Mimaki CJV feedback

[Mark Latchford]

We have one of these but took the white out of it. The machine is so slow with the white and also you really have to give it 2 hits to get a decent white.
Slows the machine to a crawl. Otherwise it is a great machine. Had it 2 years now and only changed the damper twice. The print quality is as good as anything else on the market in that range even after 2 years. Drinks White ink as though it is an alcoholic when not in use and you are forever
trying to unblock the white printheads.

[David Rowland]

My comments for the sister machine the JV33, very impressive output indeed and CJV is the same machine but with different pinch roller assembly/cutter… i opted for HP25500 but the new HP26550 sorts all the older problems out, if not the best printer on the market right now.

[Chris Wool]

jason
colin crow has one my be worth a call not seen him on here for a while.
i have the roland VS wt mt call if you wish

chris

[Fabrice Menard]

I bought a CJV30 nearly 2 years ago. White ink made the decision over a Roland (VS series was not there).

I am quite satisfied about it, I use it 99% of the time to make small stickers.

Pros:
– print quality is very good –> it is the most important to me, I don’t really care about print speed (I print over night) but I think it can print very fast in CMYK mode..
– price is OK, comes with take up system
– SS21 ink (mild solvent, dries quickly and scratch resistance is OK)
– I own a 100cm wide version which none of competitor offers. I had no space for a 130 (and no money for the difference in price towards 100)
– cutter is good, reg mark reading is correct (but not perfect), will never replace the quality of a standalone cutter.
– comes with RasterLink RIP which is good I think, we can tune many parameters and FineCut Illu/Corel plugin which is correct (not excellent though).

Cons:
– white is not opaque even when using both white channels and force the RIP to increase ink density. When printing white it is very very very very slow….
– I did not use white ink often enough so print head clogged rapidly (did not care enough about nozzle wash). Currently 1 of both white channel is blocked. I still can print CMYK design without problem.
– SS21 is mild solvent smells a lot (headache guaranteed) which is problematic in a small workshop without good venting. I heard in many place that ES3 eco solvent is not good (not scratch resistent, fades quickly), so if you buy a CJV30 –> use SS21 mild solvent
– print&cut with auto pinch roller pressure switching: it is quite slow and no that usefull (I use the same rollers settings for print and for cut) –> this also leads in long width interrogating time when you start the machine and when you want to make some cut only jobs.
– Rasterlink: CJV30 profiles are quite rare on manufacturers websites (and almost all for CMYK configuration, few for CMYKLcLm configuration and almost none for CMYKLcLm+White). Rasterlink needs an expensive extension in order to create your own profiles.

I am currently satisfied about this toy for my daily usage. But the main reason why I bought it was white ink and this point was frustrating, I don’t use it now.

White is not opaque enough for my needs and requires a lot of maintenance (it’s recommended to shake the cart every day!!). The print head has 1 of the 8 channels clogged without possible recovery. This is one of both white channels. I wait until the head is damaged so that I replace it and can switch to CMYKLcLm which will speed up the machine (2 more ink channels channels). I often need to add new white ink carts (or at least, cleaning carts with white ink chip) as every cleaning wastes a lot of white.

If only the new metallic inks from Mimaki could be SS21 (currently they only offer ES3 metallic) I could consider keeping white and adding metallic which I would definitely use almost daily.

I read on German forum that few people did not make difference in colors between CMYK and CMYKLcLm so CMYK will definitely be very fast in speed.

CJV30 is simply a JV33 with White ink (and few mechanical changes) without special design to care about this special ink which require special attention and daily care.

If the reason why you are intested in CJV30 is white ink, I would say: compare with competitors (UV printer, Roland VS…), I thinks the Roland VS series is better designed and makes ink being recycled instead of being wasted. This is specially important if you don’t plan to use it often.

[Jason Davies]

Thanks for the replies, a difficult decision then based on the feedback on the white which is the primary reason for adding this. I’ll need to think a little more about this and other possibilities.

Jason

[Fabrice Menard]

sorry for the mess in your mind about white :lol1:

What do you intend to do with white? How often?

[Jason Davies]

I use white quite a lot and we use an Edge but are limited to the size, had though of the Summa but not keen on the banding every 4 inches.

I don’t think there is anything as quick as the edge.

[Fabrice Menard]

what kind of product do you print with white? What purpose?

Do you need opaque white? Is white from Edge opaque? (I mean print on clear vinyl and stick to a dark surface without seeing the surface color through?)

[Jason Davies]

Hi, we use a Gerber Edge for white. Just need something bigger and as fast.

[David Rowland]

if your backing window graphics, then i possibly use white vinyl and i have uv agfa with white ink

[Jason Davies]

Thanks Dave, we would use for window graphics. Also thought of the summa but that is slow and we also need another printer for labels which is more cost effective than using summa foils.

Jason

[Nigel Pugh]

Wondering why my posts are no longer on this thread ?

[Chris Wool]

do a few window jobs using the white ink and allows you to do it a spot not a blanket of white so much nicer.

from what colin said about time to print think the VS is faster (not a lot) but as a second machine like mine is who cares the quality is worth it.
just think the profiles could be better.

[John.Maughan]

Got me a bit concerned about the white ink – if i have a three year warranty – do they cover the white printheads getting blocked.

[Fabrice Menard]

no warranty on printhead.