Width, and with it roll capacity and power draw. The MG2-300 takes media to 30 in. on rolls to 66 lb and draws about 550 W; the MG2-640 takes media to 64 in. on rolls to 99 lb and draws about 700 W. Printhead, resolution, ink, multilayer printing, cutting and software are identical.

A new 1.33-inch, 300-npi printhead in place of the previous generation; up to five layers in one pass without media pullback instead of the old layered workflow; 1,000 ml pouches for every colour rather than 500 ml (and 220 ml white); a take-up unit included rather than optional; an automated cloth wiper, dedicated cleaning liquid and cap-top UV protection; and a 7-inch touchscreen. Roland puts CMYK-to-white speed at 39.8 ft²/h against 17.2 ft²/h on the MG-640.

The configuration is fixed at purchase, so it is worth deciding against your job mix. CMYK with orange, red, white and gloss covers the most ground — expanded gamut plus white and gloss effects. CMYK with orange, red and double white suits high-density white on dark or clear media. CMYK with double white and double gloss is the layered-effects set for day/night, backlit and textured work. Dual CMYK is for colour throughput above all.

In VersaWorks 7 you compile the layer files into one layered job, switch on One-Pass Multilayer Printing and assign each layer to CMYK, white or gloss. The printer then lays every layer in a single pass — three to five layers — without pulling the media back, which is what keeps layer-to-layer registration tight.

On the MG2-640 in CMYK: 110.9 ft²/h in the default standard mode, 156.1 ft²/h in production mode and 235.7 ft²/h in high-speed mode. Layered CMYKWhWhGlGl output runs 78.6 ft²/h for one layer, 39.8 ft²/h for two and 25.8 ft²/h for three. Roland has not yet published MG2-300 figures, and notes the MG2-640 data is preliminary.

Yes — contour cutting runs on the same machine at 10 to 300 mm/s with blade force from 30 to 500 gf using a standard CAMM-1 series blade, and the included take-up unit can be set to keep winding during cutting.

Yes. From the touchscreen, operators can browse designated VersaWorks 7 folders, pick a prepared job, RIP and print it, or reprint an already-processed job with a new copy count. RIP-only processing still happens at the workstation.

A browser-based service that adds real-time monitoring, health checks, job logs and ink usage, a business dashboard and multi-device management across your Roland fleet. Some modules, such as VersaWorks Backup, Remote and ColorMatch, may be optional, subscription-based or region-dependent — ask us which are included.