Mimaki: track ink consumption and print costs

Mimaki ink consumption decides whether your square metre price is right. The machine knows this value per job quite precisely, but it only becomes useful once it is saved and combined with prices. Printometer is built to work across vendors, and the Mimaki connection is being prepared right now. The goal is the same as for the machines already connected: turn fleeting consumption into real cost per print job.

What the Mimaki knows about its costs - and what disappears

Mimaki builds large format printers in several series. Eco-solvent models such as the JV and CJV lines sit next to UV machines like UCJV and JFX, some with white and varnish. However different the technology is, the cost-relevant data is similar: ink used per channel, print mode, material and printed area.

Job and ink data on Mimaki machines usually flows through the RIP RasterLink or the machine controller. That is where the values a clean calculation needs are created. The catch is durability. This kind of consumption data is meant for daily operation, not for an archive spanning months. Without a backup you lose the history and later calculate with guesswork.

Capturing Mimaki ink consumption automatically

Important first: the Mimaki is not connected yet. The connection is in preparation and on the roadmap. The steps below describe how it will work.

As with the other machines, a small program on site does the work, the collector. It picks up the consumption data per machine on a fixed schedule, without manual steps. The values are gathered in a cloud hosted in the EU and kept there for good, with no expiry date. Fleeting data in the RIP or controller becomes a complete history.

If you want to evaluate your Mimaki with Printometer once it is live, join the waiting list. We get in touch when the connection is ready and set up the capture for your models.

From consumption to calculation

Measured consumption is one half, prices are the other. In Printometer you enter the ink price per litre and the material price per square metre, each with a valid-from date. From this the analysis calculates the cost per job.

In the end you see solid figures instead of gut feeling. The real ink cost per square metre, the cost per job and the totals per material and period. A UV job with white and varnish becomes visibly more expensive than a plain eco-solvent job, and your quote can reflect that.

Other machines

While the Mimaki is being prepared, two machines are already connected and live. The Canon Colorado through its accounting data and the Epson SureColor through the LFP Accounting Tool. More models follow step by step. The guide Print costs in large format gives you the overview of the whole topic.