When is a 3.2m UV printer not a 3.2m UV printer? When it’s two 3.2m UV printers in one! Ok, so that’s not even up to the standard of the worst Christmas cracker jokes, but it is an accurate description of the Hapond UP-3321D, a novel Chinese-made printer now available in the UK through China Print Supplies (CPS), which made its UK debut at The Print Show in September 2025. The product is a single printer that has two printhead carriages which can be run simultaneously but independently on different media, or configured to print double-sided on one roll in a single operation, thus avoiding the delay, complexity, and scope for error of reloading, reversing, registering, and printing via a conventional single-sided printer. It doesn’t do anything you can’t do another way, but it makes the double-sided option very much simpler and faster to execute, while acting as two separate printers in the same footprint (about 5.8m wide by under 1.8m deep, and nearly 2.2m high) the rest of the time. One ‘printer’ or roll has a low loading position while the other has a built-in winch to load rolls of media above head height without difficulty. Performance is up to 75m2/hr for each printhead carriage, so with both in play that’s up to 150 m2/hr, whether that’s on two separate rolls or on both sides of one. Switching between modes is said to be a two-minute job according to CPS managing director, Scott Clutton, making it very practical to mix in double-sided work with regular single-sided jobs, subject to always having the right media for the right job. When switching to double-sided, media already loaded on the ‘spare’ roller can be wound back, ready to be fed back in when single-sided working resumes. Print resolutions range from 508 x 1080dpi via three passes to 508 x 2160dpi with six passes, with the usual trade-off between speed and quality. This is delivered by Konica Minolta printheads, arranged in rows of four or six. There is a choice of 6 or 13pl heads, with the former giving finer quality and the production speeds quoted above, while the latter add some 15% extra throughput but at the expense of the better quality. Clutton recommends the 6pl option as it allows for greater versatility in the type of work that can be handled. The If you ever need to print double-sided UV graphics, the Hapond UP3321D from CPS might be just the timesaver you need, while giving you plenty of single-sided firepower for the rest of your work. Michael Walker looks at how this Chinese offering flips the script Looking at Both Sides of the Hapond UP-3321D Michael Walker is a trade journalist, technical writer, and editor with over 37 years’ experience in the print, prepress, photography, and digital imaging sectors, with a particular interest in the digital transformation of processes. In addition to editing Desktop Publishing Today and Digital Printer magazines, he is co-author with Neil Barstow of Getting Colour Right (Ilex Press, 2004) and Practical Colour Management for Photographers and Digital Image Makers (2009, self-published e-book) and winner of a Communicators in Business Gold Award. Performance is up to 75m2/hr for each printhead carriage, so with both in play that’s up to 150 m2/hr, whether that’s on two separate rolls or on both sides of one 18 email: editor@signlink.co.uk Issue 263 - February | March 2026 UNDER THE HOOD | HAPOND UP-3321D
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