New, UV-curable inkjet printer brings higher profits and faster turnaround times at Eureka! Signs
EFI™ today announced that El Paso, Texas-based Eureka! Signs has installed an EFI VUTEk GS3250 Pro UV flatbed/roll printer. The company - one of the largest U.S. manufacturers of awnings used in the retail industry - has expanded its graphics capabilities with the new, 3.2-meter wide printer to meet growing demand.
Adding high-end print capabilities is one of the last links for the company to establish a complete, in-house manufacturing operation for full-colour, custom-printed awnings. Prior to the recent printer installation, Eureka! Signs outsourced printing work required for awnings, which added time and cost to the process.
"Our capabilities have changed dramatically with the VUTEk GS3250 Pro printer," said Ernie Koury, Eureka! Signs' founder and president. "While many companies in this industry require 9-12 weeks to produce a printed awning, we can complete an entire awning in a matter of days."
Addressing new market opportunities with high-end UV inkjet printing
Koury knew the VUTEk® GS3250 Pro would suit his company's needs exactly. "One of our largest clients requires 3M™ MCS™ Warranty certification for his awnings, and I knew EFI had the printer and ink capabilities to produce that type of work," Koury said of his purchase decision. "It was an important factor in jobs we were outsourcing, but now we have brought those capabilities in house, and it has created significant savings on the current volume of work we produce."
Now, Eureka! Signs meets its clients' 3M™ MCS™ Warranty requirements internally, using the new printer to produce customer jobs on 3M media with EFI VUTEk GS 3M™ Premium UV Ink. Because of the existing demand he has for printed awnings, Koury said the printer purchase was a no-risk investment. Plus, the VUTEk GS3250 Pro printer helps him capture new opportunities.
Perhaps most significant of all, the new printer gives Eureka! Signs an opportunity to add more local graphics-printing opportunities to the national account awning work it provides. Eureka! Signs is already earning new print work from customers in El Paso and nearby Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, because it is one of the few businesses in the region offering the level of high-end, UV-inkjet superwide-format printing the VUTEk GS3250 Pro provides.
The EFI VUTEk GS3250 Pro: efficient, cost effective and high quality
Eureka! Signs' VUTEk GS3250 Pro prints in eight colours, plus white ink, and offers exceptional image quality in resolutions up to 1,000 dots per inch. The printer's unique, three-layer whitecapabilities provide the added benefit of superior imaging on backlit displays and other high-impact signage applications.
Designed to produce a wide variety of graphics on both rigid and roll media, the VUTEk GS3250 Pro printer runs at speeds up to 2,400 ft2/hour. An advanced, variable-dot grayscale feature on the printer helps extend users' reach into more lucrative, higher-volume jobs at a lower total cost of ownership. An EFI Fiery® proServer Eureka! Signs installed with the printer simplifies job management and reduces turnaround times with default media profiles, comprehensive colour management tools and parallel-processing features for faster RIPing.
"Every so often I come across VUTEk users who really make a splash because they have mastered the skills needed to provide the very best answers to their clients' needs," said Frank Mallozzi, senior vice president, worldwide sales and marketing, EFI. "I think that is why Eureka! Signs is having such success with its EFI VUTEk GS3250 Pro printer investment. The printer is the ideal option because it provides a combination of productivity and premium-quality output that Ernie Koury's team can leverage to build market share, reduce costs and to profitably win new clients."
EFI will showcase VUTEk printing technologies at the upcoming ISA International Sign Expo in Orlando, Florida, USA, 24-26 April in stand 1812.
