Dye sublimation printing takes off with wide format inkjet printers.

I believe Photokina was the first place I saw the Mimaki JV22-160, then Graphics of the Americas, then ISA, and possibly at PMA too.

What was once a niche market has really taken off. We recently visited a huge printing operation that had several printers cranking out tons of dye sublimation on various substrates. Sorry, we are under NonDisclosure Agreement with them, but this is clearly a million-dollar operation.

We hear comparable stories elsewhere, and in almost every instance it is a Mimaki JV4 printer. The current new model would be the Mimaki JV22-160.

So shortly there will be a FLAAR Report available on the Mimaki JV22-160. We already have a Mimaki JV4 and a Mimaki textile printer in the FLAAR facilities. They work just fine.

Mimaki JV22-160 is popular at the trade shows.

Mutoh also has a dye sublimation printer, the Mutoh Viper, as does Roland, but so far when we visit print shops or ask around, they tend to be using Mimaki printers. Since I like images on metal, on ceramic tile, and on fabrics, we will continue to update our coverage of dye sublimation printers, including comparisons among the Mutoh Viper, the Mimaki JV22-160, and the Roland used as a dye sublimation printer.

You can't get dye sublimation inks to run through most thermal printheads, so that rules out Canon, Encad, and HP. Dye sub inks tend to gum up any printing system, but they work the best in a piezo system (hence Epson, Xaar, or Spectra printheads).

Most recently updated May 3, 2005.