UV-LED printers are wide format printers that use UV curable inks that can print on many, many surfaces. For that reason, they are quickly becoming the printer of choice for sign shops, specialty graphics shops and print providers worldwide. UV inks allow fre a great diversity of printing media and thus can be sued to create an almost infinite number of applications.
Maybe items like smartphone cases, or pens or luggage tags come to mind what you think of UV-LED printers, but I’m here to tell you there is more. much more!
In a recent article about what can be created with UV inks, Flaar-Reports.org wrote a nice article that you should read: Creative materials you can print using UV-curable inks where they describe in much detail many, many items that can be made with uv devices. As stated at the beginning of their article:
“First and before getting into all the media and substrates you can print with UV-curable inks, we should consider the fact that UV-curable ink printing offers a variety of advantages and benefits:
With all these advantages over other types of inks, even if they more costly than the rest of the inks; many people choose to print with UV-curable inks.” (Images in the slider at the top of this blog are from this article)
From wine labels to 4 x 8 ft signage, UV inks are making a splash these days.
MUTOH makes the widest range of UV-LED devices for the print market. Here are a few examples.
Print directly to create custom promotional items, awards, mugs, signage and much more. The ValueJet 626UF offers up to six color capability, including white and varnish ink and Smart Printing technologies such as Intelligent Interweave print technique.
This is a great choice and if you add the option rotary unit to it, you can even print cylindrical items such as candles, bottles and more.
Need a little bigger printer but not yet ready for a true flatbed? The MUTOH ValueJet 1638UH may be your answer. It’s considered a hybrid device since it can print roll-to-roll or rigid media.
Print on material up to a half inch thick and save valuable floor space with its dual function and multiple application design. The CMYK plus white and varnish ink options are ideal for printing packaging prototypes, POP displays and indoor signage.
The all new performanceJet is a true UV-LED Flatbed that is 4 ft x 8ft and can handle many projects. It‘s standard staggered four print head design – 
Field upgradable to six heads when adding white and varnish inks, provides high print speeds and the dual UV lamps on both sides of the carriage provide exceptional cure times allowing for higher production capacity. Print media up to 4” thick and use the CMYK x2 or CMYKx2 plus white & varnish to create stunning applications with outstanding durability and color gamut.
We all get pretty busy on our wide format printing shops. Lot’s of jobs coming in, lots of things to manage and lots of interruptions. Here’s a nice podcast and article on how you can be more productive and maximize you time. Of course, you’ll save lots of time with a great wide format printer that works all the time! Check out MUTOH AMERICA‘s line of wide format printers.
In addition, we also offer lots of training & education on numerous topics: design software, color management, printer maintenance and more. Be sure to set aside some time to attend one of our live sessions held throughout the USA.
Enjoy these great tips!
Do you feel stressed and flustered by an overwhelming to-do list? Do you often feel distracted by what seems like a million things demanding your attention? Despite being busy all the time, do you feel like you’re getting nowhere? If so, you’re not alone. We all have the same 24 hours in the day. To get the most out of your time — doing more of what truly counts in less time — try these 7 simple tips to be more productive.
Ways to Listen:
“What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important.” – Dwight Eisenhower, 34th President of the United States
In this episode of BioTrust Radio, Shawn and Tim talk about the difference between being busy and productive, and with a big assist from David Miller and his super article on getting more done in less time, they’ll reveal a list of strategies to help you be more productive — at work, at home, and in life.
Here are some of the key takeaways from the show:
We’ll discuss what it means to be more productive, take a deep dive into these 7 productivity hacks, and much, much more…Enjoy!
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MUTOH AMERICA had a great show at the recent NBM trade show in Long beach, CA. The booth was packed with people for all three days and they did a great job teaching the crowd tips and tricks in vehicle wrapping. The wrap was done by Wrap Nation. All printing was done on the MUTOH ValueJet 1638x wide format printer, the “wrapper choice” as its come to be know in the industry.
In addition to the show booth, MUTOH’s Mark Rugen, Dir. Product Marketing & Education presented two 1-hour seminars for NBM. “7-Tips Every Sign Shop MUST Know to Solve Image Problems!” had over 200 registered and over 60 attending. The seminar demonstrated several free and commercial software programs for getting designs done faster.
In this seminar we demonstrated 7 tips and programs that will accelerate everyday workflow by handling the following issues:
Attendees will walked away armed with tips that will change their workflow forever! If you didn’t attend, you can still get a copy of the presentation by going to the whitepapers menu and downloading your personal copy.
The second presentation was attended by over 60 as well and had nearly 200 registrations. Attendees learned how to put together a system of hardware and software that will allow them to create and produce craft & specialty type items that will sell like crazy. This seminar showed them all the items needed to get started but also give them some idea of the various products they can create, what they sell for and how to get a return on your investment in just a few short months. We showed all attendees how to get into this lucrative business with minimal investment and maximum returns. If you are just starting into business or just want to add another profit center to your existing one, then download a copy of the whitepaper.
Overall, this was a great show for both the exhibitors as well as the attendees. WRAPSCON, the wraps convention was held in conjunction with this show and was a huge success as well. Hope to see you in Long beach next year, we will be there with some surprises!
In business, you must become uncomfortable to get comfortable. To truly grow your company, you must do things that feel uneasy. Maybe you need to take that step of investing in new equipment. Maybe you need to hire that design artist. Maybe you need to upgrade all your computers and software.
These can all be significant financial investments but they can in the coming months afterwards result in even more growth in profits. The problem is that when you think about what you are about to do, you get uncomfortable and that can make you hesitate. Hesitation can kill a business.
Francesco Molinari just won the Open in Golf. What did he do before the last round that set him on that path of success? He got uncomfortable! Read about what he did to get his mental game set for a stressful last but winning round.
The practice green on the final day of a major championship rarely evokes the pressure-cooker feeling that golfers face once their round begins. It’s a place to warm up and get a feel for the speed of the greens, free from worry about the cost of a miss.
But in the moments before his final round at Carnoustie on Sunday, Francesco Molinari gave himself a very particular test.
He challenged himself to make precisely eight 5-foot putts from various spots on the green in as few attempts as he could. That he required only nine tries was less important than the idea behind the exercise.
“Do you want to be comfortable or do you want to be ready?” said Molinari’s performance coach, Dave Alred. “They’re not necessarily the same.”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-uncomfortable-practice-habits-of-a-champion-1532689201
After you read about how he prepared for his greatest victory in golf, think about how you can apply those mental exercises in your shop.
Get Uncomfortable to Be Comfortable and grow your business.
If you are looking to improve your profits, why not consider MUTOH AMERICAS ValueJet wide format printers. We make them for every industry with our offering of Dye-Sublimation, Eco-Solvent and UV-LED solutions. You won’t be uncomfortable for long!
Visit the mother ship to find out more about the entire line of wide format printers from MUTOH.
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Wide Format Printing? Think in Terms of Dog YearsYou’ve heard it I’m sure “Every year of a dogs life is like seven humans years.” That’s kind of how it feels to me when it comes to how fast technology is evolving in the wide format print business. Seems like every year that goes by there are leaps in technology.
But what do we mean by technology? The wide format printing industry is very broad and includes wide format printers, inks, media, finishing equipment and much more.
Seems like you buy a component and in the next year or two you are already behind in technology. But is that something to be concerned with? Not usually. I think most equipment is fine for a good 5 years. Remember, that’s like keeping it for 35 dog years! After that, yes it’s time to look for an upgrade.
Now some of you I have become acquainted with over the years, take great pride in keeping equipment and software as long as possible. I know a few of you that still love to run Windows XP or Vista and older software for instance. Well, okay, I certainly won’t stop you and you have the right to exercise your freedom of choice.
Me? I’m a technology freak. Over the decades of service to the sign & print market, I’ve seen how new technology helps shops to get faster and more efficient and most importantly to grow. However, as that technology is needed, your computer and Windows operating system must keep up.
If you are like me, you hate paying that insurance bill. Seems like you pay and pay and rarely if ever use it. The exception might be life insurance, since at some point we will all use that one. But we get insurance on our house, our car,and our health. That said, we simply know month to month that we need to budget some of our money for that cost.
If you are going to be keeping up with technology, it’s going to take some planning and it might feel a bit like insurance, but you’ll need to save a little of your profits each month to apply to upgrades when you need them. Like I said previously, that might not be for 3 years or so, and that can give you a great budget when you need to use it. Put away just $100 and month and you’d have $3600 for upgrades, $200 and you’d have $7600 in just 3 years!
Another way to budget monthly is to use subscriptions. I now it may feel like you don’t own a software using this method, but many times when a software company offers a subscription form of payment, they include all upgrades for free or at a very discounted rate.
One example of this system is FlexiSIGN & Print from SA International, www.thinksai.com. They offer the option of “buying” their software in two forms. You can purchase the software and then pay for upgrades. Buying it would cost yu between $3000-$4000, and upgrades can be $200-$700 or more depending on how long you wait. Hoever, if you subscribe to the software, you can get the highest level of it for about $50/mo. if paid yearly and they will give you the updates for “free”. The subscription is not such a big blow to your budget and of course can fee up money for other technology.
Adobe products also offer the subscription model, but there is no option, you MUST get it on the subscription bases.
As far as equipment, wide format printers, laminators, heat presses, etc. probably the wide format printer is the most rapidly changing piece. Today there are printers with Eco-Solvent inks, Latex, UV, and Dye-Sublimation as well as water based for direct to textile printing. The fastest growing market is in dye-sublimation and UV printing. Print equipment is getting both smaller and larger. In other words, you can get smaller format printers for the craft and specialty markets and larger for the more industrial applications.
First to the market, first generation printers typically have a premium price, because they satisfy a market demand. Second and third generation printers typically will have competitors and while they may be better than the first generation, they may also be less expensive in order to compete.
For instance, MUTOH is going to release its new PJ2508UF PerformanceJet 4×8 ft. UV-LED in September of 2018. One of the advantages to you is that others have already released similar technology but MUTOH has studied the issues from other machines as well as the market demands and therefore it’s release will have many improvements and advantages over competition at a cost savings to the buyer. Basically you get more for the money!
The MUTOH RJ900x has been wildly popular due to the low price for such a high quality dye-sublimation printer. The RJ-900X incorporates a new generation “Wide Model” print head (4 color sections, 360 nozzles/color), which will enable the highest resolution printing for Aqueous, 2880 dpi. The RJ-900X delivers superior line sharpness and photo quality with continuous tones, smooth transitions and a wide color gamut. Offering various print resolutions for different applications, the RJ-900X delivers a high speed 360 dpi printing 676 sq/ft/hr. The CMYK printer can be utilized with a variety of ink sets.
With the market headed toward more and more dye-sublimation for products, this may be a great choice for taking your shop to the next level of profits.
As you know, things change fast in this market. There are rumblings of better inks, faster wide format printers and even eCommerce solutions on the horizon. If you haven;t dome so, start that monthly saving for the updates and check back here for news on advances!
You may also want to read some great information about industry advances at these great site:
https://www.sgia.org/ Specialty Graphic Imaging Association
https://www.signs.org/ The International Sign Association
Grunge is a term used to indicate a slight form of wear and tear on an object. The effect if used in design should give the item a warns, old, torn sort of look. If clothes could rust, they would automatically be grunge, but instead fashion designers use other methods to make something grunge, like purposely putting holes in jeans. FlexiSIGN makes it easy to use this concept in your design.
In signage, the grunge look is popular and can easily be made in FlexiSIGN. In fact, the method that is described in this video lesson can be used for a number of great custom textures.
Good question. Look around you. Most of what you see has used the dye sublimation process if it’s printed. Coffee mugs, hats, socks, sport shirts, flags, even furniture and other textiles.
Dye sublimation requires a printed image to be transferred to the object using heat. An image may be printed on transfer paper that is held against , say a coffee mug by a heat press at high temperature for a little less than a minute. The ink on the transfer paper is transformed into a gas that then combines with the object and is very permanent in nature when finished. The object of course must be able to accept the gaseous ink. For textiles, that means it must be a polyester. Since the temperatures for the transfer can reach 300-400 degrees F, the object must also have the property of not “burning” or discoloring at that high temperature.
There is an alternate method for dye sublimation printing where the ink is applied directly to a substrate that has been coated. Ink bonding is achieved by exposing the fabric to heat. This is typically used when the substrate is very wide and perhaps long, such as with sheets or bed cover, curtains etc.
The dye sublimation process allows you to print to a variety of objects. That being the case, start looking around you and making a list of things you might want to sell.
Now here is where you need to do some research. Don’t get pulled into something that won’t allow you to grow. Some printers may be inexpensive, but once you become a bit known, you are going to be asked to do more, wider, longer.
If you get a sublimation printer that can only use 8×10 or 11×17 sheets of transfer paper, you are limited to those sizes. Consider spending a bit more and getting a printer that might allow you to go 24 inches and longer lengths or if you really want to jump in, even wider printers such as a 54 inch wide format printer.
Hey, here at MUTOH we want you to get the right start, so consider talking it over with one of our experts who can give you some good advise. Yep, we’ll even tell you if the smaller 8×10 printer is the right choice for you. Later, we know you’ll thank us by getting one of our wide format printers if you grow.
As an example, the typical smaller budget printer, like the Epson model shown above accepts A3 (11.69 x 16.54 in)/A4 (8.27 x 11.69 in) transfer paper. Good for a lot of stuff, but limiting regarding length and width for that matter.
A better choice might be the MUTOH ValueJet RJ900X if you have a tighter budget or a 1624WX that will give you
real printing power. These are real business printers not just hobby printers. As I mentioned earlier, once you get a bit known, you are going to be happy you didn’t have to turn down work just because your printer wasn’t wide enough or versatile enough to accommodate the job or the number of items you needed to make.
Of course designing your images for printing can be done in many ways. You can just go right from digital camera to print and some printers do come with the needed software to make the printer run. But not all come with professional software like the MUTOH printers have included. FlexiSIGN & Print has been the choice of professional sign & print companies for years and that software should be INCLUDED with your printer purchase from MUTOH.
The value of this software is that it has the design and output features to make your workflow much more fluid and profitable. Little things like nesting of images to save media, control over ink density for better color transfers and more, make it a worthwhile consideration when purchasing your printer. It also has the features to handle your growth even if that growth is into other markets!+
The sublimation process begins when the transfer paper and ink are pressed against the object using a heat press. Again there may be many 
choices here and much of that choice will have to do with what printer you choose and what kind of applications you wish to make. Some heat presses are made for a specific kind of project like shirts, or hats and others may come with accessories that allow you to do many different kinds of items. Again, do your research.
Before you get into this profitable market and even afterwards, I cannot stress enough the need to learn, learn, learn! Knowledge will save you so many headaches and make you more efficient at your work. Misjudging something in the entire process could result in lots of profit loss. Imagine trying to sublimate a shirt and it not working, you lose a shirt, you lose time and you may even lose a customer.
MUTOH AMERICA has the experts you need to consult about this entire business. Our experts have developed and are continuing to develop online as well as live courses. We even have this very site www.thinkmutoh.com devoted to training and education.
Okay, so there you have it. Now, use that imagination and get started before someone else near you does!
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A leader in the industry for over 60 years, Mutoh America, Inc. is committed to delivering the highest quality products and services to our customers and partners. We accomplish this by constant improvements and meeting the challenges head on. Our contribution to society is to provide creative and cost effective innovations to the digital printing art form and its industry, and business opportunities for individuals and organizations.
Mutoh America Inc., a leader in wide-format inkjet printers and cutters, has announced they have launched a new Mutoh manufactured ink “TP-11” for their Direct to Textile printer, the ValueJet 1938TX.
“The TP-11 Ink is Mutoh’s original textile pigment ink tuned for direct printing onto natural coated fabrics for a wide range of applications,” shares Brian Phipps, president and general manager of Mutoh America, Inc. “It provides an optimal balance between high-quality images and durability.”
TP-11 Ink provides the perfect balance between high-quality images and durability.
It is non-hazardous and environmentally friendly and is available in four colors (CMYK) or seven colors (orange, blue, and green) for rich, vibrant colors.
The inks are packaged in large-capacity 1L bags for improved work efficiency.
TP-11 Ink is now available for sale through authorized Mutoh resellers across North and Latin America. For pricing and sales inquiries contact your authorized Mutoh reseller or find one at http://www.mutoh.com/dealers.
MUTOH recently showed off its new 1638UR Roll-to-Roll UV printer at the International Sign Association show in Orlando, Florida. The ValueJet 1638UR roll to roll printer provides real production based UV-LED performance at an affordable price. It’s staggered dual print head design provides fast print speeds and the dual UV lamps, on both sides of the print heads, provide exceptional cure times allowing for higher production speeds. The CMYK plus white and varnish ink options are ideal for printing backlit, custom wall covering, POP displays and beautiful signage. Flexible UV-LED instant dry inks, no VOC’s and fast print speeds make the ValueJet 1638UR by Mutoh the smart choice for any print shop.
Get more info here: https://www.mutoh.com/products/valuejet-1638ur/
Read MoreScott Chapman, Senior Global Marketing Manager, Avery Dennison Reflective Solutions
In many areas of the country, stepping into a traffic sign shop is something done at your own risk. Shops located in small public agencies are often located in the back of the general maintenance shed. Yes, behind the dump trucks, the snow plows and maintenance benches. I know, I’ve visited my share over the past thirty years and have a stack of oil-stained slacks to prove it. Don’t get me wrong – our industry also has a number of impressively organized – and clean – facilities around the country – private and public agency alike. And done right, all are capable of producing long-lasting, quality traffic signs.
And viewed in today’s eyes, our traffic signs have roots in some pretty unsophisticated production equipment. Remember the “one-arm-bandit” squeegee tables and steel-rule dies for cutting Highway Gothic letters for street name signs? The industry has evolved, but we still look at computer-cut overlay film production with wide-modern eyes in the same way that cro-magnon man viewed fire, or the way Mr. Watson expressed surprise at hearing “Mr. Watson – come here – I want to see you” at the other end of Alexander Graham Bell’s first telephone call on March 10, 1876. And all the while forgetting that the commercial graphics industry largely walked away from both forms of production in favor of wide-format digital printing years ago.
In fairness, reflectivity and durability demands of today’s traffic signs coupled with digital ink limitations have largely prevented production methods from evolving sooner. Only recently have advancements in ink and overlay films been achieved that make the production of specification compliant, and durable digitally printed traffic signs a reality. We’re here now, so welcome to the modern era of traffic sign production!
Digital printers, whether our own TrafficJet™ or other dedicated traffic sign printers, differ from common desktop inkjet printers in many respects. While “plug and play” is a hip and appealing phrase, it’s really out of place in the context of our industry. Call it aspirational, but don’t call it reality. Wide-format digital printers are more complex – far more moving parts with more complex ink and delivery systems, as well as substrate varieties, than your office desktop printer pulling from a stack of office supply copy paper.
Unfortunately, some shops getting into digital printing for the first time are often given an incorrect understanding of maintenance needs, hearing descriptions that some are “maintenance-free”. But as airplanes love to be airborne, printers are happiest when they are doing what they are designed to do, print. And the more the better. But downtime, and maintenance, are a reality for all printers. Each printer manufacturer provides instructions for daily, weekly, and monthly maintenance. And in many cases, daily maintenance – as short and simple as 10 minutes a day, is often the most critical to perform.
Many factors go into selecting the right printer for your operation. Remember to make a commitment to follow the manufacturer’s maintenance schedule. Maintenance procedures are not difficult to understand or follow, nor should they intimidate or prevent you from adopting this new technology. Simple, but proper, maintenance will keep your printer at its best, and leave you smiling, knowing you’ve made the right investment in technology.
To learn more about Avery Dennison Reflective Solutions, visit us at: reflectives.averydennison.com.
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