Yingcai YC2513 UV printer: a powerhouse for modern print work

Answer

The Yingcai YC2513 is a UV flatbed printer with a 2500 x 1300 mm print area. It uses Ricoh G6 printheads and UV-curable ink to print tiles, acrylic, wood and glass for signage and decorative work.

It reaches 300-2400 DPI and runs at up to 45 sqm/hour in draft mode.

What the YC2513 brings to a modern print floor

A 2500 x 1300 mm table for large-format boards

The YC2513 is built around a print area of 2500 mm by 1300 mm. That is a large-format table, and it is the reason the machine is presented as a fit for advertising billboards and decorative boards rather than only small custom pieces. A sheet of that size can be printed in a single pass, so a shop does not have to split a design across several panels and line up the seams afterwards.

Large-format flatbed work usually starts with rigid stock. The material is placed on the table and held still while the printhead carriage travels over it, which is why the format of the table, not the width of a roll, decides what a job can contain. A clear working area of 2500 x 1300 mm accepts common board sizes with room around the edges for positioning, so the operator spends time printing rather than trimming material down to fit.

The same table also handles short runs and small pieces. A shop can print a full display panel in the morning and a set of small decorative panels in the afternoon without changing machines. That flexibility is one of the reasons digital UV printing has replaced screen printing for mixed production, because each new design begins as a file rather than as a screen, a setup and a cleaning cycle.

The source material for the YC2513 names tiles, acrylic, wood and glass as the materials it works with. Those four groups behave differently on a flatbed: tile is hard and slightly variable, acrylic is smooth and non-porous, wood carries grain and absorbency, and glass is transparent and needs an underlay before colour reads correctly. A table that holds all four lets one machine serve signage, decoration and interior work instead of forcing a separate process for each material.

The intelligent printhead carriage lift

At the heart of the design is an intelligent printhead carriage lifting function. The source material describes it as the feature that simplifies operation and enhances flexibility, and on a flatbed that description is easy to understand. The gap between the printhead face and the substrate has a direct effect on dot placement, so the height of the carriage is one of the settings an operator touches most often.

When boards of different thickness follow one another, the carriage has to be raised or lowered between jobs. A lift that is controlled intelligently shortens that changeover and reduces the chance of setting the head too low, where a warped corner can strike the printhead, or too high, where the dots spread and the image loses sharpness. It also makes the machine easier to learn, because the operator is not expected to judge head clearance by eye on every new material.

The practical benefit is scheduling. A shop that prints acrylic in the morning, wood in the afternoon and glass at the end of the day can move between materials without a long manual adjustment each time. That is the kind of flexibility the source material highlights: not a headline speed figure, but the ability to accept varied work without making the operator reset the machine from scratch.

The lift does not remove the need for care. The operator still checks the head height on the first sheet of a new material, runs a small test print and confirms that the edge of the board is flat. A printed sample is cheaper than a damaged printhead, and a two-minute check at changeover is the routine that keeps a mixed-material shop productive.

Ricoh G6 printheads and resolution control

The YC2513 is equipped with Ricoh G6 printheads in a 2+1+1 configuration, and the source material notes that the configuration can be upgraded. Ricoh G6 heads are industrial inkjet units, and the number and arrangement of heads is what sets the throughput and the colour channels a machine can run at full speed.

Resolution on the YC2513 spans 300 to 2400 DPI. The range matters because not every job needs the same setting. Large advertising boards are usually viewed from several metres away, so a lower resolution prints faster and still looks sharp at that distance. Fine decorative panels, small text and detailed product graphics are viewed close up, and there the higher settings pay for themselves in edge quality and smooth gradients.

The machine also allows printhead temperature and voltage to be adjusted in software. Both settings influence how a drop forms and how it lands, so they are part of the routine work of matching the machine to the ink and the material rather than a one-time factory setting. An operator who changes ink batches or moves to a different substrate can compensate through the software instead of waiting for the machine to settle on its own.

For a production floor, the useful habit is to save a setting for each recurring job. Once a material, a resolution and a head setting have produced an acceptable sample, that combination becomes the baseline for the next run. It removes guesswork from repeat orders and makes it easier to train a second operator on the same machine.

Ink supply, curing and colour accuracy

The YC2513 uses UV-curable ink and a dual-tank smart continuous ink supply system with circulation. The twin-tank arrangement keeps a working supply available while the system circulates ink through the line, and circulation is what keeps pigments suspended instead of settling in a channel that has been idle.

That detail matters most with the inks that give UV printing its range. White ink is dense, and a channel that sits still through a lunch break or an overnight stop can print unevenly on the first sheet of the next shift. Circulation keeps the supply moving so the first panel and the hundredth panel are printed under similar conditions, and the operator is not forced to plan a long purge between jobs.

Curing is handled by an LED UV system. The ink cures as it leaves the printhead, which accelerates drying and lets a printed board be handled soon after it comes off the table. Because the ink sets rather than evaporates, the process also avoids the drying rack and the dust that settles on a wet surface in a conventional print room. The source material pairs the curing system with the claim that it maintains print quality while it dries.

Colour control comes from Ruiyin software, which follows international ICC colour standards. Profiles built to those standards describe how a given printer, ink set and material reproduce colour, and they are what allow a design approved on screen to be reproduced on tile, acrylic, wood or glass with a predictable result. The software supports TIFF, JPEG and PDF files, which covers the formats most design workflows produce without a conversion step.

Colour accuracy is not only a software question. A shop should build a profile for each material it prints regularly, run a small test panel before a full batch and check the result under the light the finished piece will be seen in. A colour that matches under office lighting can look different in a shop window, and a five-minute check on a sample is cheaper than reprinting a board.

Three speed modes and what they mean for planning

Production speed on the YC2513 is quoted in three modes: up to 45 sqm/hour in draft mode, 20 sqm/hour in standard mode and 15 sqm/hour in high-quality mode. The numbers describe the same machine at different settings, and the setting is chosen according to how the finished work will be viewed and how much detail the file contains.

Draft mode is the setting for large graphics that will be seen from a distance: billboards, backdrops and temporary display panels where coverage and colour impact matter more than fine detail. Standard mode is the working setting for most signage and display production, where the image has to hold up at normal viewing distance without the time cost of the highest setting. High-quality mode is reserved for close-viewed decorative work, fine text and detailed panels where the extra passes are visible in the result.

Planning capacity around a single headline figure is a common mistake. The published 45 sqm/hour applies to draft mode, and a shop that prints mostly high-quality decorative panels should plan around 15 sqm/hour instead. Loading, unloading, material handling and colour checks also take time, and on a flatbed those steps often limit daily output more than the print speed itself.

A realistic schedule uses the mix of work a shop actually sells. If half the volume is standard signage and half is close-viewed decor, the average output sits between the standard and high-quality figures, not at the draft number. Quoting from the mixed figure keeps delivery promises achievable and prevents the machine from being judged against a speed it was never asked to run at.

Room conditions, cleaning and operator safety

The YC2513 is specified to operate at 20-28 degrees Celsius and 40-60 percent relative humidity. Those are not arbitrary numbers. Ink viscosity, drop formation and curing behaviour all change with temperature, and very dry air encourages static that can disturb the ink as it travels from the head to the substrate. A room that stays inside the stated range produces more consistent output than one that swings with the weather.

The machine connects by ethernet, which is the practical choice for a production floor. Large print files move to the printer faster over a wired link than over a wireless one, and a cable removes the dropouts that can interrupt a long job. Keeping the printer on the same network as the design workstation also shortens the route from an approved file to a printed board.

Cleaning is supported by an automatic positive-pressure cleaning system, which the source material describes as a way to minimise downtime. Routine cleaning is handled by the machine rather than by a long manual procedure, so the operator can keep production moving between jobs. That does not make maintenance optional: nozzles still need a daily check, and the table and guides should be kept free of dust and ink mist, because dust on a guide shows up as banding long before it becomes a mechanical fault.

Operator safety is addressed by an intelligent touch-detection safety system, which protects both the machine and the people working around it. On a flatbed the carriage moves over an open table, and an operator leans in to load and unload sheets all day. A system that detects contact and responds is a sensible layer of protection in that environment, and it is one more reason the machine is presented as production equipment rather than a studio device.

Matching the YC2513 to the work you sell

The YC2513 suits a business that already sells signage, decoration or printed boards and wants to bring production in house. The work is mostly rigid, the sheet sizes are known and the volume is high enough that a 2500 x 1300 mm table earns its place. It also suits a screen printer adding short runs and one-off pieces, because the digital machine removes the screen setup that makes small jobs unprofitable.

Before ordering, a buyer should list the materials and sizes that make up most of the work. A shop that prints mostly on acrylic and tile will use the machine differently from one that prints wood panels and glass, and the difference shows up in profiles, handling and finishing rather than in the machine specification alone. Building that list first makes the quotation conversation concrete.

The file workflow deserves the same attention. Ruiyin software accepts TIFF, JPEG and PDF, so most design files arrive without conversion, but a shop still needs a routine for checking resolution, colour profile and bleed before a job reaches the printer. A file prepared for screen or offset output is not automatically ready for a flatbed, and catching that at the design stage avoids a wasted board.

Finally, plan the space around the machine rather than around the old process. A flatbed needs room to load and unload full sheets, and a shop that runs long jobs needs somewhere to stage the next sheet while the current one prints. The machine is fast; the handling around it is usually what decides daily output, and a layout that respects that fact gets more from the investment than one that treats the printer as a drop-in replacement for a smaller device.

YC2513 at a glance

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