"The Meital 304D was developed as a digital alternative to both screen printing and Flexo printing in medium to long runs," MTL Business Development VP Itay Shalit explained to PrintWeek.

"This by nature directed us to the packaging and signage market. We gauged the water in the last year with US players in these fields and found our initial thoughts to be correct - the Meital 304D does offer the alternative. This, together with the positive economic signs in the US makes us optimistic about the fit to the market here."

MTL Print spent this week showcasing the Meital 304D at an open house at one of its initial installs, Parallax Digital Studios in Kennesaw, GA, just outside Atlanta.

"Our initial experiment was East Coast and the Midwest," Shalit said. "But with our Atlanta office, we now intend to rollout nationally. In fact, a lot of the open house attendants are from the West Coast."

MTL Print, which was founded in 2007, noted the Meital 304D enables lower ink consumption than traditional flexo as well as lower labor costs and seamless changeover between prints. Parallax has been using one or more of the unique, high-production (2700 sq. ft./hr) digital wide format systems from MTL Print for at least a year.

Shalit said the company is currently building out its staff in anticipation of a major sales push later this month. "Our sales and support are based on in-house teams but we do have cooperation with sales reps and dealers who can potentially offer service as well," he added. "We see our progress in the US market being based on a combination of both."