Mimaki's Virtual Unveiling

Mimaki—and many others—had big plans for FESPA, which has now been postponed to the fall. But it is still important to get the word out on new product offerings so businesses can stay informed with the latest information as they plan for a future beyond this awful pandemic. That’s why companies like Mimaki are turning to virtual events—not to replace rescheduled events like FESPA, but to provide interim updates so businesses can keep operating based on the best possible information. 

In addition to the virtual press conference the company held, Mimaki is hosting a five-week Virtual Print Festival (https://www.mimakieurope.com/virtual-print-festival/) with experts providing detailed information and video demonstrations from the company’s Amsterdam showroom. Interested parties can also book a “Virtual Coffee” session if they are looking for more detailed one-on-one sessions. 

During the press conference, several major announcements, besides the Virtual Print Festival, were made:

• A new addition to the company’s 3D printing portfolio;
• Addition of two OKI wide format printer families to the Mimaki wide format portfolio; 
• Expansion of available ink sets for dual-ink textile printers first shown at ITMA;
• UJV100-160 entry-level roll-to-role printer available to non-EU countries; and
• Addition of a BOFA air purifier unit to the SWJ-320EA 3.2-meter solvent printer.

Accelerating Growth in 3D Printing

Mimaki was one of the first to introduce a full-color 3D printing solution with its 3DUJ-553, using inkjet technology to print relatively small solid objects in full color with a unique water soluble support material that makes it easy to remove support structures after the object is printed. 

Now the company has added a new 3D printer to its portfolio, sourced from an OEM partner, that is ideal for use in the sign & display graphics market. The Mimaki 3DGD-1800 (with GD standing for Gel Dispensing) can produce hollow objects up to 1.8 meters in height in about seven hours.

Part of the strategy around 3D printing for Mimaki, according to Ronald Van Den Broek, general manager for EMEA sales, is an interest in collaborating to drive more adoption of the technology for a broader range of applications. In the case of the 3DGD-1800, Mimaki has partnered with another manufacturer to acquire a proven solution that has specific relevance to the sign and display graphics market and is synergistic with other solutions in the Mimaki product line. The objects produced by the 3DGD-1800 are hollow and translucent (basically white) and can be shrink wrapped to quickly decorate them using Mimaki wide format print output, for example. Plus, these large objects are ideal as promotional items; for example, a retailer could use a large reproduction of a bottle of suntan lotion or a beer mug to promote a sale on the product. 

Since objects are hollow, they can also be lit from inside. In addition, these lighter-weight 3D printed objects can be incorporated into 2D signage to add interest, depth, lighting and more. 

With Mimaki’s expansive global presence and dealer/distributor network and presence in 150 countries, there is the potential of increased sales.

“Mimaki has potential in the sign and display graphics market with a different route to market than the original OEM," Van Den Broek said. "By adding this product to the Mimaki portfolio, we can increase the total sales of this technology by exploring markets where Mimaki and its network have access.”

That, according to Van Den Broek, can not only accelerate adoption of 3D printing for sign & display graphics applications, but also could conceivably result in price decreases as volumes grow in the future. For Mimaki customers, this new 3D printer adds some very interesting value to the Mimaki ecosystem. We can expect to see more from Mimaki on the 3D front in the future as the company, according to Van Den Broek, is beefing up is 3D division.

Mimaki and OKI Team Up

In another major announcement, Mimaki is teaming up with OKI to take charge of the OKI ColorPainter H3-104S and M-64 product families, representing OKI’s wide format product portfolio. The OKI branding and pricing will remain the same, but Mimaki will pick up distribution, service, support, warehousing, etc. This adds 100 dealer/distributors to the Mimaki channel.

“Our task at present is to integrate the OKI dealer network into the Mimaki operation," Van Den Broek said. "In the meantime, Mimaki is investigating the potential of introducing the OKI products into the Mimaki dealer network and vice versa.” 

The M64-S offers the best high pigment solvent ink in the market, according to Bert Benckhuysen, senior product manager EMEA, making it ideal for wrapping and deep wrapping (requiring extra stretch) applications. It also offers a special high-density one-pass print mode for backlits, eliminating overprints and saving almost 2X in ink consumption. The H3-104S offers double-sided printing and an optional mesh printing kit. Another advantage of the OKI ColorPainter products is exceptional outdoor durability, up to eight years with the 3M MCS warranty.

When Machine and Ink Pricing Is an Obstacle …

Mimaki also announced that the UJV100-160, a roll-to-roll UV LED printer, will be available for delivery to non-EU countries from May 2020. It’s designed to fit where machine and ink pricing is an obstacle to investment. This 1.6-meter printer produces 1200 dpi output, an up to 23 square meters per hour. It features two-layer printing with white+CMYK or CMYK+white and also has a clear ink option. Once printed, it is immediately ready for finishing.

Cleaner Air, Healthier Work Environment

Mimaki’s SWJ-320EA solvent printer will be available with a BOFA Air Purifier Unit that virtually eliminates any odor or VOCs from solvent printing. The printer has been in the market for some time, but the BOFA unit will be available starting in May. The unit is very easy to install—it takes about a half hour and can be an end-user install. 

This printer also offers a twin roll feature where two rolls of different substrates can be printed simultaneously, including the ability to print different images on each roll.

More Flexibility for Textile Printing

Finally, the Mimaki TX300P-1800 MKII, which was previewed at ITMA, is now available. This unique textile printer has the ability to use two different ink sets. At ITMA, it was showing with pigment/dye sublimation and pigment/direct sublimation configurations. Now it is also available as a dye sublimation/direct sublimation configuration. This is made possible with exchangeable platens, with a vacuum platen for paper and an ink receiving channel for direct printing. The printer can still be acquired as well with a dedicated ink system, with a choice of reactive, acid, pigment, direct sublimation or disperse dye. This printer is ideal for small runs or sampling. The dual-ink configuration provides an added level of flexibility for printing textile applications.

Looking Ahead

This virtual press conference unveiled a robust collection of new announcements, but Mimaki is not stopping there. You can expect to see even more news from the company leading up to FESPA in the fall, and at the show in Madrid. 

A final comment: I sit through a lot of these briefings, both in-person and virtually, and this briefing by Mimaki was exceptionally well done. Kudos to the team!

Mimaki In 3D

Mimaki recently launched its new 3D printer (see main article), which brings its 3D printing offerings up to three models targeted at three different kinds of end users. 

The first is the 3DFF-222, an entry-level 3D printer designed to allow print service providers to get their feet wet in 3D printing.

“We see it as a great way for printing companies to have a kind of accessible entry point into 3D printing,” said Josh Hope, senior manager, 3D Printing & Engineering Projects, Mimaki USA. “At this point, anybody in the printing and signage industry looks at 3D printing and says, ‘I know this is going to impact me somehow and at some point, but I’m not really clear on when or how that’s going to happen.’ I think that small machine is a great way for a printing company to say, ‘I can start to get familiar with the technology, the terminology, learn about prepping files for 3D printing, and I can do it in a way that I can make something that’s usable, whether it's a jig for my flatbed printer or a small mold for thermoforming.”

A step up the 3D printing food chain is the 3DUJ-553, which prints using a photo polymeric resin.

“In some ways, it’s similar to traditional printing because we are, much like a UV flatbed machine, jetting a liquid through industrial inkjet heads and UV curing it to a solid,” Hope said. “From that standpoint, it’s very similar to anybody who’s had a UV flatbed printer.”

The 3DUJ-553 is intended for product prototyping and short-run production of items like collectibles, or “things that need to be high detail and very color accurate but don’t necessarily need to have a lot of strength or durability," Hope said.

One user of this device is the Smithsonian Institution, which is using it to complement their 3D scanning capabilities. The Smithsonian has been 3D-scanning objects in their collections and using them for online virtual reality (VR) tours (https://naturalhistory.si.edu/visit/virtual-tour), and are then using that data to 3D-print objects, as well. According to a January 2020 press release, the first 3D printing project undertaken by the Smithsonian Exhibits’ (SIE) studios, based in Landover, Md., was—appropriately, it would turn out—“to create full-color 3D printed models of viruses that are enlarged with great detail for hands-on engagement with visitors in the ‘Outbreak: Epidemics in a Connected World’ exhibition currently on view at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History.” It’s alas closed to the public, at least as of this writing in early May. 

The third model is the brand new 3DGD-1800 which, as Cary noted in the main article, “can produce hollow objects up to 1.8 meters in height in about seven hours.”

“[The 3DGD-1800] is really more of a POP machine,” Hope said. “That's probably the closest to a true signage printer out of the three of them, because you can do things like channel letters and POP displays with it. You can then take what comes out of it and paint or wrap it.” 

The 3DUJ-553 in particular has been seized on by the collectibles industry. One company in particular is Funko (www.funko.com), which makes collectable vinyl toys.

“They’re incredibly popular and [Funko] has the licensing for the Marvel movies, Harry Potter and all that kind of stuff, and they use the machine for prototyping those,” Hope said.

Manufacturer Milwaukee Electric Tool Company (www.milwaukeetool.com) is also a 3DUJ-553 user for a very specific reason.

“We were the only full-color 3D machine that could hit their signature Milwaukee Tool red color,” Hope said. 

 Funko also licenses Star Wars figures—complete with Baby Yoda, natch.

Another high-profile 3D printer user is Hero Forge (www.heroforge.com), which has an interesting concept. Tey have an online character builder where customers can design their own characters for role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons.

“They did a Kickstarter campaign for this where they had hoped to raise $46,000 to fund the expansion of their website to allow people to design these characters in full color," Hope said. “At the end of the Kickstarter campaign, they had raised $2.3 million.”

And a company called Mixed Dimensions (https://mixeddimensions.com) specializes in spaceships, having contracts with Star Trek Online and Eve Online.

“From the online game, you can design your own ship,” Hope said. “You can then hit a button, which will send the file to Mixed Dimensions and they will print out your customized spaceship and send it to you so you can have that on your desk as you're playing these games.”

Printing equipment manufacturers—be they 2D or 3D—often find that their products get used for applications that they had not anticipated.

“We were not thinking of the gaming market as being one of the bigger markets for that full-color 3D printer, but that’s becoming a major market for it,” Hope added.  

Digital art is a topic I have been covering for 25 years, and “digital sculptors” are using 3D printing for various kinds of art. David Harroun is a Mimaki user who specializes in ocean- or surfing-related 3D sculptures. The Mimaki machine is well-suited to this kind of work.

“Not only can it do 10 million colors, but it also prints with clear and then we can add color to the clear so you can get all these different tints," Hope said. "So he’s able to do translucent ocean waves where you can actually see sea turtles swimming through the wave and it’s all 3D printed in one piece. They’re absolutely fantastic.” 

The Mimaki 3DUJ-553, in addition to printing full color, can also print clear, and then add color to the clear, which artist David Harroun has used to create stunning sea sculptures.

David Harroun’s 3D-printed sea sculptures often have a surfing or ocean theme.

It’s interesting that we often think of 3D printing as a relatively new area, but it’s actually been around for a very long time. For example, the oldest 3D printing user group in the U.S. is more than 30 years old.

“As we’re bringing these machines to market, we’re talking to people who have had 3D departments for 15, 20 years,” Hope said. 

Mimaki has also recently partnered with Adobe, which had acquired a company called Substance, which makes 3D texturing and painting software, and is integrating 3D tools into its Creative Suite. Substance also holds a 3D design contest called Meet MAT, where artists are given what is essentially a “blank canvas”—an unadorned robot figurine that serves as the mascot of the contest—which they then paint and texture and submit. The second annual Meet MAT contest just finished, and this year, Mimaki had signed on as a sponsor and is outputting the winning entries.

“We’re really excited to see how that expands and what new markets that leads us into,” Hope said. —Richard Romano