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First review of the new Infiniti 3360UV roll-to-roll UV-cured printer

Infiniti 3360UV roll-to-roll at Shanghai 2007

The Infiniti 3360UV roll-to-roll UV-cured wide format printer was first shown to US audiences at Sign Expo (ISA 2007) this week.

Chinese manufacturers make great strides in improving quality. The Infiniti staff in the US and in Europe are all capable and hard-working individuals.

But so far, most Chinese-made UV printers lack adequate service in the US (in Europe it’s a bit better in part due to stricter laws about returning printers that are dogs or turkeys).

Not one of these UV printers has a proven track record of holding up to use (sorry, we have inspected several at actual sign shops). DuPont dropped their Chinese solvent printers; Redhill, Gerber and Matan all dropped their Chinese solvent printers. Why?

Of early-generation Flora UV printers probably 95% of the first manufacturing runs (for two years) were all returned as unacceptable.

I have inspected the factories of VUTEk (three times this year so far), Mutoh Europe (an entire week), Grapo, HP, Gandinnovations, Inca Digital, Sun Chemical (adjacent to Inca Digital), Zund, NUR (twice).

When you inspect the manufacturing plant, then you learn what stands behind a printer. But when you visit an end-user (what we call a site-visit case study) this is the most important part of due-diligence in the search for what printer is best for you and your clients.

In July it was possible to visit the factory and demo center of Hangzhou Honghua, several hours drive from Shanghai . I thank Xaar-China for arranging this visit. I appreciate the efforts of the management ofHonghua Digital Technology Stock Co. Ltd. for coming in to open things up on a Saturday.

They are using a new house-brand name of Aprint. Aeromatrix in Miami is using a new brand name of Fina. It appears that Infiniti wants to restrict their trademarked brand name Infiniti. This is why Infiniti Europe had to change name to become Augend Technologies (unfortunately Augend disappeared about a year later and "Infinity Europe" has never really been able to recover.

Infiniti 3360UV roll-to-roll UV-cured printer.

Dr.Hellmuth (right) with the Infiniti 3360UV printer at factory visit in Honghua.

Infiniti 3360UV printer, printheads.

Here is Nicholas Hellmuth analyzing the Infiniti 3360UV roll-to-roll, Honghua factory visit 2007. You do not get this level of personal involvement with commercial reports and PR releases. This fact is probably why the readership of FLAAR increases each year.

First posted September 17, 2007.