The Sprinter Team attended Spicers Open House today in Mimaki’s Melbourne Showroom and the atmosphere was buzzing as customers came to check out the new, improved Mimaki UCVJ330-160.

The New Mimaki 330 Series

The key focus printer, the new 330 Series UV machine, upgrades Mimaki’s flagship UV Model for high image quality, production and application versatility. Its enhanced features include advanced UV-LED technology, prints and cuts. It also boasts a speed of 1.7 times the rate of the 300 Series. The UV ink prints dry on a wide variety of substrates. Notably, it is also Mimaki’s first roll-to-roll product to support 2.5 D printing applications.

Cameron Bongartz, Mimaki’s Victorian sales channel manager, was on hand to discuss the latest on the 330 Series. He says it is exciting to finally be putting it out there in the market, especially with Spicers. The presentation of the new Mimaki was the main attraction for the Open House, and the response is significant.

“The first customer turned up just at 9 am, and since then, it hasn’t stopped,” says Bongartz.

“The 330 is the upgrade from the 300, and there are a couple of main differences to highlight. The first is it runs 1.7 times faster, so we are getting better production speeds from our customers; the next is the dot size has changed from 7 pl to 3.5 pl. So that means less grainy, a lot smoother prints.

“The dual motor take-up rollers mean it handles bigger print runs, and the chassis is completely redesigned from the ground up for better stability and dot placement,” says Bongartz.

Specialist features

Interested parties include big print and signage companies, window decorators and retail sign makers. Bongartz says it fits all aspects of the market, mainly because of its specialist features, such as the white and clear ink to create the clear raised Skodex look.

“The new version has a specialised part that divides the transparent ink into layers, giving a textured feel instead of a straight up and down build. It’s perfect for wallpaper applications and labels such as wine and beer labels. It’s tactile. We call it 2.5D because it’s not quite 3D. It’s not big for signage, but for labels, it’s becoming popular because it’s a point of difference; it grabs attention,” says Bongartz.

Bongartz says the other prominent feature is the print and cut and the ‘all in one’ versatility and the flexibility of the UV ink.

“There’s not a lot of people in the market that have print and cut, white and clear ink all in the one unit, and this 170 Series ink has about a 70 per cent stretch. That flexibility allows versatility because typically UV print is quite rigid.”

Mimaki’s most popular model

Mimaki sold over 600 of the 300 models in Australia/NZ. To date, it’s Mimaki’s biggest-selling unit globally. The supplier hopes the 330 will receive a similar response as it starts to phase out the 300. Bongartz believes the 330 will quickly usurp the sales figures of the 300.

“We’ll get a lot of people upgrading because of that extra speed and print quality.”

The Spicers and Mimaki team, along with representatives from 3M, conducted live demonstrations for customers of the Mimaki JFX200-2513 EX (LED UV Large Flatbed), (C)JV330-160 (Roll to Roll Eco-Solvent), UJF-6042 Series (LED UV Flatbed) along with the new UCJV330-160 machine (Print & Cut LED UV).

The first Open House for Spicers for 2024, Mimaki hosted simultaneous events at its Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Townsville Showrooms. For more information on the new Mimaki UCJV330-160, at Mimaki Australia Pty Ltd

The new Mimaki UCJV330 Series retails for $39,999 with extended warranty programs optional, and the inks retail for $240 per litre.

Lead Pic L-R 3M’s Aaron Holder with Spicers’ Scott Houghton with the new Mimaki 330 Series.

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