JMC Signmakers in Holland is the first European user of the EFI VUTEk GS3250LX with LED UV curing. This is greener and also extends the range of media available.
Europe’s first EFI VUTEk GS3250LX wide format UV inkjet is up and running at JMC Signmakers in Bruinisse, close to the Dutch coast between Antwerp and Rotterdam. This new machine is a 3.2 metre wide roll/sheet fed hybrid model that is the first in the VUTEk stable to adopt LED curing lamps instead of mercury vapour lamps.
LEDs last longer, cost less to replace, use less power, need little maintenance and also run very cool. Yet LED equipped VUTEks cost only marginally more than their mercury lamp equivalents, and print at the same speed.
JMC Signmakers may be a relatively small company, but it handles almost every type of indoor and outdoor large format work you can think of, including signs, vehicle wraps banners, flags, billboards, rollups, popups, sandwich boards and dump bins. It was set up in 1991 as a full service agency, later moving into signage. Since 2008 it has also offered indoor signage.
Its customers tend to be small businesses, almost all in the Netherlands and JMC offers them a competitively priced service for one-offs where needed. Cees Bolijn is the managing director, and his brother Martijn also works at the company.
More capacity, capability
Its new GS3250LX replaces an earlier EFI VUTEk QS220 2 metre inkjet and expands JMC’s capacity as well as its capabilities. About 80% of the work is printed at 600 dpi, 15% at 1000 dpi and 5% in Fast-4 (2 x CMYK), Cees Bolijn explains. The jobs are about 60% on rigid sheets and the rest roll fed.
JMC also runs a Roland inkjet and a pair of Mimakis: a JV-5 solvent printer and a JV-33 running dye sublimation inks for textiles.
‘We did consider other UV printers, but the more environmentally friendly GS3250LX is in line with the way we run our business,’ says Mr Bolijn. ‘It’s more expensive than some, but the possibilities are much greater.’
He adds that the decision to go for the LED curing version of the GS range was environmental, but ‘followed closely by printing on heat-sensitive media.’ Thin plastics often can’t withstand the heat of mercury lamps, so sign makers have to use thicker materials than are actually required by the job specification. LEDs let them use thinner materials, which cost less to buy, less to transport and can be easier to handle. Everybody wins.
Jamie Dolpies, product manager for the VUTEk range, explains that the LEDs even help when printing on card sheets. ‘Some board will warp if it has high moisture and you hit it with heat. This can cause head crashes, so you need to acclimatise the board before you use it. A continuous board feed is optional with the GS range and standard on the GS3250LX. With LEDs we can run it 20 to 30% faster.’
As LEDs emit a different wavelength band to mercury lamps, the inks had to be changed. However this has also led to an improvement: ‘We’ve increased the inks’ colour gamut by 10 or 11% over a standard GS and they are more flexible,’ says Ms Dolpies. They are even suitable for backlit thermoform plastic, a new application, she says. ‘The special inks perform very well,’ Mr Bolijn confirms. ‘Adhesion is good, as well as flexibility.’
‘With mercury lamps you might see three to eight replacements per year depending on usage,’ says Ms Dolpies. ‘Then there’s the downtime and the issue of safe disposal of the lamps, which contain toxic mercury. We don’t expect LEDs to fail in the lifetime of the machine.
‘They also show a 30% decrease on power usage, as the lamps are responsible for about half the consumption of the whole printer, so it’s a significant saving.’
‘The GS3250LX is very important to us,’ Mr Bolijn concludes. ‘The print quality is superb at high speed. We can deliver more work in less time. We are opening up new markets, especially in the mid volume, indoor, high quality markets, where there is higher margin. We’re pleased with the service EFI provides and we’re confident this printer is the best choice for our type of company.’
What’s an EFI VUTEk GS3250LX?
EFI announced the VUTEk GS3250LX last year as an addition to its GS family of printers, first launched in 2009. These are fast enough to replace screen printing, but with high quality settings for jobs intended for close-up viewing. They are available in 2.0, 3.2 and 5.0 metre widths, but LEDs are only available on the 3.2 metre hybrid version so far.
The GS3250LX is a hybrid printer, able to handle rollfed or media or rigid sheets, including several separate sheets side by side. It has ten ink channels for eight colours plus two x white or alternatively two x CMYK plus two x white for higher speeds.
The throughput is up to 26 m2 per hour in top quality 1000 dpi mode with image smoothing, or up to 233 m2 per hour in 600 dpi Fast-5 mode (CMYK plus 2x white, with no smoothing).
Contact: www.efi.com
