EFI Displays Digital Print Transformation in Dallas

Print service providers (PSPs) visiting SGIA’s PRINTING United trade show have a broader-than-ever range of advanced, profit-enhancing products to see with the dynamic selection of solutions available from Electronics For Imaging Inc. EFI’s exhibit in booth 8233 features the new VUTEk® 32h LED inkjet hybrid flatbed/roll-to-roll printer — winner of a 2019 SGIA Product of the Year award for its high-quality imaging. EFI’s exhibit also features the company’s breakthrough, premium-class hybrid offering, the VUTEk h5 LED printer. Show attendees can also view a new EFI Fiery® digital front end (DFE) software platform — Fiery FS400 Pro — that will elevate the industry’s leading print server technology to new, unparalleled heights, driving premium-quality print productivity on new digital presses from leading manufacturers.
 
“Visitors to the EFI booth at PRINTING United will be able to experience what makes EFI different as a technology innovator and partner — our comprehensive, end-to-end ecosystem of advanced, integrated solutions for display graphics, commercial and industrial production keeps our customers at the forefront of technology,” said EFI Chairman and CEO Jeff Jacobson. “Our conversations with new and existing customers this week will focus on their needs for solutions that let them profit in a digital print transformation that defines and accelerates their future success.”
 
New technology with superior performance and quality
 
The solutions on display are part of a broad portfolio of advanced and award-winning products that help PSPs drive efficiency, build margin and adopt new production applications to capture print’s continued analog-to-digital transformation. For customers like Steve Zwicker, owner of Big Daddy’s Signs in Laconia, N.H., EFI offerings such as the VUTEk 32h model launching at PRINTING United deliver high value and outstanding quality.
 
“The VUTEk 32h is my fourth VUTEk printer, and I couldn’t be happier with the way it performs,” Zwicker said. “Its 7-picoliter drop size produces a very sharp print, plus it has a very good vacuum table that ensures we can run jobs like aluminum and magnetic signs without issues.”
 
Additional offerings in EFI’s PRINTING United booth include:
 
—EFI IQ™ – a new, comprehensive, cloud-based management platform that tracks and monitors printer utilization as well as ink and substrate usage, giving PSPs even more capabilities to optimize their operations.
 
—EFI ColorGuard – a new, EFI IQ cloud product that earned a 2019 SGIA Product of the Year Award in the software-color enhancement category. Shown for the first time at PRINTING United, ColorGuard standardizes the verification process to ensure consistent, accurate color on Fiery Driven™ digital printers.
 
—New Fiery FreeForm™ Create, an award-winning, free variable-data printing application that enables quick and simple personalization in an intuitive interface, with the ability to add variable elements such as text, images and barcodes to PDFs with just a few clicks.
 
—The latest version of EFI Fiery Color Profiler Suite software with new, next-generation EFI Fiery Edge™ color profiling technology delivering even better out-of-the-box print quality and additional controls to boost color output.
 
—The EFI Midmarket Print Productivity Suite MIS/ERP business and production workflow — a comprehensive, data-driven offering that provides end-to-end solutions to address display graphics and commercial print providers’ unique needs while giving them critical control and visibility of their business. Customers can further their productivity — eliminating touchpoints, increasing efficiencies and ultimately increasing margins — with a single-vendor workflow handling e-commerce, campaign management, business intelligence, estimating, scheduling, shop-floor data collection, fulfillment, shipping and more.
 
—The EFI VUTEk 3r+, a best-in-class LED roll-to-roll printer offering even higher throughput, image quality and efficiency with a host of productivity-enhancing options that help users maximize their new business opportunities.
 
—Award-winning, direct print, deep-draw thermoforming technology with the EFI H1625-SD printer producing specialized display applications.
 
—The EFI VUTEk FabriVU® 340i – an aqueous dispersed dye-sublimation soft-signage textile printer with in-line calendering at fast production speeds.
 
PSPs’ profitable steps in high-end production display graphics
 
The VUTEk 32h, EFI’s new hybrid printer, is a versatile, 126-inch wide LED inkjet device that is ideal for PSPs moving into superwide-format production. The 32h model — winner of the 2019 SGIA Product of the Year Award in the UV hybrid $100,000 to $500,000 category — delivers premium-quality imaging with 7-picoliter UltraDrop™ Technology, eight colors plus white, multilayer printing and an included EFI Fiery proServer Premium DFE.
 
Display graphics PSPs moving further into higher-volume, premium-quality applications have found success with EFI’s next-generation hybrid printer technology, the award-winning EFI VUTEk h series. The h series features 7-picoliter UltraDrop Technology with precision dot placement and consistency, as well as an up-to-9-layer print capability. VUTEk h series printers are available with an X4 Technology option — a breakthrough in production printing that delivers high-quality graphics in a CMYK x 2 configuration. With X4, users can produce up to 74 - 4-by-8-foot boards per hour on the EFI VUTEk h3 model printer. The h3 is field upgradable to the faster VUTEk h5 model on display at PRINTING United — a true display graphics workhorse capable of printing up to 109 boards per hour in X4 mode.
 
EFI partners Nazdar SourceOne® (booth 8627) and Ricoh® (booth 7001) are featuring EFI inkjet solutions at the show as well. The two companies are authorized distributors for EFI wide-format printers and they are both featuring the EFI Pro 16h, a highly versatile, 65-inch wide production-level LED inkjet hybrid printer offering high-quality and energy-efficient LED imaging, complete with an included EFI Fiery proServer DFE for fast RIPing and streamlined production and color management.
 
Another EFI partner, ITNH Inc. (booth 8852), is displaying the EFI Pro 24f, a dedicated flatbed LED inkjet wide-format printer delivering high-quality, variable-drop grayscale imaging for applications requiring discerning image quality and absolute dot placement accuracy. The printer, which also includes a Fiery proServer DFE, is a highly strategic choice for signage, photographic backlit displays, art reproductions, membrane switches, graphic overlays, lenticular prints and other specialty applications.
 
Best-in-class DFE technology with the launch of Fiery FS400 Pro
 
The new EFI Fiery FS400 Pro DFE technology launching at PRINTING United is being shown in the EFI booth and at the Konica Minolta booth (9536), where it is driving a new Konica Minolta digital press. Fiery FS400 Pro enables increased productivity and higher automation for demanding digital print production operations. It also includes Fiery Edge profiles for unparalleled, high-end color performance.
 
Fiery FS400 Pro offers numerous new features and upgrades, including Fiery JobExpert — an in-RIP technology to dynamically analyze incoming PDF files and optimally process jobs, giving users superior image and color quality while reducing production time. A new Fiery Health Monitor aids users in keeping their DFE running in its most efficient condition at all times. New technology available with FS400 Pro also includes Fiery Spot Pro, a feature that offers brand color matching with higher precision from design to print.
 
The latest version of EFI Fiery JobFlow™ software in EFI’s booth gives users the power to build intelligent, automated workflows for job entry, impositioning, routing, preflighting and more — advantages that led to JobFlow being named the 2019 SGIA Product of the Year for workflow/MIS/CRM products.
 
EFI Fiery solutions are some of the most prevalent products at PRINTING United, present not only in EFI’s booth but in the exhibits of numerous additional EFI partners, including Epson (booth 5610), IT Supplies (booth 6020), OKI® (booth 8011), Ricoh (booth 7001), Riso (booth 10935) and Xerox® (booth 12345). Plus, finishing equipment suppliers Duplo® (booth 8408), Graphic Whizard (booth 8207), MBM® (booth 10355) and Plockmatic® (booth 10930) are all featuring new end-to-end integrations for Fiery Driven printers that deliver automated finishing setup on slitter/cutter/creaser equipment.