Mimaki breaks Roland’s exclusivity on the wide-format metallic market

It was never going to take too long: Mimaki, represented in the UK by Hybrid Services, has announced that it, too, will bring to market a metallic ink type for wide-format production. With a release date of October this year, I suspect this is well-timed to pitch for the key Halloween and Christmas markets, and it makes me wonder how soon we will start to see metallic-based point-of-sale and other displays in our retail environment.

The two manufacturers have chosen different approaches to market for their metallic products. Roland has had longer on the metallic scene and offers two machines capable of this kind of output, but Mimaki is advertising that its new ink – which accompanies a new white in the ES3 set – can be retrofitted to popular JV33 and CJV30 models.

Each manufacturer provides a library to take the effort out of applying metallic to existing shades, and each also offers metallic in combination with print-and-cut. I suspect, too, that they both want to tie new users more firmly into their proprietary RIP software packages (Roland’s VersaWorks and Mimaki’s Raster Link Pro5).

Users looking for a new machine will be susceptible to the same old sales game and may, ultimately, go with their established preference. However, existing users of Mimaki technology are likely to be very tempted by the potential to upgrade with only the purchase of some new cartridges and a firmware and software upgrade. This is countered, of course, by Roland’s low price points for its SolJet Pro III XC-540MT and VersaCamm VS-640, which are also alluring.

How commonplace will metallic actually become? While some buyers (Marks and Spencer being one) won’t accept any solvent print, for other retail brands – especially up-market, luxury types – there is so much potential for bronze, gold and silver, not to mention the hundreds of other shades, to liven up point-of-sale displays and other advertising graphics. Foilblocking and other effects have always been popular, and metallic substrates are expensive to purchase and hard to print on.

But healthy competition should spur innovation, and perhaps new applications will come out of that drive, too. Now that the eco-solvent metallic market has opened up, I am waiting eagerly for news that these hues have hit the UV-curable market. Who will be the first to do it? Watch this space.