The following article was originally published by Wide-format Impressions. To read more of their content, subscribe to their newsletter, Wide-Format Impressions.
The EFI (Booth 1501) Pro 16h wide-format hybrid roll/flatbed LED printer on display in the EFI booth has received a SGIA 2017 Product of the Year Award in the UV Hybrid ($100–$500K) category. The 65-inch-wide printer sets a new, affordable entry point for hybrid roll/flatbed production printing. This new Fiery Driven printer includes white ink and is designed with a robust package of features to assure the lowest total cost of ownership, superior image quality and a broad range of applications. This new printer platform has faster speeds as well, with some print modes offering up to 30 percent greater throughput compared with other EFI entry-level hybrid production platforms.
The printer’s “cool cure” LED imaging capabilities extends users’ range of supported substrates, including lower cost and added-value specialty media. It also increases uptime and productivity with instant on/off lamps and less maintenance.
Users also benefit from reduced operating costs with less energy consumption and fewer consumable parts. And LED imaging on the EFI Pro 16h reduces waste with consistent color output and simple operation.
EFI Pro 16h user Chris Root of Livermore, CA-based Evron Graphics benefits from the printer’s reduced energy usage.
“We can run the printer 10 to 12 hours per day,” he says, “and it uses about half the power of previous generations. That’s a huge savings in energy costs over the lifetime of the printer.”
All of Evron Graphics’ printers have used EFI Fiery digital front ends, but the company’s newest addition has the added advantage of an embedded EFI Fiery proServer for even faster RIPing. “Fiery has been a good, user-friendly solution,” Root says. “It has excellent color management built in and is a powerful solution for color matching, layouts and impositions.”