News

Dallas-based Gigantic Color opts for EFI VUTEk

News by

Dallas-based Gigantic Color has acquired and installed a EFI VUTEk GS5000r to meet growing demand for its larger format POP, banners and billboards business.

In an interview with PrintWeek, Gigantic Color owner John Bowers Sr. said the five-meter roll-to-roll UV printer had replaced an HP Turbo.

He added: "We’ve always had this type of equipment. We do a lot of POP work, we do a lot of vehicle graphics and we’re running ahead of last year, so we’re not complaining about business."

Gigantic Color is the 500th installation for EFI’s GS series of VUTEk. In an interview with PrintWeek EFI Inkjet Solutions general manager and senior vice president Scott Schinlever said: "The GS5000r’s very high resolution print quality, vibrant colors and multi-layer white ink capability are driving strong adoption around the world. This has enabled the GS5000r to address many higher quality segments of print output that couldn’t be done with a five-meter printer in the past. While many customers use the 5-meter size more for multi-roll capability, we see others using the printer to print very high quality full-width output up to 5 meters wide."

Schinlever noted that EFI’s business has been good in North America, but cautioned that there remained plenty of economic uncertainty.

He continued: "However, many commercial printers are bucking this trend and investing in higher-speed production wide format digital. As this happens, they are also investing in productivity workflow solutions to support more of a short-run manufacturing approach to their businesses to drive highest efficiency."

He added that many customers were bringing in EFI’s GS line to replace analog technology. "What we are seeing is much more substitution of medium to long runs done on screen print and offset versus just augmentation printing short runs," he explaining. "The print quality and productivity of the GS has strongly enabled this

Bowers said the GS5000r was installed several weeks ago, and added that his staff had been quickly trained on the new press.

He noted that the new press would enable Gigantic Color to offer not only higher resolution images and multi-layer white ink printing, but also develop new applications such as printing onto rolled styrene."

Bower noted that about 50% of his business was in Texas, with the remainder being national accounts. "We do a lot of big sporting events: Super Bowl, NBA All-Star Weekend, stadiums," he said.