Electronics For Imaging, Inc. today reported that Beerse, Belgium-based Dacar Digital Printing has installed the 100th superwide-format LED roll-to-roll printer in the EFI VUTEk 3r/5r LED roll-to-roll superwide-format line.
Dacar chose a new 5-metre-wide VUTEk 5r model printer because of features that help boost users' commercial success while reducing costs, such as low energy consumption, high resolution and speed, and its value-added accessories.
Dacar Digital Printing plans to use their new printer for advertising material, such as Airtex, frontlit, backlit, mesh and blockout banners, as well as - to some extent - self-adhesive and paper media.
Dacar Digital Printing was founded in 2004 as a Belgian, family-owned business that is active in the signage and display market, covering Benelux, northern France and western Germany. They deliver full printing services to graphics professionals, sign makers, printers, photographers, marketing departments, and event and advertising firms. It acquired the Dutch "Si'Bon" quality label in 2009 and has been re-certified ever since by this branch organisation for purchasers of signage and other tangible advertising products.
"With our market for very large banner printing steadily growing, we decided to add a 5-metre roll-to-roll printer to our existing equipment," said Fons van der Lingen, CEO and founder of Dacar Digital Printing. "After comparing the machines available in this segment, the EFI VUTEk 5r seemed like a winner to us. It comes with a competitive ink price per square metre and there's very little loss of material when loading new media. In addition, as the EFI VUTEk 5r uses the same high-resolution print heads as some of our other equipment we can use the same RIP and workflow solution for all of them. This guarantees the same look-and-feel of the output to our customers across different machines."
Sustainable, integrated, and consistent
Other reasons why Dacar Digital Printing purchased the EFI VUTEk 5r include the LED curing technology for lower energy consumption, the machine's high performance and 1,200-dpi resolution and 7-picolitre grayscale print capability, and the availability of unique features and accessories that add real value, such as multiple-roll printing, and options including a 5-metre XY-cutter and inline finishing system for printing, slitting and collecting.
"While we were particularly enamoured of its high-res, high-speed print heads, we also loved the open architecture of both machine and software that allows the printer to be integrated easily in an existing workflow," said van der Lingen.
After six weeks, Dacar Digital Printing has praise only for the EFI VUTEk 5r. "It has been purring like a giant cat. Print quality has been consistent and stable from dawn to dusk and media transit, even across greater lengths, is very precise," according to van der Lingen.
