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4x8’ Gandinnovations Jeti 1224 UV and larger Jeti 2030 UV flatbed printers

In January, to gather material for a full-day of lecturing on UV printers in Korea, we visited the Gandinnovations factory in Toronto. Spent two days here and saw the two new Gandy printers: Gandinnovations Jeti 1224 UV and Gandinnovations Jeti 2030 UV.

So now we have updated our report on the current model 3150 Jeti from Gandinnovations. So this single FLAAR Report now covers all three models:

Jeti 1224 UV flatbed (4x8 ft size for US and countries using 4x8 as standard)

Jeti 2030 UV flatbed (2x3 meter size for Europe and related standards)

Jeti 3150 UV flatbed

Just be sure that before you buy any brand of printer that you check to see how the manufacturer is handling tech support. For example, do the tech support people really have experience? Or are they all new hires and lack experience? And during even the best of times, what about spare parts? Can you get printheads when you need them? The other crucial question is how will tech support be handled if a company is bought and sold?

It is absolutely essential to speak with a minimum of three different owners of the printer you are thinking of. Inquire how things are going now that the manufacturer has filed for creditor protection. If the manufacturer is moving ahead in full operation, you need to have documentation of this. Ask about the ink, and how the printheads hold up. Sometimes one ink may cause problems that other colors do not, so light magenta could react with printheads different than other inks (naturally depends on how the printer is maintained by the end-user). These are rhetorical questions for general assistance, applicable to all brands.

Should you buy this printer used? This depends on more factors than we can discuss in a single web page. Again, the only way to find out (for any brand and every model) is from an end-user. A lot depends on what you want: 4 pt type with no fuzziness is not what you can expect with most printheads. If your competitor has that type of printer/printhead combination, then you have tough decisions to make. But some machines are made to serve other purposes, where (and in a past era) when 4 pt type was not required or asked for.

These Gandinnovations Jeti 1224 UV and 2030 UV printers print onto Styrene, Sintra, Coroplast, foam-board, acrylic

The popular new size for dedicated UV-curing flatbed printers is 4x8 feet so that you can print MDO boards and other materials.

Now Gandinnovations also offers a 2x3 meter size for countries that prefer the metric standard. Their booth at FESPA ’07 was filled with eager buyers from all over the world. While I was having lunch in their booth several people came up to me, from Africa and other continents around the world, and asked about FLAAR considerations on flatbed and roll-to-roll UV printers.

And, both of these Gandinnovations Jeti UV-curing flatbed printers are completely enclosed, if you order this option. Be a bit careful, since the Oce Arizona 250 GT is exposed (not enclosed):and thus the Oce has incomplete protection against possible damage to your retinas and possible ink misting (potentially harmful to your health). Mimaki had to completely redesign their Mimaki JF-6131 flatbed because of increased critique of open designs. Their prototype, the IPF-1326 was not adequately enclosed and many people complained. At present the Oce Arizona is the only flatbed over $140,000 that is not safety recognized by FLAAR. We can’t certify any printer as totally safe, but it is necessary at least to provide warnings when many colleagues such as Dr Ray Work point out potential hazards if a UV printer is not totally enclosed.

Thus we commend Mimaki and Gandinnovations for changing their designs and covering their printers.

Whether for Coroplast real estate “For Sale” signs, or printing on aluminum, get your hands on the FLAAR Reports that describe what it is like to actually own a Gandinnovations flatbed printer. We have two different site-visit case studies of the Jeti 3150 UV flatbed from Gandinnovations. Just realize that these are based on visits several years ago, before the economic crisis. In each report we list what materials each sign shop finds works best with the UV ink. But different brands of the same material may react differently.

Here is the Gandinnovations Jeti 2030 UV large flatbed Printer at DRUPA 2008.

Gandinnovations Jeti 1224 UV printer at SGIA 2008.

Thermoformed UV ink for 3-dimensional signage

In the past, if you wanted to make thermoformed 3-dimensional signs easily, you had to buy an Oce T220 solvent printer with special solvent ink from South Africa. But now you can do this even better with special heat formable UV inks available from Gandinnovations. Clem Sison, the leading ink chemist (formerally at Gandinnovations), can explain this at any international trade show.

A popular aspect of the Gandinnovations booth was this thermo-formed ink (heat-formed) UV ink.

Sample processed using FlexForm ink.	Formech, 3-dimensional signage at ISA 2007.

Unfortunately the most recent Gandy printer, the Nano II, was never really produced. It was a "concept car" prototype (the one with Ricoh printheads). It was an interesting experiment but was exhibited only once or twice. I have not yet seen evident that this is or was really an actual product. But it is always nice when printer manufacturers experiment.

The world of grand format inkjet printers is changing. At SGIA 2008, the largest booth was of Gandinnovations. Only one year later, the most impressive booth at SGIA 2009 was of Durst Rho; the booth with the most business was that of EFI VUTEk, and some of the best mid-range UV printers were coming from Korea. The booth with the most buzz from everyone was the latex ink from HP. At FESPA there will be even more surprises, and in the booths of others. This is what keeps the world of wide-format printers moving ahead. Gandinnovations was an interesting part of this for several years.

But during 2010 I have not yet seen much that is new in the Gandinnovations printers (of course now sold by Agfa). Their flatbeds are well manufactured, and now have a reliable company behind them (Agfa), but the inspiration, the innovation that came from James Gandy and Hary Gandy, this I have yet to see in the new corporate management style.

One improvement that I can comment on, however, is the new UV-cured ink. Evidently it has some features that are better than the former SunJet ink used by Gandinnovations. Of course if the ink price has been increased correspondingly, this is tough on end-users.

Now that the autumn 2010 trade show system is starting, I will be checking on what's new and what's improved in the offerings by Agfa now that they have completed their take-over of the remnants of Gandinnovations.