Sydney signage business Display Systems Australia says its new Mimaki UCJV300-160 inkjet printer has doubled its production speed and significantly reduced its ink usage.

Mimaki 300 160
  Mimaki's UCJV300-160

“The Mimaki printers are absolutely fantastic; fast and economical,” says Display Systems owner John Privitera. “We have found them way above our expectations. We are producing some beautiful prints and we are doing some nice work.”

Privitera initially wanted to replace one of the company’s eco-solvent machines with two of the same platform until he visited a trade show in the US earlier this year.

“I attended the ISA show in Orlando this year and the word on the floor was that this new UCJV300-160 was the must have. I couldn’t be happier with the decision to go with this machine. It gives us low power consumption with an economical ink cost. It produces prints with vibrant colours and the cutter is separate to the print head.”

 
 
Display Systems

 (l-r) John Privitera with production manager
 Anthony Crosetta

The UCJV300 Series is a versatile inkjet printer having a combined function of both printing and cutting mounted with UV-curable ink. It uses Raster Link 6 Plus software and a function called ID Cut. This places a barcode on the printed material which the cut function picks up and uses to align the cutting head exactly in the right place on the sheet. With nested or multiple products, you can automate the whole process because the printer can read and position the cutting head with the information contained in the ID code. 

“The UCJV300-160 runs at double the speed of the other machine we were running,” says Privitera. “Also, we wanted to get the flexible ink. It stretches and goes with the printed product. The amount of ink it doesn’t use is quite incredible.”

He says the new Mimaki is allowing his business to produce quality banners at speed. “We can’t load them into frames quickly enough. We have banner stands printed up and we need extra people sometimes to put graphics into frames. Speed is not an issue. Because the LED UV ink sits on top of the media, you get a real texture to your print and our clients like the textured feel in the banner. We have no issues with adhesion and scratch resistance; we are not protecting it with a laminate.”

 
 

Privitera sees value for money in his Mimaki investment and intends to stick with the brand. “I am also thinking about buying a smaller one just for running banner stands. We are rapt with these Mimaki printers. The price point was perfect for a business like mine. For what was coming out of the Mimaki I couldn’t see why I would pay two or three times the money for a machine with similar capabilities. That didn’t make sense.”

Display Systems Australia is an Australian-owned company manufacturing a wide range of portable banners, display banner stands, exhibition banners and more, based at Botany Rd, Banksmeadow in Sydney.

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