Consumables

Flexible, New Ink Formulation from EFI Creates Soft Signage Success for Orbus Exhibit & Display Group

Friday 24. October 2014 - EFI announced that Orbus Exhibit & Display Group has developed faster, high-quality fabric-printing capabilities for the growing "soft signage" market using a newly purchased EFI VUTEk GS3250lxr Pro LED printer running SuperFlex Ink from EFI and 3M.

The productivity and unique capabilities the Woodridge, Illinois, US-based company gains with its 3.2m, roll-to-roll VUTEk GS3250lxr Pro LED printer and SuperFlex inks provide a distinct advantage. Orbus, which already uses traditional UV and dye-sub inkjet printers, is a leading provider of tradeshow products and graphics. But, UV inkjet inks are not flexible enough for fabric-printed soft signage designed to be folded and stored for re-use, and the company’s dye-sub printers present throughput capacity challenges. The new VUTEk printer and ink have helped Orbus meet increased demand for high-quality, reusable, backlit fabric applications.
Opening new avenues in the soft signage market
“Soft signage is an important part of Orbus’s offering in the tradeshow industry, and with the new VUTEk printer and inks, we are able to replace an older, dye-sub printer with a faster, high-quality system,” said Jamie Herand, vice president of graphic operations for the Orbus Exhibit & Display Group. “SuperFlex Ink opens new avenues for us in soft signage. It gives us more vibrant colour and it doesn’t crack the way traditional UV inks do.”
“The R&D investment EFI has made, working with 3M, to develop a superior, highly flexible ink, brings our industry-leading LED inkjet technology into new applications that make our customers more profitable and more productive,” said Frank Mallozzi, EFI’s senior vice president of worldwide sales and marketing. “Orbus, one of the country’s leading providers of exhibit display graphics, is moving the industry forward with this application of new, superwide-format inkjet print technology.”
Available for EFI’s 3.2m VUTEk GS3250lxr Pro LED and 5m VUTEk GS5500lxr Pro LED roll-to-roll inkjet printers, SuperFlex Ink provides an extended colour gamut and can withstand greater than 150% elongation. The ink is ideal for fabric-printed soft signage, vehicle wraps, outdoor graphics and other applications requiring exceptional flexibility and durability. EFI “cool cure” LED technology on Orbus’s new printer cures ink at a lower temperature than other curing or drying methods, giving Orbus the ability to print on fabrics, films and other flexible media that cannot withstand high heat.
With close to 400 of its “cool cure” printers installed worldwide, EFI is the industry leader in industrial inkjet LED, a greener, energy-efficient technology that can reduce users’ environmental footprint while reducing costs. Energy assessments carried out by industry association Fogra have shown that EFI’s VUTEk superwide-format printers with LED curing can reduce energy consumption by up to 82% when compared with devices that use conventional mercury arc lamps.