FREMONT, Calif. — October 11, 2017 — San Francisco signage and graphics company SF Landmark is meeting surging demand for textile-printed soft signage with the installation of an EFI™ VUTEk® FabriVU® 340 dye-sublimation printer from Electronics For Imaging Inc. With production speeds of up to 5,381 square feet per hour and print widths of up to 133 inches wide, the printer uses genuine EFI water-based CMYK dispersed dye inks to produce brilliant displays, high-density backlit signs and more, with ultra-high resolution four-color printing.

Founded in 1982 with annual revenues of about $1 million and five employees, SF Landmark has built a reputation for high quality, fast turn superwide format printing among event planners, brands and agencies in the San Francisco Bay Area.

An ‘impressive offering’ to broaden SF Landmark’s customer reach

While researching the soft signage market, SF Landmark General Manager Bill Stender attended the 2016 SGIA Expo in Las Vegas and followed up with a visit to EFI’s users’ group conference, Connect. “I was very impressed with what EFI had to offer,” he said.

“We’ve been looking at dye sublimation fabric printing for some time,” Stender added. “We’ve seen many of our professional customers moving into soft signage, and we believed we could bring our great reputation for quality and service to those customers to capture that volume, and that is proving to be true. Plus, we expect to be able to gain many new customers as we market this service to a broader audience.”

EFI developed its new VUTEk FabriVU series using the advanced technology knowledge base that EFI Reggiani has established over the past 70 years. SF Landmark’s new printer — which is ideal for the production of flags, banners, backlit displays, and other high-end display graphics — offers superior quality with high-resolution imaging up to 2,400 dots per inch (dpi) and four-level grayscale printing with 4 to 18 picoliter drop sizes. SF Landmark has greater versatility with its new investment as well, as the printer has the unique ability to print on transfer paper or direct-to-fabric with the same inkset, which saves considerable labor and machine downtime compared to other printers requiring ink changeovers for different substrates.

SF Landmark’s clients appreciate the company’s attention to detail and color matching capabilities, expertise that, according to Stender, is hard to find among area sign shops. The EFI Fiery® proServer digital front end (DFE) installed with the new printer has the production and color functionalities to allow SF Landmark to maintain its high color quality standards.

“Fiery has lots of great tools for color matching and for adding additional automation to the process,” Stender said. “This will be increasingly important as our fabric business continues to grow.”

New product offerings and growth through online ordering

Stender is currently focusing on production of backdrops for stages and events, but is in the process of tooling up for other products such as flags and temporary pop-up exhibits. He also invested in a sewing system for finishing printed fabric products.

Plus, SF Landmark acquired an additional facility to accommodate the printer and will be staffing that facility up as his fabric volume grows. A new web-to-print offering — EFI’s Digital StoreFront® software — is part of that growth initiative.

“As we expand our product line, we will be implementing EFI’s eCommerce for Soft Signage suite of solutions powered by EFI Digital StoreFront,” Stender said. “This will add a level of convenience for many of our customers by allowing them to order online 24/7. We also like that fact that Digital StroreFront is integrated with the EFI Fiery proServer DFE for the FabriVU printer, meaning that jobs submitted online can be delivered directly to print, saving time while reducing costs, errors and overhead.”

EFI is showcasing its ecosystem of advanced products for soft signage production this week at the 2017 SGIA Expo at the Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, where the VUTEk FabriVU 340 printer, Fiery proServer DFE and Digital StoreFront web-to-print solutions are on display in booth #1501.

Posted October 11, 2017

Source: EFI

SCHAUMBURG, IL — October 10, 2017 — On Opening Day of the SGIA Expo in New Orleans, INX International Ink Co. announced plans to expand its iconic Research & Development complex in West Chicago, IL. When completed in July 2018, the facility will more than double its current space to 56,000 square-feet.

The new construction in West Chicago represents continuation of an aggressive, multi-year capital improvements program. INX opened a new manufacturing facility in Lebanon, OH in 2015, completed expansion of the metal decorating plant ln Charlotte, NC in 2016, and doubled the size of an existing manufacturing plant in Edwardsville, KS earlier this year. Parent company Sakata INX in Japan is following a similar path, building new or expanding facilities throughout Asia.

Since the West Chicago R&D complex opened in 1996, overall activity and the number of chemists working on site has increased dramatically as a result of significant business growth, says Rick Westrom, Senior Vice President of Sourcing and R&D.

“We have experienced sales growth and production in many areas, and a major reason for this expansion is our commitment to global digital efforts. A large portion is being dedicated to growing and supporting digital products across all product lines, as well as expanding our Energy Curable technologies.”

Westrom indicated the $7 million project construction would add 32,000 square-feet to the facility. INX currently employs 62 people in West Chicago and will be adding more chemists after the new space becomes available.

Posted October 10, 2017

Source: INX International Ink Co.

NEW ORLEANS — October 10, 2017 — The Electronics For Imaging Inc. (EFI) exhibit at SGIA Expo shows how signage and graphics businesses can gain productivity and profitability advantages with a broad portfolio of digital production products, including the new EFI™ Pro 24f true flatbed LED printer shown for the very first time. EFI’s exhibit at the New Orleans tradeshow also includes an EFI Reggiani industrial textile digital printer making its North American debut. Plus, attendees can see a complete portfolio of production inkjet printers, workflow software and EFI Fiery® digital front end (DFE) technologies that help businesses drive a stronger competitive advantage.

Complete digital offerings for new growth opportunities

The EFI portfolio shown at SGIA Expo will help customers succeed in digital markets primed for continued growth. Customer Bill Stender, general manager of San Francisco-based graphics company SF Landmark, attended last year’s show to learn more about opportunities with textile-printed soft signage. That visit ultimately led him to acquiring an EFI VUTEk® FabriVU® 340 soft signage printer, an EFI Fiery proServer DFE, and EFI Digital StoreFront® technology for web-to-print ordering.

“I was very impressed with what EFI had to offer,” Stender said of his complete EFI production offering. “We’ve seen many of our professional customers moving into soft signage, and we believed we could bring our great reputation for quality and service to those customers to capture that volume, and that is proving to be true.”

Attendees at this year’s SGIA Expo can see how all of those technologies can be integrated — from online job submission to fast Fiery job processing, to high-end output on the 3.4-meter wide VUTEk FabriVU model — in EFI’s booth, #1501.

NEW: EFI Pro 24f LED flatbed printer

Visitors can also experience the latest advancements EFI has developed to fuel customers’ success in digital wide-format graphics production. The new Pro 24f LED flatbed printer launching at SGIA Expo is designed to give signage and graphics providers a sharp competitive edge. It contains the most powerful features, including EFI’s LED and variable drop grayscale head technology, and provides precision imaging, fine detail and outstanding image quality.

The printer, which has a 4×8-foot bed, prints in four colors plus white ink standard and is a highly strategic choice for signage, photographic backlit displays, art reproductions, membrane switches, graphic overlays, lenticular prints and other specialty applications up to 2 inches thick. Efficient hold-down with a multi-zone vacuum system eliminates masking while ensuring accurate registration for multiple over-prints or panels. EFI’s “cool cure” LED technology ensures low power consumption, minimal waste and compatibility with thinner and heat-sensitive substrates.

An EFI Fiery proServer Core DFE built into the printer features FAST RIP acceleration technology plus a host of color management and production options delivering a turnkey solution.

Affordable industrial digital textile production with the new FLEXY printer

For industrial apparel and décor textile applications, EFI is showcasing the new Reggiani ReNOIR FLEXY printer in its North American debut. The 1.8-meter wide printer delivers the high resolution and outstanding performance and results of larger Reggiani devices, yet it is affordable enough to allow nearly any business to get into industrial textile. It supports the widest variety of fabrics — from knitted to woven as well as low- and high-stretchable materials — using the printer’s new “Dynaplast” fabric adhesion device.

The printer incorporates the latest digital technologies for best-in-class performance, is easy to operate and has a low maintenance cost, making it an ideal solution for production and sampling alike. It also is the first EFI industrial textile printer to have a new green housing reflecting Reggiani’s brand heritage as well as the product line’s environmentally friendly production advantages, such an ink recovery feature that dramatically reduces ink consumption.

High-quality hybrid print for entry-level and high-volume production

The EFI Pro 16h LED wide-format hybrid roll/flatbed printer on display sets a new standard for entry-level production. This extremely affordable 65-inch wide Fiery Driven™ printer includes white ink and delivers a low total cost of ownership and superior image quality for a broad range of applications. It also has faster speeds than other EFI entry-level hybrid products, with some print modes offering up to a 30-percent higher throughput. The Pro 16h model is the winner of SGIA’s 2017 Product of the Year award for UV hybrid printers from $100,000 to $500,000, and it is available from EFI and a number of EFI partners, including two companies that are also exhibiting it at the show: Nazdar SourceOne® (booth #1545) and the Ricoh® Commercial & Industrial Printing Group (booth #1351).

Another hybrid product on display in the EFI booth, the EFI VUTEk LX3 Pro printer, is a 3.2-meter, eight-color, LED production device that helps companies perfect their premium-quality point-of-purchase (POP) business. Designed to deliver high throughput, higher volumes and shorter lead times, it prints up to 64 4×8-foot boards per hour in POP mode. Users benefit from the high image quality needed for premium retail work and, like the Pro 16h printer, its cool cure LED imaging reduces energy costs and gives access to more substrates, including heat-sensitive materials such as chipboard, foam and acrylics. Attendees can also witness a virtual reality demonstration of the EFI VUTEk HS125 Pro, a high-volume production hybrid inkjet press offering the productivity and low total cost of ownership needed to transition larger volumes of print from analog to digital printing.

Best-in-class print resolution and speed in roll-to-roll printing

EFI is also showcasing its next-generation line of VUTEk roll-to-roll printers, with the award-winning, 3.5-meter EFI VUTEk 3r LED printer on display at the show. This highly productive printer, with speeds up to 4,090 square feet per hour, has the highest resolution in its class, offering superior quality using EFI UltraDrop™ Technology 7-picoliter print heads.

Designed to be the industry’s most technically advanced LED roll-to-roll production offerings, EFI’s newest VUTEk printer line features an integrated production workflow that allows print professionals to do more work in less time. Users can choose a complete set of value-added options, including an inline finishing system for all-in-one printing, x-cutting, slitting and collecting, and additional white and light colors.

Integrated workflow in the ‘Journey of a Job’ for graphics production

EFI is bringing streamlined, simplified production workflows to the Big Easy with its advanced productivity software. Version 5 of the EFI Midmarket Print Suite, which includes EFI Pace™ as its core MIS/ERP software, drives end-to-end efficiencies for display, signage and graphics customers. Improvements include an upgrade to the Suite’s Superwide Format component database for easier estimating, planning and management in dedicated signage and graphics production printing environments, as well as a new, award-winning workbench tool and deeper integration with imposition and fulfillment components.

The end-to-end workflow possibilities shown at SGIA Expo extend to cross media marketing with EFI DirectSmile, a fully integrated marketing software solution for data-driven print, PURL, email, SMS, social media, mobile media and image personalization. The software enables customers to offer robust, customizable and flexible campaign management across multiple media, including traditional and soft signage.

Posted October 10, 2017

Source: Electronics For Imaging