Electronics for Imaging has an expansive portfolio of display graphics solutions on show at Printing United in Las Vegas this week, including LED inkjet, dye-sublimation inkjet and Fiery digital front end and workflow offerings.

Among the options being demonstrated is the EFI VUTEk FabriVU Plus series of soft signage printers, including the 3.4 metre wide VUTEk FabriVU 340i+ printer with inline fixation which EFI says offers the next level of high-end dye-sublimation efficiency and opportunity.

EFI printers and workflows are distributed in Australia & New Zealand by Currie Group.

EFI says soft signage is the fastest-growing application for many EFI customers, including high-volume trade supplier Orbus Exhibit & Display Group which recently purchased a VUTEk FabriVU 340i+ model for its Las Vegas facility.

Orbus’s newly installed, 3.4-metre 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 so we must be happy with the technology,” Orbus Vice President of Print Operations Aaron Kozar said.

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, EFI said.

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 model is part of a broader portfolio of EFI display graphics inkjet solutions at Printing United.

• The 3.2-metre 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 230 square metres per hour, it features four colours 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 3.5-metre 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 5.2-metre 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 3.2-metre 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.

Automation and innovation in display graphics workflows

EFI’s enhanced IQ cloud solution, which is being featured at Printing United, gives customers more power to monitor production operations and printer utilisation – including exact job-level consumable tracking data – to reduce downtime and costs.

EFI says 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 optimise capacity allocation across the production floor.

Another award-winning EFI display graphics workflow solution at the show, EFI Fiery Prep-it, is a powerful and cost-saving 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%. And, in head-to-head comparison with the competing solutions in the market, Prep-it’s powerful and detailed nesting capabilities saves users at least 10% in media costs.

New digital opportunities across growing market segments

EFI has one of the broadest and strongest inkjet technology portfolios for driving the analogue to digital transformation in the display graphics, corrugated packaging, textile, and building materials/décor markets. Given the extended growth in applications EFI supports, PRINTING United also features exhibits from two of the company’s newest acquisitions – innovators that deliver some of the best and most respected workflow technologies in direct-to-textile, direct-to-film (DTF) and direct-to-garment (DTG) printing. Inèdit Software, part of the EFI Reggiani textile business, is showcasing its advanced offerings – including its industry-leading, worldwide benchmark RIP solutions for digital textile printing – in booth #C10337. And booth #C4918 features the latest, highly advanced Digital Factory DTF and DTG automation, production, and personalisation software solutions from EFI Fiery’s recent acquisition of CADlink^® Software.

“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.”

For more information about advanced display graphics solutions from EFI, visit www.efi.com.

About EFI
EFI™ is a global technology company, leading the worldwide transformation from analogue to digital imaging. We understand our customers want breakthrough technologies to lead them through their digital journey. That’s why we’re passionate about driving their business growth with a scalable portfolio of products, solutions, services, support, and world-class partnerships for the manufacturing of signage, packaging, textiles, ceramic tiles, building materials, commercial print, and personalised documents with a wide range of printers, inks, digital front ends, and workflow software. They work together to increase profits, cut costs, improve productivity, and optimise efficiency – job after job, year after year. We’re committed to our customers’ success. And we definitely believe we have the right people, technology and experience to help them achieve their business goals. (www.efi.com)

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