose bed is 50mm deep.

Anyone have experience of this printer and could give some advice as to how different it is to print directly onto substrates as opposed to sublimation in terms of artwork set-up and if a RIP is needed. Currently we print directly from Photoshop without any RIP and this process is quick and easy.

Thank you in advance

Olly

Mimakis was awful compared to our rolands LEF. Always problems with white is sticking through, or other problems.
Our mimakis use to run on Caldera rip. good quality when worked well tho.

Hi Paul. Thank you. I must admit I always liked the Roland LEF 12 but the price of the Mimaki A3 is heavily reduced to £2k LOWER than the Roland A4 bed size hence wondering if we should go with Mimaki A3. Or not do UV print and stick with sublimation

To be fair, we used it daily for about 17h a day. but if you use maybe less than it should be good. dont take me wrong. its a good machine when it works. but when I compare ROlands to mimaki, we would never buy mimaki again as Roland is a work horse.

Paul;144628 wrote:To be fair, we used it daily for about 17h a day. but if you use maybe less than it should be good. dont take me wrong. its a good machine when it works. but when I compare ROlands to mimaki, we would never buy mimaki again as Roland is a work horse.

What were the issues you had please. I am looking at the 7151 or the 6042.

Thanks

What type of items are you looking to print?

Justin;148292 wrote:What type of items are you looking to print?

Acrylics and wooden boxes hence the need for bed height.

Just asking because we've been testing the water with a Chinese machine we imported. Results have been excellent and I've been really impressed with the support as well. Having looked at machines a few years back I appreciate the huge investment. This for us at least was a great way to test products.

Lots of folk having different experience with Chinese machines so we did our research and found a reputable manufacturer. I emailed them for advise a couple of times today and responses come back within minutes. Our machine was even shiped with spares, dampers etc. so that we can maintain it ourselves.

Our thinking was, if if all goes wrong the investment wasn't huge. If it went well but results weren't great we would look again at more expensive machines. So far we don't feel the need to upgrade

It prints onto untreated wood, plastics, metal and all the usual stuff with no issues whatseover.

If uou have any blanks you'd like printing for comparispon against the Mikmaki etc. I'd be happy to do them.

Justin;148299 wrote:Just asking because we've been testing the water with a Chinese machine we imported. Results have been excellent and I've been really impressed with the support as well. Having looked at machines a few years back I appreciate the huge investment. This for us at least was a great way to test products.

Lots of folk having different experience with Chinese machines so we did our research and found a reputable manufacturer. I emailed them for advise a couple of times today and responses come back within minutes. Our machine was even shiped with spares, dampers etc. so that we can maintain it ourselves.

Our thinking was, if if all goes wrong the investment wasn't huge. If it went well but results weren't great we would look again at more expensive machines. So far we don't feel the need to upgrade

It prints onto untreated wood, plastics, metal and all the usual stuff with no issues whatseover.

If uou have any blanks you'd like printing for comparispon against the Mikmaki etc. I'd be happy to do them.

Thanks Justin, weve been for a demo of both machines, the quality was good. We arent techy so dont want the hassle of no UK support. But I read this post and was concerned by Paul's comments. The new Rolands with the conveyor system look interesting but most people who print in this space tend to use Mimakis but I may now go have a look at the Roland Versa UV LEC2 S Series.