Electronics For Imaging, Inc. is showcasing its portfolio of display graphics solutions this week at PRINTING United Expo 2022 in the Las Vegas Convention Center. The range of EFI production LED inkjet, dye-sublimation inkjet, and Fiery digital front end (DFE) and workflow offerings at the show highlights advanced, unique, and award-winning technologies that give signage and display graphics businesses a stronger competitive edge.
The new EFI VUTEk® FabriVU Plus series of soft signage printers, including the VUTEk FabriVU 340i+ printer with inline fixation EFI is presenting at PRINTING United in booth #C8107, offers the next level of high-end dye-sublimation efficiency and opportunity. Soft signage is the fastest-growing application for many EFI customers, including high-volume trade supplier Orbus Exhibit & Display Group – an industry leader that recently purchased the VUTEk FabriVU 340+ model for its Las Vegas facility.
Soft Signage
Orbus’s newly installed, 133-inch (3.4-meter) wide high-end production solution provides the company with important redundancy and production volume capacity in a rapid-growth market. It is also one of multiple VUTEk FabriVU installations Orbus has completed to meet the increased demand it sees in tradeshow graphics and address the accelerating preference for soft signage beyond the events space. “We have four FabriVU printers overall,” said Orbus Vice President of Print Operations Aaron Kozar, “so we must be happy with the technology!”
Designed for high-end direct-to-fabric or transfer paper production with resolutions up to 2,400 dots per inch (dpi) and three-level grayscale printing with 7pL, 12pL and 18pL drop sizes, the FabriVU Plus series achieves remarkable quality in dye-sub printing – with better saturation and more density for soft signage and flag printing – thanks to new electronics as well as eight high-performance printheads in a new CMYK x 2 configuration.
The in-line fixation feature on the VUTEk FabriVU 340i+ model at PRINTING United eliminates the need for a separate heat press in direct-to-fabric production.
The new soft signage printer is part of a broad portfolio of highly advanced EFI display graphics inkjet solutions at the show.
The 126-inch (3.2-meter) wide EFI Pro 30h hybrid roll/flatbed LED printer in EFI’s booth stands out as the ideal solution for businesses targeting production sign and display graphics as a growth opportunity. Running at speeds up to 2,477 square feet (230 square meters) per hour, it features four colors plus dual channels of white as standard, prints in resolutions up to 1,200 dpi, and includes an EFI Fiery proServer Core DFE with FAST RIP acceleration technology.
The 138-inch (3.5-meter) wide EFI VUTEk Q3r LED inkjet printer on display – the fastest superwide-format roll-to-roll solution in its class – is part of a VUTEk Q series that also includes a 208-inch (5.2-meter) wide Q5r model. A new inline UltraClear Coat option for the VUTEk Q3r, Q5r and other EFI roll-to-roll LED inkjet printers offers superior protection for outdoor graphics and high-quality gloss or matte spot enhancement in premium POP work – capabilities that earned UltraClear Coat the 2022 PRINTING United Alliance Pinnacle Award for UV digital inks.
The VUTEk h5, a highly advanced, high-productivity 126-inch (3.2-meter) wide hybrid roll/flatbed LED inkjet printer at the show, delivers top-tier image quality at speeds up 109 boards per hour. With its automated media handling options, including a ¾ automated media loading and stacker system and super duty winders, the VUTEk h5 is ready to drive efficiency in high-quality print. To meet growing demand for corrugated board printing, EFI has launched a new corrugated media management system for the VUTEk h5 printer featuring an enhanced vacuum, material edge guides and a dynamic roller subsystem for superior board throughput.
EFI partners LexJet (booth #C6407) and Nazdar SourceOne (booth #C6425) are also showing EFI Wide Format LED inkjet printers at PRINTING United. LexJet’s exhibit features the 65-inch (1.6-meter) wide EFI Pro 16h hybrid LED printer, a system with a low total cost of ownership that delivers high-quality output at speeds up to 476 square feet (44 square meters) per hour. The Nazdar SourceOne booth has the EFI Pro 30f, a dedicated flatbed printer with a large bed size for a maximum printable area of 120 x 80 inches (3.05 x 2.04 meters). Operating at speeds up of up to 2,130 square feet (198 square meters) per hour, this versatile flatbed system is the first EFI printer to give uses the ability to print on media up to 4 inches (10 cm) thick.
Automation and Innovation in Display Graphics Workflows
EFI’s enhanced IQ cloud solution featured at PRINTING United gives customers more power to monitor production operations and printer utilization – including exact job-level consumable tracking data – to reduce downtime and costs. EFI IQ’s exceptional display graphics management and business intelligence capabilities earned it the 2022 PRINTING United Alliance Pinnacle Product Award for software and workflow/MIS/CRM solutions. As the only management solution to have a direct connection to EFI printer data, IQ helps business leaders make smarter, data-driven production decisions for each wide-format printer and optimize capacity allocation across the production floor.
Another award-winning EFI display graphics workflow solution at the show, EFI Fiery Prep-it, is a print-for-cut preparation software offering that can be used with any wide- or superwide-format DFE. Its industry-leading innovations in true-shape nesting earned this software the PRINTING United Alliance Pinnacle Product Award for prepress and premedia. With Fiery Prep-it, display graphics businesses can reduce the time needed to nest complex objects for wide-format printing by up to 90%.
“EFI’s leading-edge portfolio at PRINTING United is a great example of our unwavering commitment to providing customers with the best innovation advantage in display graphics and industrial inkjet printing,” said EFI VP of Worldwide Marketing Ken Hanulec. “We continue to drive our customers’ growth in these spaces with the right products to help them earn more margin in more applications, and stay ahead of the game in terms of capability, efficiency, versatility and sustainability.”
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