Speaking to PrintWeek at the recent Fespa Fest event in Hamburg, Germany, EFI vice president of corporate marketing Frank Tueckmantel said the company plans to bring the Vutek 5r and Vutek FabriVU 520 printers to the show, which will take place at the Hamburg Messe from 8-12 May.
Both of these machines were announced alongside the Vutek 3r at the manufacturer’s annual user conference, EFI connect, in January.
The 5.2m-wide FabriVU 520, which incorporates Reggiani technology, is the company’s largest soft-signage printer yet. It can print at speeds of up to 446sqm/hr, with production image quality up to 242sqm/hr and POP image quality at up to 157sqm/hr.
The machine, which has a resolution up to 2,400dpi, uses aqueous-based inks and can handle fabrics from 45 to 450gsm.
It can print direct to textile or transfer paper, with the ability to changeover from one to the other, and is suitable for the production of wall murals, flags, banners, backlit displays and other seamless and high-end display graphics.
The 5m-wide Vutek 5r LED roll-to-roll printer, which can print at speeds of up to 455sqm/hour, has a resolution up to 1,200dpi. The machine can handle a variety of flexible and rigid media, making it suitable for applications including building wraps, billboards, fine art, floor graphics, POP, signage, tradeshow graphics and wallpaper.
The device, which is based on Matan technology, also incorporates an inline finishing system for all-in-one printing, slitting, and collecting.
“Because of the Matan acquisition we suddenly had products that could slice and slit. Now with the Vutek EFI touch, the response of the roll-to-roll product portfolio has been really really good. Our roll-to-roll offerings are now even more competitive than they have been in the past,” said Tueckmantel.
“And we are addressing traditional wide-format and superwide-format with our FabriVU offerings for soft signage. Because of EFI Italy and [the acquisition of] Reggiani we also have the analogue and digital garment production textile offerings. This is a market that we couldn’t be happier that we acquired, it was a fantastic add-on to our product portfolio.”
He added: “We will also make sure that the latest version of Fiery is at the show as well as our MIS software packages. Our web-to-print solution Digital StoreFront and DirectSmile for cross media will also be at the show.
“For us it’s always about the story, not just about a single product. We truly believe that the big difference we can make in the market is putting it all together, which is why on our booth we want to show the journey of a job and how it can be properly managed and produced from A to Z.”
At the start of February, EFI announced that it had acquired Xerox’s Free Flow Print Server (FFPS) digital front-end business. Just prior to this announcement the company reported record yearly sales but narrowly missed its $1bn turnover target for 2016.
