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IMimaki UCJV300-160Test Prints: Color & Print Quality

Nicholas Hellmuth & Jose Melgar

November 2019

Mimaki UCJV300-160

Test Prints: Color & Print Quality

Factory Visit 1Mimaki UCJV300-160Test Prints: Color & Print Quality

The Mimaki UCJV300-160 is an interesting UV-curing printer for several reasons. First, this is a print & cut machine, which means you can cut immediately after your printing process is done. And being a UV-cured printer, the ink is cured virtually in a fraction of a second. On the other hand, consider that with some solvent printers, it can take up to one day for the ink to dry.

This Mimaki model is one of the few 1.6 m roll-to-roll printers to have an integrated cutting system. Currently the UCJV300 series is composed of 4 models or print widths, ranging from 0.8 m up to 1.6 m (this model), all of which have cutting systems. Having a printer that also cuts not only increases the number of applications print businesses can offer, speeds up their workflow and reduces the footprint of the production area.

Another interesting benefit of this printer is the fact that it comes with UV-curable ink formulated to be cured with LED light. This type of ink allows for a wider range of roll media,

both coated and uncoated. Besides, UV LED lamps do not emit as much heat as traditional mercury arc lamps, which allows you to print on heat sensitive materials.

The Mimaki UCJV300-160 comes with CMYK, Lc, Lm, white and varnish. Traditionally, it is common to find white ink on high end super wide-format UV-curing printers. But this model offers white ink at 1.6 meters wide, which allows to print interesting applications such as backlit signs.

At several recent sign tradeshows, we have seen beautiful print samples that are finished with varnish, specifically with the spot varnish technique, which consists of adding a layer of varnish only on certain areas of the image being printed.

Mimaki is one of the most renowned brands in the wide-format inkjet industry, and there is a professional network of sales and tech support people around the products of this company.

2Mimaki UCJV300-160Test Prints: Color & Print Quality

Edge SplatterBandingInadequate and Incorrect Color SpectrumInadequate curing (high odor)

These are the four most common issues on prints from a UV-curing printer. Edge splatter and banding are problems on any and all printers. A decade ago many printers (of any ink) using Epson printheads had banding issues. A decade ago a sad number even of major brands

had edge splatter. Yet at PRINTING United we tested a JHF UV-curing printer and a Konica-Minolta UV-curing printer: their quality was very good compared with other brands several years ago.

A week ago we received a nicely diverse series of UV-curing prints from Mimaki EU demo room. They were printed on the Mimaki UCJV300-160. Jose Melgar (FLAAR-REPORTS UV-curing printer review editor) is analyzing the print samples at our office in Guatemala.

Here are the prints arriving via FedEx to the office of FLAAR-REPORTS in Guatemala City, Central America.

The team welcoming the prints include the Office Manager Flor de Maria at the left, Dr Nicholas in the middle, the Q’eqchi’ Mayan team of Gaby, daughter Shaila and Senaida, and the Pokomchi Mayan assistant with daughter Daenerys. These kids help teach us how to prepare material to teach them about their heritage and teach them about local flora and fauna.


Edge splatter results

Edge splatter means dots of ink irregularly splattered away from the edge of text. You could see it in past years most easily along the edges of an area of solid color. You did not even need a magnifying glass.

Today, in 2019 going into 2020, the Mimaki UCJ300-160 test prints have no miscellaneous splatter whatsoever. You can see the edge itself if you literally use a magnifying glass, but it’s not splatter.

In other words, these prints are not from a cheap low-bid printer with sloppy printheads. The letters, the designs, are crisp.


Banding; Yes or No

You normally see banding where any solid dark color is printed. On the prints from this Mimaki UCJ300-160 UV-curing printer there is no banding whatsoever.

FLAAR has many divisions: the team here are three of the botanists and photographers of FLAAR Mesoamerica who do field work in the remote Neotropical rain forests of Guatemala. We have discovered unexpected savanna ecosystems in a project cooperating with the Parque Nacional Yaxha Nakum Naranjo (Peten, Guatemala). The local park rangers help us reach the remote areas in the park that we discover on aerial photographs.

Then we take panorama photographs to aid in showing the world what these seasonally

inundated savannas look like. These test prints, after we examine their print quality, will be donated to the park and to local associations and donated to local schools. Our goal is to provide inspiration to protect these areas from fires and other inappropriate use. So we are working on learning which plants in each biodiverse ecosystem has species that can assist local people by being preserved (material to allow local people to make things for their homes and to fashion handicrafts to sell to tourists by planting these plants outside the park where they can be harvested as renewable resources).

You can see our work on www.maya-ethnobotany.org and www.digital-photography.org.


Colors Achieved

Both the UV-curing printer analysts at FLAAR-REPORTS have many years experience noticing the inadequate colors of UV-curing inks in past decades. Both Melgar and Hellmuth have been flown to UV-curing printer factories to inspect printers in-situ. Hellmuth and Pablo M. Lee have been flown to ink companies (a few months ago to A. T. Inks in India, and earlier in 2019 to the Apollo Ink company in China. Plus to ink companies in Switzerland, USA, Korea, and lots of other countries around the world.

In the first years of UV inks they could not even produce the colors of the logos of either the ink companies or the printer manufacturers. But

every two or three years, one brand after the other got better. At PRINTING United 2019 in Dallas we tested a nice JHF UV-curing printer and a Konica Minolta UV-curing printer. The JHF test prints we will analyze the end of this week; the Konica Minolta print results we analyzed two weeks ago: excellent range of colors (and no banding, no edge splatter).

Obviously every different kind of media results in a slightly different gloss or semi-gloss (or matte). The Mimaki print samples are on blueback paper. To me it is a neutral surface: not too much gloss and not too matte. PVC vinyl has more gloss but has the weave-like pattern of the material which may distract your eye when looking at print quality.


These banners are to donate to pre-primary and primary schools in rural areas of the mountains and rain forests of Guatemala, Central America. We have visited the schools to ask the teachers what can best help them, and to ask the students what they like. We have also talked with parents to ask for their suggestions. So the theme and content of each banner is based on two years of having learned what helps everyone: students, teachers, parents.

We also prepare books, but until there is funding to print the books, it is more effective to have the “book pages” on a banner that can be put on the wall of the classroom. When we visit schools in rural areas, all of them have educational material on all four walls inside each classroom.

This particular banner shows the shapes: squares, rectangles, triangles, etc. And a dozen different colors. We put the names in four languages: Spanish, English, Q’eqchi’ Mayan, and (Peten) Itza Maya. These last two languages are the ones used in the area of Guatemala where we do most of our research on flora and fauna.


Since there are many schools surrounding the national park where we do field work, we appreciate that Mimaki EU printed more than one copy.

Here is Dr Nicholas at the left; Daniel (designer for field reports on plants and animals, at the right). Josefina does illustrations for the school books for children on jaguars and on crocodiles (there are three species of crocodilians in Guatemala). In the middle is plant scout Senaida. She helps us find the plants out in the hills, mountains, swamps and other biodiverse habitats where we do work. At left is Gaby; she has helped us for seven years, both in the office and on field trips. Her 4-going-on-5 year old daughter, Shaila helps teach us how to teach children. We taught her how to read ABCs by three years of age; and colors and numbers in English and Spanish by 5 years of age. She also learns Q’eqchi’ Mayan language from her parents.


Learning the ABCs

We have a variety of different banners to teach ABCs, vowels, consonants, etc. Our banners are innovative and unique: we use fruits and vegetables native to Guatemala for the words and letters. So instead of using Apples and Oranges, we use Avocados to Zapote (Avocados are native to Guatemala and Mexico and come in a variety of sizes and shapes). Zapote is one of my favorite local fruits.

Holding the banners are Dr Nicholas, left, Victor, biology student at local university. Several students of botany and ecology work in the FLAAR Mesoamerica division.

At the right is Juan Carlos, web designer. All our staff are in-house.


In addition to teaching basic reading and writing, we prepare educational material for the schools in rural and remote areas on numbers, focusing on their own Mayan heritage. So the symbols in green are the Mayan hieroglyphic numbers. Above are Roman numerals, and above are the modern international numbers.

Below is the word for each number in four languages: Spanish, Q’eqchi’ Mayan, Maya Itza, and English. There are 21 native Mayan languages in Guatemala, plus Xinca and Garifuna. In the areas where we do most of our ecology, botany, and zoology field work the languages are Q’eqchi’ Mayan and Maya Itza.

We are going to start to do the designs and development of all these educational banners for schools in Pokomchi Mayan language because Norma (top at right with 14 month old daughter) lives in the same area as her local school (far from any town or even village). So we would like to take a fresh set of material with one of the four languages to be in Pokomchi.


Here are butterflies and happy frogs and monkeys and local species of deer as illustrations to learning the ABC’s.

At left is 4-going-on-5 year old Shaila (her mother is second from right). They speak Q’eqchi. Next to Shaila is Josefina, who works on children’s books on crocodiles, alligators and caimans (and before that, on helping people learn about the five felines of Guatemala: jaguar, puma, jaguarundi, margay, and ocelot). Josefina speaks Kakchiquel Mayan language. At right is Nancy, sister of Norma (Pokomchi speakers).


It helps to have lots of each poster, so we can help more schools.


This is a panorama photograph taken from the top of an 8th century Mayan temple-pyramid, looking over the rain forest to see a savanna in the middle. Page 10 shows a close-up of the savanna (taken with an iPhone Xs). But the page 9 panorama is taken with a Nikon D5 with an 800mm prime lens, on a Wimberley gimbal tripod head, on a Gitzo professional tripod. The panorama consists of a dozen photographs stitched together with software.


To our knowledge no panorama photographs have ever been published on this interesting ecosystem adjacent to Naranjo. It is a savanna that merges into a cibal at one end and merges into a bajo ecosystem at the south. Archaeologist Vilma Fialko told us about this area and mapping expert Horacio Palacios led us on a trail so we could enter these ecosystems to take photos.

At the bottom you see the grassland savanna. We found tasiste palm and calabash trees; both are savanna indicators. We estimate that nance fruit trees will also be found (nance is found primarily in savannas and if calabash and tasiste are present it is almost certain that nance will be found in the future.

On the following two pages are more panoramas of a wide range of biodiverse ecosystems within Parque Nacional Yaxha, Nakum, Naranjo, in Guatemala, just west of the Peten-Belize border.


We wish to thank Lic. Leonel Ziesse -Coordinador Administrativo of the Parque Nacional Yaxha-Nakum-Naranjo for his encouragement, organization of cooperation among the entities, access to the park teams, and the time all this takes.

We also wish to thank Ingeniero. Mario Vasquez, -Jefe del Parque por CONAP, for his understanding of our goals and assistance in facilitating us to achieve these goals of this Project, especially the boat to help us study the flora and ecosystems around the Laguna Yaxha and Rio Ixtinto. To Bióloga Lic. Lorena Lobos -Asesora de Unidad de Uso Público del Parque, for her experience in biology, her initiative of starting this program and cooperation during our field work.

Also we wish to express our appreciation to the local guides and park rangers of CONAP and IDAEH who accompany us on each day of our field work in the park. They know both the local flora and fauna and they know the trails that facilitate our being able to reach áreas that we notice on aerial photographs as places we wish to study. It is very important to find, list, photograph, and write about each aspect of flora, fauna and ecosystems so these can be preserved and protected for future generations. We thank park ranger Teco (Moises Daniel Perez Diaz) and his colleagues.


This is a Mimaki UCJV300-160 UV-cured print which is a panorama from the top of an 8th century Maya temple-pyramid at the ruins of Naranjo (PNYNN). The panorama is stitched together with software from multiple photos using a rotating tripod head.

Although you see “the Neotropical seasonally dry rainforest,” in the middle is an unexpected treeless area which is a seasonally inundated savanna. At the left side it merges into a tintal ecosystem; at the right end it merges into a cibal (sawgrass) ecosystem which in turns merges into a jimbal ecosystem (native bamboo, Guadua longifolia).

These prints help us at lectures to let the audience see the panoramas.

This photograph is in the office of FLAAR Mesoamerica. Senaida is at front left; she is an experienced plant scout, adept at finding heliconia and wild vanilla orchid vines. Next to her is Gaby, who helps us with many aspects of office research and field trip work. Next is Vivian, the manager of the FLAAR Mesoamerica team. Then you see Denerie, holding her favorite toy. Denerie will learn ABC’s, will learn colors, numbers, in the FLAAR office, using our experience teaching Shaila in recent years. Next to Denerie is Nancy (who is the sister of Denerie’s mother; Nancy takes care of Denerie). At the end is Victor, a university student including biology who helps us identify the flora and fauna that we find in Parque Nacional Yaxha Nakum Naranjo. In the middle is Dr Nicholas with his finger on the cibal-savanna area that Arqueologa Vilma Fialko, Arquitecto Raul Noriega told us about and then Horacio Palacios and colleagues helped us find the trail to reach this area. They are the helpful team in the Naranjo sector of the park. There are comparable teams in the Yaxha and Nakum sector of the park who cooperate with our team in those parts of the park.

By using specialized camera equipment, and inkjet printing, we are adding new capabilities for ecologists, botanists, and zoologists for studying the biodiversity of the remarkable areas of this national park.


These panorama photos show the Rio Holmul, north of the Naranjo sector of the park (PNYNN).


You can obtain FLAAR-REPORTS straight from our websites:

www.FLAAR-REPORTS.org | www.large-format-printers.org | www.wide-format-printers.net

©Copyright 2019

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HELLMUTH, Nicholas2019 Mimaki UCJV300-160, Test Prints: Color & Print Quality.

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Shaila is now 5 years old. Dr Nicholas taught her to read ABC’s by 3, and numbers and colors (in English and Spanish) by age 4. Her parents have also taught Shaila in their Q’eqchi’ Mayan language (so Shaila knows many things in three languages).

These prints, shipped to us courtesy of Mimaki EU, will be donated to Shaila’s school (she starts primary school this coming year).

Printi ng test by OKI at ISA 2018

FESPA Global Print Expo 2018 in Berlin (European experience)

Printi ng test by COLORJET at APPPEXPO 2018

Our experience at ISA 2019.(Las Vegas, Nevada)

SGI Dubai 2019 HighlightsAPPPEXPO 2019 Highlights

FESPA Mexico 2018 interviews

FESPA Mexico 2018 FESPA Berlin 2018 interviews

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