The manufacturer has brought a raft of products that are making their European debut, alongside a worldwide launch in soft signage.
“It’s a little crowded on our booth, but that’s a nice problem to have,” quipped Scott Schinlever, EFI senior vice-president and general manager of inkjet solutions.
“We are staying focused on those areas of print that are still growing, where there’s a strong transition from analogue to digital,” he added.
Fespa Digital marks the worldwide launch of the Vutek FabriVu printers for soft signage, which are based on devices made by Reggiani, which EFI acquired in July 2015 at the same time as it bought Matan.
The FabriVu is available in 1.8m and 3.4m wide versions and has a 4-18pl drop size for fine detail. “Users can print direct to textile and sublimate, or print to transfer paper and sublimate to the textile afterwards. They can do it either way with this printer,” Schinlever said.
A Reggiani ReNoir Next 1.8m printer for fabrics and papers is also running on the booth.
EFI has brought its fastest Vutek yet to the exhibition, with the Vutek HS125 Pro having its European debut at Fespa. The hybrid roll-to-roll or rigid board UV printer has a 3.2m width and can produce up to 125 boards an hour.
“Its speed is taking this machine into new markets, such as corrugated displays and folding cartons,” Schinlever said.
Also on show for the first time in Europe is the Vutek LX3 Pro hybrid roll or flatbed printer, a 3.2m wide device that runs at up to 318m2/hr and is targeted at POS applications.
Elsewhere, EFI is pitching its Matan Quantum LXr 3.5m-wide roll-to-roll printer as a “superior alternative to latex” using LED and with a “true” 1,200dpi resolution. It prints in four colours plus white.
“It handles jumbo rolls with inline slitting so users can produce a lot of different things with it. Matan really studied the potential applications and brought a lot of workflow to this printer,” Schinlever explained.
EFI said the Quantum LXr had the lowest cost of ownership in its class.
The manufacturer has also entered the thermoforming market with the EFI H1625 SD, a 1.65m-wide UV printer that uses EFI SuperDraw ink. It is described as producing “near-photographic imaging” and prints four-colours plus white as standard.
Schinlever said that EFI’s ink technology had proved a breakthrough. “UV ink usually cracks, or the colour dissipates [when thermoformed],” he explained. “Our ink doesn’t crack and our software adjusts the colour for areas that will be contour shaped to compensate for stretch.
“Thermoforming wasn’t on our radar before because our ink technology couldn’t serve it. Now we have the ink technology, we’re expecting growth,” he added.
Also on the booth is a new solution for the traffic safety signage market. The 1.6m wide H1625 RS combines EFI print technology with special inks and reflective media from 3M, and uses traffic specification CMYKRB colours.
