As part of EFI Reggiani’s celebration of its 75th anniversary, the textile technology company is launching three new digital textile printers.

EFI Reggiani Senior Vice President and General Manager Adele Genoni says one of the company’s new launches will target a gap in the market.

“We want to help support our customers in their digital transformation,” she says. “One of our three new printers is going to target the industrial high-speed segment of the multi-pass textile printing sector. The new printer will not only be the fastest multi-pass printer that EFI Reggiani has ever developed, but we are also expecting it to be the fastest of its kind in the market.”

EFI Reggiani hopes to strengthen its multi-pass offering by introducing two scanning machines, which were developed to help new customers to take their first steps in industrial textile digital printing.

Will be across EFI’s VUTEk, Wide-Format, Reggiani, Cretaprint, Nozomi and Cubik product lines as of July 1, 2021.

In light of numerous market changes affecting costs for materials, components, chemicals, global freight and logistics, Electronics For Imaging, Inc. (EFI) will be implementing price increases for its inkjet inks, parts and supplies.

EFI will be implementing the price changes – which will apply to inks, supplies and printer parts across EFI’s VUTEk, Wide-Format, Reggiani, Cretaprint, Nozomi and Cubik product lines – as of July 1, 2021.

“Since the beginning of the pandemic, EFI has worked diligently to solidify our supply chains and maintain the best quality and consistency available with all of our inkjet products,” Scott Schinlever, COO, EFI Inkjet. “While we have taken consequential action to contain costs, lingering market challenges have led to a price adjustment needed to ensure continued, uninterrupted supply to our global customer base.

“As always, EFI will effectively and closely manage the many cost and performance factors affecting our inkjet products, ensuring that our customers continue to stay at the forefront of technology using products that provide them exceptional value in terms of quality and total cost of ownership.”

Todd Zimmerman, a longtime graphic arts executive, has joined Electronics for Imaging Inc. as its new vice president and general manager of display graphics.

He comes to EFI from Fujifilm USA, where he spent 15 years in various roles, most recently as division president and corporate VP of Fujifilm Global Graphic Systems. Prior to joining Fujifilm, Zimmerman worked in sales with Kodak Polychrome Graphics.

“Todd brings a wealth of valuable knowledge to a role that is key to EFI’s ongoing success,” says Scott Schinlever, COO, EFI Inkjet. “His experience and management style are significant assets to accelerate an EFI Display Graphics portfolio that offers best-in-class technologies today and will deliver breakthrough technologies in the near future.”

Zimmerman will lead EFI’s largest inkjet business segment, a display graphics business that develops superwide-format UV LED and dye-sublimation inkjet printers and inks.

“EFI has an outstanding portfolio of offerings for the sign and display graphics market, and I am looking forward to helping the company further enhance those offerings,” says Zimmerman. "This is a unique opportunity, and I am happy to be joining a highly talented team that has demonstrated the ability to not only listen to, but also respond quickly to changing market trends and customer feedback."

Digital inkjet roll-to-roll UV LED printers from Electronics For Imaging, Inc. have achieved an important certification for the quality and durability of prints used for décor applications. EFI roll-to-roll UV LED printers have earned a Type II certification for wallcoverings based on The Wallcovering Association W-101 and ASTM F793 standards.

Wallcoverings submitted to gain the certification were printed and tested on the 20 oz. DreamScape line of wallcovering base material from Rockaway, N.J-based Roysons. The Type II certification is an indicator for quality, safety and durability of wallcoverings and, unlike other Type II certifications for digital inkjet printers, EFI’s new certification covers wallcoverings produced without lamination or coating.

“These certifications should assure print service providers that the product they can produce meets all of the critical regulatory aspects of a true commercial wallcovering,” Roy Ritchie, Jr., president of DreamScape. “In addition, EFI customers who print on DreamScape base wallcoverings can enjoy increased efficiency and productivity, since they do not require the additional step of coating or lamination to reach this level of durability. DreamScape has worked closely with EFI for several years and it is easy to recommend their advanced and versatile roll-to-roll machines.”

EFI’s new Type II certification applies to EFI’s extensive portfolio of UV LED roll-to-roll printers – including the EFI Pro 32r+, and VUTEk 3r+/5r+, D3r/D5r, and new Q3r/Q5r printers. The wallcoverings were tested for durability and tear resistance; scrubbability and washability; color fastness; Class A fire retardancy and safety; and more.

Along with the Type II certification, EFI roll-to-roll digital UV LED printers also received the Class A fire rating according to The Wallcovering Association’s evaluation and ASTM E84.

“There has been a rise in popularity for wallcoverings and interior décor applications these last years, which for us is an exciting trend as we offer a wide range of products for that growing market with our roll-to-roll UV LED printers,” Hanan Yosefi, vice president, EFI Inkjet Israel. “This certification proves once again EFI’s approach to delivering the best to the market – giving its customers the ability to produce a wide range of challenging applications with the highest print quality at the lowest cost of production.”

EFI introduces two new printers for the high-end, high productivity soft signage market to help display graphics producers reach new heights in productivity and extend their capabilities.

“EFI, through our Reggiani division, has decades of experience bringing to market the highest quality in fabric printing in the industry.” Scott Schinlever, COO, EFI Inkjet. “These two new printers are specifically designed to meet the most stringent quality and productivity needs in soft signage for companies that want to truly differentiate themselves in a highly competitive marketplace. With their extreme speed and reliability, the EFI POWER and COLORS printers can often replace multiple soft signage printers, producing more premium signage work with a single footprint.”

EFI COLORS 340

Is ideal for many applications: from table throws and pop-up promotional tents to SEG backlits, flags and retail fixtures and can handle different fabrics up to 450 gr/m2.

The EFI CLORS 340 can prints at up to 9,149 square feet per hour (in a four-color x 4 configuration) and for even higher-volume production environments, the EFI POWER 340 prints up to 16,835 square feet per hour.

Using genuine EFI water-based CMYK dispersed dye inks, the printer gives users entrée into an ultra-premium point-of-purchase category for soft signage, producing smoother color transitions and ultra-realistic skin tones.

Available up to 24 printheads, the COLORS 340 offers greater versatility in color capabilities to print in four-color x 2, four-color x 4 or six-color x 4 configurations, as well as an eight-color configuration featuring standard CMYK and light CMK color inks, plus a penetrating agent.

The printer’s 2,400 dots per inch (dpi) resolution with four level grayscale printing and drop sizes from 4 to 18 picoliters can deliver 100% penetration on both sides of the material, making it ideal for the production of national flags. Its precision sticky belt feeding mechanism ensures near-perfect, continuous tone image quality at high speeds with no wrinkle artifacts on a wide range of materials. And with the EFI’s unique continuous ink recirculation system for textile printing improves ink yield, reducing the need to purge while eliminating downtime associated with printhead maintenance.

EFI POWER 340

The EFI POWER 340 digital soft signage printer has most of the capabilities of the COLORS 340 but at a blazingly fast speed of up to 16,835 square feet per hour.

The POWER 340 is also capable of printing direct-to-fabric or onto transfer paper using genuine EFI water-based CMYK dispersed dye inks. And, like the COLORS 340 model, it employs the proven, reliable sticky belt feeding mechanism. The POWER 340 features up to four colors, in either four-color x 4 or four-color x 8 configurations. With its remarkable speeds, users can profit from producing the appropriate quality at the highest speed with a lower total cost of ownership for high-volume demands.

Both printers employ a powerful EFI Fiery® proServer Premium digital front end, which means operators can take advantage of the ultimate in color management, job management, and powerful tools for nesting, step and repeat, scaling, cropping, barcode creation and tiling.

EFi has a new line of medium-range roll-to-roll printers using UV-curable inks: VUTEk D3r and VUTEk D5r LED printers. These new line of VUTEk printers have many similar capabilities as the VUTEk 3r+ and 5r+ printers but for mid-volume printing runs.

“The ‘D’ in the name for these new printers is for ‘Design,’ and they are absolutely designed to offer the right mix of features, productivity and cost to create new opportunities for signage and graphics professionals,” said Ken Hanulec, EFI’s vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “We listened very closely to our customers for feedback to create a mid-volume solution that will be the technology of choice for print providers seeking to profitably grow their businesses with high-end applications.”

Both the EFI VUTEk D3r and D5r printers use LED-curing, which translates into more benefits:

• low energy wastage
• lower operating costs
• more sustainable and environmentally friendly
• ability to print onto thin heat sensitive substrates
• Increases uptime and productivity with instant on/off and less maintenance
• low VOCs

Two types of UV-curable inks are compatible with the VUTEk D series printers: the efi 3M SuperRange XF inks and the SuperFlex inks for car wrapping and fleet graphics. So you get a choice of ink depending on what you need to print.

One of the features worth mentioning for the VUTEk D3r and D5r printers is the Museum print mode with ultra-high definition and photographic quality at a resolution of up to 1,200 dpi.

Some of the suggested applications for the VUTEk D models are:

• indoor closely-viewed graphics,
• wall decorations and murals,
• window graphics, flooring,
• high-value prints with selective gloss effects,
• fleet graphics,
• car wraps,
• truck-side curtains, etc.

Just like with many printers you can customize them to adjust to your specific needs, you can choose from:

• Software productivity pack and are able to remotely connect with the printers using a mobile application
• White and clear ink
• Inline x-cutters and y-slitters
• Automatic backlit and block-out printing
• Media spreaders and motorized winders

Specifications

We had to opportunity to see the VUTEk D3r printer in action at EFI manufacturing plant in Israel; you can see the quality samples produced with this printer.