UV changed wide format roll printing…
…now it’s about to change rigid printing.
The Mimaki UCJV300 UV inkjet printer played a fundamental role in transforming UV from a specialised technology into a mainstream production tool for sign shops.
When Mimaki first introduced the UCJV300 UV inkjet printer series in 2017, UV roll printing was still a relatively niche technology. Globally, the market size was still comparatively small (circa 1,000+ units per year) and most sign shops relied on eco-solvent printers for everyday production. The UCJV300, alongside broader advancements in UV technology, helped accelerate adoption by offering greater versatility, instant curing, and the ability to print on a wider range of applications. Over the following years, the UV segment experienced steady growth, becoming an increasingly important part of the wide-format print market and a viable alternative to traditional solvent-based systems.
Mimaki continued to build on the success of the UCJV300, as it steadily helped to see UV transformed from a specialised technology into a mainstream production tool for sign shops, ultimately spawning the evolution of Mimaki’s current 330 series that continues to help reshape sign production economics.
- Faster turnaround
With solvent printing, graphics often require up to 24 hours of drying time before lamination. UV inks cure instantly. Graphics can now be printed, cut and installed on the same day, dramatically reducing production time.
- Lower production costs
Many UV applications no longer require lamination. This eliminates an entire production step and reduces both labour and material costs. Power consumption is dramatically reduced also, when compared to latex solutions.
- New standards for window graphics
Before UV white ink, producing window graphics with solvent printers was extremely slow. White ink printing speeds would average less than 1 metre per hour, followed by 24 hours of drying time. With UV white ink, production speeds of around 4 metres per hour are possible, with no drying time required and higher opacity that prevents show-through.
The next transformation: rigid printing
Where rigid printing is concerned, Mimaki sees strong parallels with the way the Mimaki UCJV Series expanded the adoption of UV roll printing, predicting that the Mimaki UJ330H-160 will play a similar role in re-defining how rigid printing is approached by everyday sign shops.
Current hybrid printers typically cost $130,000 or more, limiting adoption mainly to large sign companies that can afford the space and cost. This means that for most sign shops, rigid printing is either outsourced or produced through a labour-intensive workflow. But the Mimaki UJ330H-160 is currently priced at roughly half the cost of many traditional flatbed systems, making hybrid UV technology increasingly accessible to a much wider range of print providers.
Further to this, where traditionally, rigid work has relied on a multi-step workflow – printing onto flexible media, laminating, mounting to a board, and then finishing – hybrid UV printing changes this equation. By allowing rigid boards to be printed directly, the process becomes far more streamlined, reducing labour requirements, material usage and overall production time. Just as importantly, bringing rigid production in-house enables sign businesses to retain valuable margins that may otherwise be lost through outsourcing or additional processing.
In simple terms, hybrid UV technology brings roll and rigid printing together on one platform, enabling sign shops to produce more applications, more efficiently, and with greater control over their profitability.
This article first appeared in the April issue of Image Magazine
