can anyone tell me what a Mimaki JV3 can do please?

[David Rowland]

Hi there… well we are owners of an 2 year old JV3-160S (with the 6 colours instead of the 2x 4 colours), with the larger printer and laminator it makes it easier for us to produce larger menu boards or alike… however my advise is simple:-

1: Support, discuss this and heads deals, very important as all printers will require some assistance.
2: Make a room for the printer, keep that room above freezing and dust tree (laminate floor) and if possible say 20 degrees at all times and store your materials in there.
3: Look at the fume extraction path to outside or consider a filter indoors if u are in a built up area, your call on that one.

The printer is a great machine, the newer SP models are slightly faster then our S model, the white ink option isn’t anything to write home about and hard to put to use. Also the cutter, its a good cutter but in another company I used to work for, we failed to get the ‘cut-thru’ material option to work correctly, so we didn’t bother and just used it like a normal cutter.

[John Childs]

Well, it depends on what you are going to do with it. 🙂

I looked at the size of all the prints we had previously subbed out and realised that we had bought in nothing that wouldn’t fit on the even narrower 75SP model. So, given our serious space limitation, that’s what I bought.

I accepted that fact that if I needed prints wider that 740mm we would have to continue to sub out but, twelve months later, that hasn’t happened.

Obviously if you are going to get involved in lots of wraps then you need a wider printer but I would suggest that you look realistically at the type of work you are going to do because wider brings its own problems. For instance, my girlies cannot handle a wider roll of material on their own (and I would struggle myself) so printing would become a two person operation, rather than the one it is now.

I would also have another think about the laminator. Hot lamination gives less silvering and the colours seem to be a bit more vibrant.

[crea8or]

John and Dave,

Thanks so much for your replies, very helpful.

The main markets we are into are:

bespoke wallpapers
pop up stands
banner stands
posters
floor graphics
window graphics
vehicle graphics
canvas prints

We deal a lot with corporates, so a lot of interior stuff, but we wanted the flexibility of being able to do outdoor too.

Thanks

Sheena

[David Rowland]

This is what I think:-

bespoke wallpapers – dreamsscape wallpapers, although expensive to print and buy.
pop up stands – you can do it, but takes a bit of experimenting
banner stands – no problem
posters – not really suited, inks a bit strong for paper, cant compete
floor graphics – no demand, i believe it can be done
window graphics – clear vinyl yes and backed with white.
vehicle graphics – no problem
canvas prints – pretty good, not as good as dye sub printer

[crea8or]

Hi Dave,

Thank you for the last post. Would it be okay if I gave you a call please?

Kind Regards,

Sheena