Artworks Solutions is a company that has expanded from its original signage roots into the manufacture of custom products, mainly for interior design and exterior signage.

Today about 40 to 50% of its activities involves digital printing at some stage. This is mostly handled on a pair of large-format UV inkjets, one of which is a latest-generation EFI Vutek GS3250LX Pro, a 3.2m width hybrid printer that can either print roll-to-roll or onto rigid sheets. It can print eight colours plus white ink. The LX Pro designation means that it uses LED curing lamps. Artworks Solutions’ model has the optional UltraDrop greyscale technology for increased image quality.

“The company was set up in 1997,” says director John Sulzmann. “We were originally called Sign Solutions, but changed it to Artworks Solutions because we were moving away from signage into more specialist areas.”

Describing exactly what the company does is a little difficult, he says, as it fits into several categories at once.

“A number of years ago, I remember paying a PR company £1,000 to summarise what Artworks did – in a nutshell, so to speak. Our positioning statement as they called it came back as follows: ‘Artworks is a multi-disciplined design-led manufacturer of corporate branding products and services, digitally printed bespoke graphics and decorative finishes for the workplace.’

“It wasn’t quite the snappy abbreviation we had hoped for but at least it did tell people what we did: basically, we have a lot of equipment that enables us to produce a wide range of bespoke products.”

Artworks Solutions’ breaks down its services with descriptive names, including PinArt (custom noticeboards that may be printed and cut to special shapes), ScreenArt (flexible partitions), DryWipeArt (custom magnetic whiteboards), StorewallArt (a two-part printed PVC solution for cladding storage walls, folding walls, as well as cupboards), LaminArt (a combination of CNC-texturing and film lamination onto wall coverings or signs), GlassArt (printed glass for anything from splash-backs to wall cladding, tables and even TV surrounds) and ImageArt (custom framing of printed items on aluminium composite panels, other metals, glass, canvas, acrylic and veneered MDF).

The company also does a lot of wall coverings and glass partition graphics (which the architectural world calls manifestation). “Most of our manifestations these days are printed onto optically clear polyester film,” says Sulzmann. “With a mixture of black and white ink, we can simulate different opacities of the classic sandblasted look very well.”

“Our facilities and equipment have been developed to meet the needs of today’s interior designers. Some of the facilities and services we offer include; metal, acrylic and wood fabrication, 3D CNC machinery, as well as specialist 3D laminating, a paint finishing facility as well as roll-to-roll and flatbed digital printing. It’s this that makes us popular with interior designers.”

Based in the Bedminster area of Bristol, Artworks Solutions operates from three sites and also has a London office. “Today, we employ a team of around 60 staff, including eight designers,” Sulzmann says. “We take lots of media through lots of processes, one of them being printing, though not all are printed. For instance sometimes we may be making a joinery item, say, a table with a glass top. So we’ll print the top and add the joinery item beneath it. We’ll fabricate things out of acrylic, but that may involve a partially printed item.

“With the various printers we own today, we can print on just about anything – virtually any size and any material. We print on acoustic boards, metals, wood, acrylics, uneven surfaces. We still print wallpaper, plus a lot of printing onto glass, and we’ll print onto fabrics that we stretch onto systems. We are the distributor of an American product called Novawall, which is a fabric-framing system for walls.”

Over the years Artworks Solutions has used several generations of large-format inkjet, with eco-solvent, aqueous and UV inks.

The current EFI Vutek GS3250LX Pro is actually the company’s third UV-cured Vutek in a row, all of which have been supplied by CMYUK, the EFI Vutek sole UK distributor. It started nine years ago with a 3.2m QS model, which on launch was the first large-format UV inkjet to offer high image quality printing. This was replaced by a faster GS3250, that was in turn replaced by the current GS3250LX Pro, which introduced LED curing and greyscale tech.

“When we first had the QS I said it was like a Mercedes,” says Sulzmann.

“You filled it up and it just kept going. It was solid, you could run two or three shifts a day.”
By the time Artworks Systems needed more capacity, EFI had announced the faster GS models, in 3.2m hybrid and 5.0m roll-fed only formats.

“We had a couple of options then,” says Sulzmann. “We could have gone for a second QS, or the GS, which was much quicker and the quality was better. We went for the GS as we didn’t have the space for another QS. Unfortunately with a single printer you have got all your eggs in one basket and we did have some problems with that GS3250.”

Nevertheless, a couple of years later Artworks Solutions was willing to give the later LX Pro LED curing model a go. This went in during Q3 2015. “We had a history with EFI Vutek and we wanted to give them another chance,” explains Sulzmann. “We had the LED version demoed to us and it seemed a lot more stable, probably because of the lack of heat from the lamps. This machine has worked like a dream.”

Robin East at CMYUK comments: “With the GS3250LX, Artworks Solutions initiated new disciplines in operation and maintenance, from installation. Alan Moran has done a very good job internally in ensuring the operators’ daily maintenance on the printer is sustained at a high standard. With all printers this has a very significant effect on the quality and reliability of the press. The applications produced by Artworks Solutions on the Vutek UV platform are some of the most impressive, innovative large-format prints I have seen. They have been a great customer for nearly a decade.”

Sulzmann is just as fulsome in his praise for EFI and CMYUK.

“EFI’s service package is very good, but so it should be when you spend £20-odd thousand a year on it! We haven’t had to call them out much to the LX, it’s been very good. We have had the odd problem with it, though, such as when the belt kept drifting. Now they have put a self-levelling piece of equipment on to counter that, so it is good now.”

Pluses and minuses? “For the pluses, there’s the speed and the Ultradrop technology that gives really good quality. There are not many minuses.”

The Vutek is versatile in its ability to print on either roll-fed flexible media, or rigid sheets supported front and back by removable roller tables. Sulzmann says that with the Vutek being a hybrid means there is something of a compromise, especially with rigid media. “That’s why we decided to buy a true flatbed. But that’s another story!” He doesn’t yet want to talk publicly about the flatbed, which is a new model and not from EFI.

Apart from its pair of UV printers, Artworks Solutions still has a couple of other wide-format roll-fed models, a Mimaki JV33 eco solvent model and an aqueous ink Canon iPF9000S. “We don’t tend to use those any more, which is a story in itself,” Sulzmann says. “The UV machines can comfortably print 1,000dpi, and there’s nothing much we produce that needs higher quality. You’d think with a name like ours working in the design sector you’d need super quality. But what these UV machines can produce is more than acceptable.”

SPECIFICATIONS
Throughput From 26m2/hr to 223m2/hr depending upon quality mode
Ink type UV-LED curing for indoor and outdoor applications
Colours Six plus white
Maximum resolution 1,000dpi
Drop size Variable from 7pl
Maximum print width 3,200mm
Twin roll facility 2x1,524mm side by side.
Maximum sheet thickness 0.8mm
Front end EFI Fiery XF with ProServer
Dimensions 6,300x1,600x1,676mm (WxDxH)
Price About £370,000 for this spec
Contact CMYUK 0118 989 2929 www.cmyuk.com

COMPANY PROFILE
Artworks Solutions was set up in 1997 as Sign Solutions. The company changed its name to emphasise its expansion into applications other than signage: today it makes custom products for architectural use plus interior design as well as interior and exterior signage. About 40% of Artworks’s products are printed by its high-speed, high-quality UV inkjets. White inkis particularly useful for glass films and custom whiteboards. The company has three sites in the Bristol area and employs about 60 people.

What has it brought to the company…
Installing the Vutek models has helped boost turnover, says Sulzmann. “We saw a big jump in growth of 67% upon introduction of our first QS and it’s been steady since then at around 15% year-on-year.”
As the third generation of EFI Vutek technology at Artworks Solutions, the GS3250LX Pro brings a combination of speed, quality and media flexibility. The LED curing lamps of the current LX Pro model run very cool compared to the previous model’s hot mercury vapour lamps. This broadens the range of media that can be printed.
Sulzmann also praises the quality boost brought by the EFI UltraDrop greyscale technology. This produces variable drop sizes down to 7 picolitres, which is very fine for such a large and fast UV printer.