EFI Innovations at FESPA Include VUTEk and Flatbed Printer

Electronics For Imaging, Inc. customers can drive future success in digital display graphics production thanks to the superior versatility, efficiency and quality available in the line-up of advanced technologies EFI is showcasing at the FESPA Global Print Expo. EFI’s exhibit at the May 14-17 exposition features the European premieres of the next-generation EFI VUTEk h5 hybrid flatbed/roll-to-roll LED printer and the EFI VUTEk 3r+ LED roll-to-roll printer. Plus, EFI’s end-to-end portfolio at FESPA features the world premiere of a new product in the company’s wide-format line-up of entry- and mid-level production devices – the EFI Pro 30f dedicated flatbed LED printer.

EFI’s FESPA exhibit also features the company’s latest innovations in soft signage production printing, new, faster EFI Fiery digital front end (DFE) technologies, and new workflow advancements for display graphics production and cross media workflows.

The VUTEk h5 making its European debut at FESPA is part of a VUTEk h series offering built from the ground up to establish new benchmarks for efficiency and profitability. The 126-inch wide VUTEk h series printers feature eight colors plus white and print with EFI’s UltraDrop Technology – native 7-picoliter greyscale printhead imaging featuring true multi-drop addressability for exceptional smoothness in shadows, gradients and transitions.

The series is available in two models: the new VUTEk h5, which has top speeds up to 109 boards per hour; and the VUTEk h3 version, which prints up to 74 boards per hour and is field upgradeable to the h5 model. Both models deliver their exceptional throughput thanks to the platform’s X4 Technology, which gives users the power to quickly and automatically use the eight ink channels in a CMYK x 2 configuration.

Viterbo, Italy-based printing company Gescom was among the first in Europe to install a VUTEk h series printer. The company’s h3 model has contributed to greater growth and higher demand for premium work. “Our customers noticed the change in technology and appreciate our new production offering with the printing of photographs and white-on-black panels,” said Gescom Production Manager Raffaele Friggi. “This allowed us to acquire new customers. Compared to the plotter we previously had in production, we’ve seen improvements in color accuracy, increased ink adhesion and considerable resistance to scratches and abrasion.”

Designed for more application possibilities at a competitive price

Responding to market requests, the new EFI Pro 30f flatbed printer on exhibit at FESPA was designed with a large 120 x 79-inch bed and is the first EFI printer to give users the ability to print on media up to 4 inches thick. It provides commercial printers and sign shops with more application possibilities with four colors plus dual channels of white standard and multi-layer printing. The printer also features EFI UltraDrop™ Technology with variable grayscale 7-21 picoliter imaging for precision dot placement and better color gradients and smoothing capability.

The printer includes a newly-developed intuitive graphical user interface (GUI) to better manage the layout of media on the flatbed. And, the GUI enables easier nesting and set-up for double-sided applications. The new Pro 30f at FESPA also features an EFI Fiery proServer Core DFE with FAST RIP acceleration technology.

All-in-one soft signage output and faster Fiery technology

EFI’s exhibit also features the EFI VUTEk FabriVU 340i, an aqueous soft signage printer that combines superior-quality imaging with efficient, in-line fixation for fast, all-in-one fabric soft signage production. All of EFI’s inkjet printers at FESPA are running on the newest versions of EFI’s Fiery proServer DFEs and updated Fiery Command WorkStation software. Together, these two products help unify production operations by giving users the ability to manage cut-sheet, continuous-feed, wide-format, and superwide-format digital print devices from a single user interface.

The newest-version Fiery proServer Premium with powerful GPU hardware acceleration, combined with the latest Fiery XF software version, together deliver up to 2X faster performance on EFI superwide-format printers. Customers can do more work per shift and achieve continuous print production — even at their fastest print speeds — to truly maximize their printer investments.

The latest Fiery software update supports more than 70 new third-party printers, delivers additional productivity, color management, usability, and integration enhancements, and also features:

A new color rendering intent innovation, Fiery Intensify™, that boosts color saturation and pop on EFI printers
Enhanced control over tile positioning for optimal substrate consumption, with the ability to enable rotation, positioning, and alignment of split tiles for maximum flexibility
Improved finishing integration capabilities, including cutting barcodes for Colex cutters.

The new Fiery solutions for superwide-format printing also deliver better data capabilities, communicating advanced device information from EFI printers including ink type, dot size, print mode and halftoning. Customers can further streamline their production workflows by directly importing that data into upcoming versions of the EFI Midmarket Print Suite ERP workflow and EFI MarketDirect StoreFront web-to-print/eCommerce software.

The Midmarket Print Suite featured at FESPA is a comprehensive software workflow for superwide-format print automation providing advanced technologies for estimating, planning, scheduling, data collection, fulfillment, accounting, reporting and more. Show attendees can also discover EFI’s MarketDirect robust Customer Engagement Platform, which gives users the ability to develop, distribute and track customer communications for loyalty programs, offers, newsletters, surveys, and communications rapidly and with ease.

Experience digital inkjet printing virtually

Show attendees visiting EFI also can experience EFI’s 360-degree, interactive virtual reality (VR) demonstrations of the EFI VUTEk HS125 Pro hybrid inkjet press and EFI’s game-changing, single-pass corrugated packaging press, the EFI Nozomi C18000. The ultra-high-speed (246-linear feet per minute) Nozomi press has multiple installations worldwide and is used to drive digital efficiencies in digital packaging production at some of the world’s leading corrugated board converters. High-quality Nozomi-printed packages and displays and a showcase of EFI’s unique and comprehensive EFI Corrugated Packaging Suite workflow offering are part of the exhibit.

EFI’s extensive portfolio of digital printing solutions also includes an advanced ecosystem of leading industrial textile design and production technologies that give designers, brands and manufacturers alike benefit from the ability to speed time to market. The EFI Reggiani line of state-of-art industrial textile inkjet printers includes a new, cutting-edge EFI Reggiani BOLT single-pass printer designed to deliver high uptime and reliability, high performance, outstanding printing uniformity and accuracy, with superior print head life and minimal maintenance needs. The range of EFI Reggiani Inks also has expanded to include EFI Reggiani BDR reactive inks from the company’s just-completed acquisition of BDR Boya Kimya.

The FESPA Global Print Expo’s Print Make Wear production line exhibit features advanced EFI textile software solutions, including EFI Fiery DesignPro for print preparation and production and EFI Optitex – the cutting-edge 2D and 3D integrated platform for product development and design used by leading brands and retailers worldwide.

Source: EFI.

The preceding press release was provided by a company unaffiliated with Wide-Format Impressions. The views expressed within do not directly reflect the thoughts or opinions of Wide-Format Impressions.