Yinghe-UV-FLAT-1224, comparisons with other UV-curable wide-format inkjet printers

There are now four different Chinese UV printers that appear to be copies of a smallish Inca flatbed printer: this Yinghe UV-Flat-1224, a CALCA 1204, Qumtum P2, and a printer from JHF Vista. They unlikely have the speed or stamina of an Inca original, but they aim for a comparable size (not the Inca Columbia, closer to the Inca Spyder 150). As is typical, no prices for these Chinese printers are listed anywhere.

Testing, evaluating, and comparing these printers is a challenge, since not a single one of these UV printers has appeared at any trade show recently: not at FESPA '07 or even at Shanghai '07. So price comparisons will also have to wait.

With all the new models available at ISA and FESPA 2010, FLAAR is offering personalized consulting at each trade show. You can walk-the-floor with the Senior Editor of FLAAR and get his comments on any and all printers, inks, RIP software, color management, substrates, applications, etc. So if you wish to learn about the difference between combo, hybrid, and dedicated UV printers, how latex ink compares, about textile printers, etc. contact FLAAR to obtain consulting. You can also get consulting before ISA or FESPA anywhere in the world: Dr Hellmuth was in Dubai and India last week as consultant, and will be in Saudi Arabia, Singapore, and China as consultant in the next two months. He was consulting in Korea and London in late 2009.

The spec sheets are noticeable for how little information is available: you can print on material up to 4 cm thick is about all.

But what these Chinese manufacturers don't realize (perhaps they neglected to read the FLAAR Reports), are the reasons why the Spyder 150 has sold fewer printers than any other UV model in history. In other words they have copied the least popular UV printer of all time. In fact not one, but four companies have all copied the lowest selling UV printer every made. Actually a fifth is in preparation, for Teckwin showed a variation on the Inca concept in their demo room, adjacent to their factory in Shanghai.

Even Oce probably sold more of their T220uv (at least we hope Oce sold more of that flatbed, because the sales of the Spyder 150 were close to non-existent). As an aside, there is nothing wrong with the Spyder 150, its mechanically and in every other way a sophisticated printer. The output is gorgeous. But in our FLAAR Reports we indicate why essentially so few have been sold.

Other Chinese manufacturers have cloned two different models of Encad printer, probably the most problem-prone water-based printer ever designed. Why don't they at least clone a printer that was well designed, such as the HP Designjet 5500? This single Hewlett Packard model has sold more printers of this single model (considerably more than 100,000 printers) than every other wide-format printer since time began (circa 1993 more or less, when Encad ruled the world of wide format).

Anyway, Chinese like to copy Western products, same way the Japanese first copied the Leica camera, then made their own Nikon, then Canon. Now Japan rules the world in digital camera sales. Leica is an archaic replica of past nostalgia. The same will happen with wide-format inkjet printers.

It is curious to fly all the way to Shanghai to see the largest and best organized sign printer trade show then find that at least two Chinese manufacturers or distributors did not show their printers at his international event at all (or if they did, so buried that I missed them in four complete days). Both the Yinghe UV-FLAT-1224 was not on display, and also the CALCA UV flatbed was not displayed either (at least not in the main halls W1, W2, or W3).

The company's full name is Guangzhou Yinghe Electronic instruments Co., Ltd.

We can't show any photograph because this printer has never appeared at any trade show that we have attended, nowhere in the world. We do not use PR shots provided by a company, so the only way we can update this page is to wait until we visit the factory or until we see the printer at perhaps some local Chinese show. But the Yinghe printers were not visible at Shanghai 2009 trade show either.

 

 

 

Most recently updated July 13, 2009, after Shanghai '09.

First posted July 23, 2007.