For the past 8 years the digital print side of the business has grown beyond what we ever expected. Its now an easy 40% of our business volume and an easy 15% of total income. In this 8 year period we've been using a Mutoh Falcon Outdoor 48" printer. The annual servcice warrantee was about $2,500 a year. After 3 years Latigo "obtained" a true service manual and, in short order, began doing all the the service and parts replacement himself.
Smooth sailing until last week on tuesday. The heater ceased to function, no big deal, right? Not so fast there Roger Potrzbie. Mutoh hasn't made that replacement electroinc circuit board in more than 3 years. Now we have an unuseable perfectly fine printer. No heat... no useable prints.
This is what we desperately need. Our three options are the new Mutoh 1624, the HP L25500 and the Mimaki JV33. All are within a few grand of each other but houir upon hour of researching reviews has given us little info that's truly definitive.
At first blush, the obvious would be Mutoh since Lat is well versed in the base components of service, calibration and repair, but........ It may not be the one we really need here. Of import is how tough the printer is, ink/media performance, ease of service and serviceable longevity.
If anyone here has solid experience with any or all of the above, we'd really like a contact phone so he can call you and discuss your own take on any or all 3 printers. We have an insane work load building up after just 4 days of being down and are desperate to get a machine on the way. All 3 are ready to ship to us but we need your input.
If you are of a mind to help us, please email your phone number to me at our unposted private address.... [EMAIL="mkntraks@centurytel.net"]mkntraks@centurytel.net[/EMAIL] We will bless your current and as yet unborn children with all of the power behind the Goddess Buddah.... ette. (You never know!) :thankyou:
Posted by Bruce Evans (Member # 44) on :
could you not add an offline heater/dryer? the types that sit towards the front of the machine? I've seen them before but can't remember who sells them.
Posted by Pierre St.Marie (Member # 1462) on :
We do have a Digi-Dry unit but it's the internal heater that's shot. Without that inital heat at point of contact the inks don't penetrate the films. The surface heater isn't nearly enough and allows little penetration. Thanks for the response. P
Posted by Blake Koehn (Member # 5984) on :
I don't know why you didn't add Rolands into your question, but after running one every day and a lot of the nights for the last 5 years, it would be the only brand I would consider.
I have done all my own maintenance and repairs since the day I bought mine, since the closest repair person is a 4 hour drive away. I have never bought any kind of service or maintenance contract at all on it. It is a very simple straight forward piece of equipment to work on and keep up.
I really don't know personally but what I have heard about the daily maintenance routines of the Mimaki is enough reason that I don't need one.
I have stopped printing, walked out of the shop, taken a two week vacation, returned to the shop and went right back to printing without so much as even walking over there and looking at my machine. As long as you leave it plugged in so it can do its own maintenance cycles while you are gone it requires no attention at all.
Posted by Pierre St.Marie (Member # 1462) on :
Thanks Blake. I just forwarded your response to Latigo. We need a machine as fast as we can work this out.
Posted by Pierre St.Marie (Member # 1462) on :
We have our solution from some actual users. Thanks to those that answered, and thank you, Blake for speaking to Lat.
