can anyone give me some advise with the JV33 please

[John Childs]

Two major benefits are:-

1. Different (single head) design runs a lot cleaner than the JV3 resulting in much less routine maintenance. It also makes cleaning a more pleasant job.

2. When used in four colour mode, it uses only one cartridge of any colour at a time, before switching automatically to the second when the first is empty.

You can still get banding, but that is largely a factor of how you have adjusted the printer settings. However, print quality of the JV33 is quite a bit better than the JV3.

I wouldn’t like to quantify the amount, but the ink savings will be quite substantial. Partly for reason 2 above, because no cartridge is changed until completely empty, thereby eliminating waste, and partly because the 33 doesn’t use ink to clean itself.

They’re the main points, but there are are other advantages too, and I would definitely recommend upgrading to the JV33.

[Adam Triggs]

As always John,

Expert and concise advice,

Thanks.
Adam

[David Rowland]

well as John says, it is much better and one head design will be better for reduction of banding.

1: Banding can be caused by the machine moving out of line on bi-directional (could be small head crashes), we find you need to re-adjust it. If you print on uni-directional and have head height on Thin, you find your print is blurring a bit, say yellow is a little off then you need to re-tune the positions of the heads.
2: Some offer a 2 year warranty on the JV33, that could be plus point also.
3: New RIP, so you can handle latest files.
4: Bad news is once your out of warranty and maybe in the future the pricing will change, but currently a JV33 print head costs a lot more then a JV3 print head if it is not under any form of contract.
5: Demand, our JV3 must be 5 years by now, it is showing signs that the motors might start playing up but our print demand is borderline, it does keep up with what we throw at it so the need to go faster is not as important.

If your thinking of printing banners as your primary business then JV33 over the CJV33 is suggested.

[John Childs]

Like Dave says, a JV33 print head will be more expensive but, on the upside, there is only one of them rather than four. Also, if you do have to change it, then it is new for all colours, rather than just the one with the JV3.

I also think that you will replace heads less often on the JV33 because that’s certainly been our experience. On our old JV3 we put, for various reasons, about six heads in in two and a half years, whereas our eighteen month old JV33 is still on the original one.

Maybe a silly thing, but the front cartridge loading helps a lot too, and makes the printer easier to use. Also the cartridges are a lot less vulnerable to accidental damage.

[John Thomson]

The DX5 printhead in the JV33 is just over 600 Euros……..around 100 Euros more than the JV3’s DX4 but there are 4 of them in a JV3!

john

[David Rowland]

quote John Thomson:

The DX5 printhead in the JV33 is just over 600 Euros……..around 100 Euros more than the JV3’s DX4 but there are 4 of them in a JV3!

john

really? i stand corrected, that case then the JV33 ‘after’ warranty looks more workable and after a couple more years I suspect that price will drop just a little. Is there any word on JV33’s using alternative inks yet?

Interesting to note on the replacement heads JC, we are on possibly head number 6 over 5-6years, many pumps! and few dampers changed, nothing else.

Is the pump different on this model?

[John Childs]

Most, if not all, of our head replacements on the JV3 were due to strikes. I’ll put my hands up and admit that maybe some of them were our fault, but certainly not all. I stood there and watched it do it one day, it had printed metres with no problem, the vinyl was running through nicely, then whack, a thousand pounds please!

We have never put a pump or a damper onto either machine.

I don’t know about alternative inks, but I haven’t been looking for them because I wouldn’t use them anyway.

[Adam Triggs]

One more question to add,

Should I go for the larger cutter 160 as well or should I stick with the 130. Other than the obvious warranty of the cutter, is there any major reason to have a cutter 1.6 wide.

Kind regards
Adam.

[David Rowland]

well the question is quite easy to answer, do you ever exceed 1.3mtr width for creating a sign or vehicle?

We have a 1.6mtr workflow now which helps a lot.

[John Childs]

quote Adam Triggs:

Should I go for the larger cutter 160 as well or should I stick with the 130. Other than the obvious warranty of the cutter, is there any major reason to have a cutter 1.6 wide.

Only you can answer that one Adam, based on the work you are likely to be asked to do, and bearing in mind the space you have available.

We only have the 130 printer and the 130 cutter and have only once had an instance where I would have liked a bit of extra. It wasn’t a problem because we were able to put the join in a very unobtrusive position on the van, so I would consider the 160s to be nice, but certainly not critical to my business.

Then there’s the fact that most materials come in 1370mm widths. Stocking 760 and 1370 is enough of a space waster without adding another size into the mix.

Even with 1370 machines, I would guess that something like ninety percent of our work is still done on 760 material. Easier to stock, easier to handle, much less lamination cock-ups, and easier to process afterwards. We only print on 1370 when we have absolutely no option.

I would say that, unless you have a specific reason for a 160, a 130 will be fine.

[Adam Triggs]

I know it seemed an obvious question but we’ve always pushed the customer to keep the size within 1.3m

We’re not really in the market of wrapping yet but our cut vinyl is on the increase.

I suppose in summary, for the sake of a few extra quid a month I should get the bigger unit.

Cheers
Adam.