In November 2003 Hybrid Services launched the Mimaki JV3 into the UK and Ireland, and at the time its fresh-faced marketing manager Duncan Jefferies described it as a bringing “a new level of performance to solvent inkjet printing.”
He was right. This wide-format printer could produce 720dpi at 10sq m/h, was self-cleaning and maintaining, and offered the ability to produce CMYK graphics with a three-year outdoor lifespan. This was something of a revolution, and it took Mimaki from a niche player in this sector to becoming a leading force in what is today a mainstream technology that underpins much of the revenue generation of the sign-making industry.
The standard operation was that a solvent printer needed regular cleaning or head soak on a Friday night and a re-commission process on a Monday”
Mimaki today is a highly-diversified print technology developer that fields a family of machines that cover UV, dye-sublimation, textile, and even 3D printing. Essentially, whether you want to print onto a pen, produce a textile-based tensile exhibition stand, or brand up the side of a 20-tonne lorry, they have a system to cater for it.
At its birth the Mimaki JV3 was billed as producing “crisp, clean photo realistic images, at the very highest quality without the need to laminate.” At the time Jefferies commented: “We have never before seen such interest surrounding a printer as we have with the Mimaki JV3.”
Bedrock technology
Fifteen years down the line: The JV300 is at the pinnacle of cost-effective wide-
format inkjet printing technology
The JV3 essentially gave sign-makers their time back. They were serving a market that was already booming, and for the first time they could leave their workhorse to look after itself for cleaning and maintenance, which was the bane of the sign-makers existence.
“The standard operation was that a solvent printer needed regular cleaning or head soak on a Friday night and a re-commission process on a Monday. They were very high maintenance and the JV3 changed all of that being self-cleaning and self-maintaining,” explains Hybrid’s national sales manager John de la Roche.
He adds: “For the first time a new host of materials could be printed onto without fear of the ink sliding off them or losing their colour in direct sunlight. This meant it opened up a host of new of revenue generating potential for businesses such as sign-makers.”
For the first time a new swathe of materials could be printed onto without fear of the ink sliding off them or losing their colour in direct sunlight”
The JV3 changed the conversation about every printer being ‘does it scratch, and does it fade?’ to durability of the graphics being a given. Those inks were UV stable and they chemically etched themselves into the vinyl. Some 20 years ago this was seen as the Holy Grail of inkjet printing, and Mimaki were the ones to ‘find it’.
He continues: “Mimaki and our resellers sold a lot of machines, our competitors ran to catch up, and the amount of materials being used by the industry went through the roof as the performance drove demand for outdoor durable graphics, fleet liveries, exhibition graphics, retail displays, and much more.”
So, the JV3 was the catalyst for a whole sector that was primed and ready for an explosion, and by golly it did. And the salient reminder from de la Roche is that solvent printing remains the beating heart of Mimaki.
The workhorse engine from 15 years ago has been fine-tuned into a thoroughbred”
The development curve from the JV3 was steep none the less, and over the last 15 years its successors have become more cost-effective, faster, more automated, able to run at a lower cost per square metre, and more environmentally-friendly. In addition, the intervals between full services of the machines have extended, the RIPs have become more sophisticated and better controlled, there has been a growth in special colours, and they can print to an even greater array of materials.
Indeed, the JV300 today has increased its top speed by more than ten times (105.9sq m/h), doubled its quality to 1,440dpi, and there are now nine colours in its ink set.
De la Roche concludes: “The workhorse engine from 15 years ago has been fine-tuned into a thoroughbred. A nice moment in my professional career is a Signs Express franchise that purchased a JV3 14 years ago has only very recently swapped it out for a new Mimaki printer. The JV3 was a coveted part of their business and during its hard-working life, it never missed a beat. This is all testament to service and support, the build quality of the technology and our personal approach."
