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Yishan UV flatbeds come in three series and many models

Yishan had as many different models of UV printers (three) as did Teckwin. The difference is that Yishan has no coordinated international sales team. In the US they have only one small local dealer. Teckwin has sophisticated international sales managers from the UK, US, and Italy.

Yishan exhibited one hybrid UV printer and two completely different dedicated flatbed UV printers at Shanghai ‘07. They also showed still another flatbed printer in their brochure the Yishan YS0604-FG, Yishan YS0608-FG (but it has never been exhibited in the US or Western Europe).

The main Yishan UV flatbed printers are Series B (which we cover here, this is the basis for the Digirex version sold out of Turkey). The other Yishan dedicated flatbed printer series is the L Series. The Yishan YS2407-DL is one of this series; we cover this on a separate page.

The series B Yishan flatbed printers include

• YS2406-EB
• YS2407-EB (exhibited at Shanghai ’07)
• YS2512-BB (from a year 2005 catalog, not in 2007 Yishan catalog)
• YS2406EB
• YS2407-GB
• YS2406-GB
• YS2405-GB
• YS2404-GB

The reason for so many different model names is because the Chinese manufactures like to hedge their bets by offering all the different modish printheads. European, Japanese and American manufacturers select one single head and concentrate on fine tuning their printer and ink to this one head. The result is the quality you expect from a Zund, Gandinnovations flatbed UV, IP&I Cube260uv, etc.

Digirex Technojet Flat UV, a rebranded Yishan UV flatbed printer, not seen since FESPA '05 in Munich

The choices for UV printers nowadays are Konica Minolta printheads, Toshiba Tec printheads, Hitachi (now Ricoh), Spectra or Xaar heads. VUTEk is the only company that tries to use Seiko printheads for UV-cured ink. Epson piezo heads don’t work with UV inks since those heads can’t take the needed heaters. ColorSpan has success using the Ricoh printheads, such as in the ColorSpan 5440uv series.

Generally each printhead brand offers several different printhead models. Each offers a different size of picoliter drops are available; one, or the other (you don’t get both in the same head)). Chinese manufacturers tend to offer the buyer a choice of heads (because they want to try to make their printers look like those made in Japan, Europe, USA, etc). With a Chinese printer you can also select how many heads you wish per color. And select how many colors.

The result is a bewildering mass of different model names that are all the same printer but just different widths and different head configurations.

Digirex Technojet Flat UV, Yishan YS2500 Series

Every day we saw surprises at FESPA 2005. Here was an entire Chinese printer manufacturer that we had never noticed at SGIA, ISA, not even at DRUPA.

So we spent time in their booth, and wrote up as much information as we could glean. It even turns out there were four models in that year: Yishan YS2500-04CE, Yishan YS2500-04CG, Yishan YS2500-12BG, and Yishan YS2500-04EE.

But then at FESPA Digital 2006, no Digirex or Yishan UV printer appeared.

So it helps to have the FLAAR Reports to sort this out, and to understand the differences among Teckwin, Flora, Infiniti, Yishan, Skyair-Ship (Skyjet), GCC, and all the others that pop up unexpectedly.

The Digirex is based on Yishan Series B. The main difference is that the flatbed UV printers sold in China have no hood, no protective cover for the carriage area (to keep the price cheap). Lack of a hood violates, if not EU regulations, at least violates common sense (ink misting, UV light damage to your retinas). So the model sold in Turkey has a complete hood. So far Oce is the only printer manufacturer that has attempted to sell a flatbed with no hood and no protection whatsoever. Most of the other manufacturers, including ColorSpan and Gandinnovations have covered their printers. Mimaki even changed their hood for their JF-1631 flatbed: they had one to begin with, but it did not pass a FLAAR safety criteria, so it was completely redesigned.

We thank the patient and helpful folks from Digirex booth at FESPA for answering our questions so that we could assist our many readers with a much wider range of facts and documentation on the performance of this printer, more than is available in the typical spec sheet.

PIMMS, Istanbul, Turkey

Digirex is part of the Pimms group, the largest Turkish distributor of large format printers. Digirex had a substantial exhibit at FESPA, VisCom Duesseldorf, and Visual Communications Milan. The Digirex UV-curable inkjet flatbed printer is the Technojet Flat UV.

PIMMS distributes printers from Yishan company in China. The original Yishan printer was the Yishan YS2500 Series. For 2006, the current Yishan UV printers are their Yishan YS2406-CB, Yishan YS2512-BB, and Yishan YS2406EB.

Since most Chinese UV-curable inkjet printers are not fully finished it was not much surprise that no Yishan printer was shown at the Outdoor & Indoor sign trade show in Istanbul this year (2006). One reason is that printers with old Xaar printheads are not very popular any more.

At Sign Istanbul in early December 2006 no Yishan UV-curable inkjet printers were exhibited. But we did see three Yishan UV printers at Shanghai trade show in summer 2007, and have copious notes that are going into several FLAAR Reports on Chinese UV flatbed printers.

In the meantime you can order FLAAR Reports on all the other UV-curable inkjet printers from www.wide-format-printers.NET, in the link at the right to UV.

Most recently updated July 23, 2007.

Previously updated Oct. 30, 2006.