Mimaki or Roland Printer, advice needed please?

[Lee Reeves]

Both makes are good it’s more down to preference on which would be better for you as for size how big is your heat press? As if you only want it for shirts any bigger would be a waste.

[Bryce Gibson]

The heatpress is normal size,its just incase i do banners for football teams.Is the mimaki faster?
Mimaki Print & Cut CJV30 or Roland VersaCAMM SP-300 V or bigger to do banners?The mimaki is 2k cheaper but its not as wide.

[Martin Pearson]

How much of this sort of work do you do? Problem with any solvent or Eco solvent machine is that it needs to be used on a very regular basis & they don’t like sitting in the corner for days or weeks at a time waiting for you to have a job for them to do.
Basically if they are not used frequently the ink dries up in the print heads which means an expensive job replacing the heads. Some of the newer machines have a maintenance mode where they run some ink through the heads to a waste bottle to help prevent the heads drying out but that means leaving the machine switched on so is costing you money in both electric & ink even when your not using it.

If you introduce yourself & tell people a little about what you do on the hello part of the forum you will find you get more answers to your questions.

[Robert Lambie]

Both Mimaki and Roland are great machines, but my self preference is Roland.
Ive been running them for many years, from vinyl cutters, thermal printers to two large solvent printers.

certainly go for a print and cut machine, without a doubt. again i would be with Roland, as they are the originators of the print and cut technology.
I remember years on end mimaki pushing how better a separate cutter and printer was better. only for years later, they followed suit.

if production speed is not an issue, limited budget. then the Roland BN20 is a super bit of kit as it has everything combined. I am suggesting this as i see garment printing is your main line of work.

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alternatively i would look at the versacamm range or above…

[Bryce Gibson]

Thanks, we use a gerber edge and its on every day,probably 100-200 prints per day,the reason i am looking for a solvent is because the edge cant do gradients well plus people are looking for more colour prints and there is a problem getting print material for the edge that can print on to sublimated garments as the normal print material bleeds when heat pressed.
The machines we have are
1 Graphtec fc7000 a bit wide for what a need as its difficult to get material that width but great cutter
1 cx 24 never used but for backup
2 edge 1
2 edge plotters
1 TAJIMA embroidery machine
1 Amaya embroidery machine
1 egx 400 roland
I have looked at the smaller roland but thought it didn’t look robust but you know better than me about these.After watching the video it looks good.Space and budget is not an issue,i would like it to be fast and solid.
I have bought buy smaller machines end up and regretting it,i don’t want to make the mistake again,but if its only for garments it probaly doesnt need to be 54 inch wide.

[Martin Pearson]

If you are already doing digital print work then obviously it’s not going to be sat doing nothing for periods of time, I always mention that because a lot of people who are new to printing simply don’t know, obviously your not new to printing but I wasn’t aware of that.
Not sure I follow your comments on the graphtec, should be able to cut any width media from about 100mm wide or at least my old graphtec can.

As for printer then of the 2 I think I would be looking at the Roland machine as it’s a bit wider, the mimaki is a 24" machine & will print slightly less than that probably somewhere around 23".
If you are looking to print banners with it then with a hem top & bottom your maximum banner width is going to be about 22" but at least with the Rolland you can sell banners that are standard sort of size at 24"

[Bryce Gibson]

Thanks , The graphtec is wider than i need but at the time when i bought it was easier to get material for textiles at 1500mm wide.
I was looking at the vs300 earlier is this a lot faster than the studio and the sp300?

[Stuart Drynan]

I have always used roland machines but in the last 3 months we have now also got a mimaki..

tbh, i use that more now that the roland, it is a much nicer finishing machine although i find its functions rather complicated to get used to, where as the roland is very easy to use..

[Bryce Gibson]

Thanks ,most people say the roland is easier to use and the mimaki needs cleaning and used more but it prints better and is more industrial,i will decide shortly.

[Martin Pearson]

How much of a rush are you in? The sign shows aren’t that far away now so might be worth holding off a couple of months & checking them out for yourself at a show,

[Bryce Gibson]

I was at the printwear show and had a look there,i am not in a hurry so i could wait,will there be better offers on then?