Simultaneous installations of a GS5500lxr and a GS3250lx mean both should be operational at the Manchester site from today (9 March). The £850,000 investment also included a Kongsberg C64 digital cutter.
The company bought the GS5500lxr Pro 5m roll-to-roll LED-curing machine to head up its super-wide-format production.
Meanwhile, the purchase of the GS3250lx Pro 3.2m wide-format flatbed and roll-fed LED-curing printer follows the acquisition of a similar machine last March.
The GS5500lxr features a heavy-duty winder/unwinder to handle bulkier materials, such as the durable floor graphics, with which SuperWide is hoping to make bigger inroads.
The company also produces vehicle graphics, banners, soft signage and digital wallpaper and offers design, artwork checking, print production and finishing.
SuperWide, which hopes to more than double its turnover by 2016, first saw the 5m roll-to-roll Vutek with UltraDrop technology four months ago.
The printer's up-time and the flexibility of EFI's 3M-cobranded SuperFlex UV ink combine with its seven picolitre printheads to blend strong performance with good quality and low operating costs.
“Our company prints a huge variety of display work for thousands of customers around the UK,” said business development manager Luke Drogan.
“There's no fall-back for us, so we need to have the right equipment to meet customers' expectations and their deadlines, time after time.
“The reliability of the Vutek machines and EFI's accessible approach gave us confidence that this was the right choice for SuperWide.”
He added: “We originally invested in last year's machine to improve resolution on direct-to-board materials but didn't realise how flexible the Vutek was. We do a lot of flooring work on the kit.
“This is a great industry to work in: all this technology coming in means we can do new things, which makes right now a really exciting time.
“It's been a hard few years for most in the industry but by continuing to invest in 2008 we have put ourselves where we are now – a very busy state. Despite the recession we have never stood still.”
EFI general manager for EMEA Paul Cripps said: “When you're producing work for your customers' customers, there's very little margin for error.”
