DIS rounds off bumper EFI spend

Wolverhampton-based wide-format printer Digital Imaging Services (DIS) Group has rounded off a £500,000 spend with the purchase of its second EFI wide-format machine in the past six months.

DIS will be bringing in a 3.5m-wide EFI Matan Quantum LXr 3 into its 1,300sqm premises next week, to join an EFI Vutek HS2000 Pro, which was installed last October. The two will run off a new Caldera print server, which will also be brought in next week.

The machines were supplied by UK-based EFI reseller CMYUK, and DIS may take advantage of CMYUK’s recently-launched Consumable Supported Asset Finance (CSAF) scheme when purchasing consumables.

DIS managing director Mark Bradley said: “Going back about 15 years we were one of the first Midlands' companies to invest in a Vutek grand-format machine. We have had several and stuck with them because they are reliable, consistent and this machine also gives us a three-year warranty.”

Bradley highlighted the Quantum’s inline finishing system, which allows for dual print-and-cut, as a factor that will streamline the production process. 

“We’re a fast-turnaround company anyway but when we’ve got volumes of POS graphics coming off the printer, literally being print-and-cut and boxed, it’s going to take a complete section of our print process out of the equation, which is great,” he added.

“It won’t revolutionise things but it will certainly make things more streamlined and naturally give us more capacity to evolve.”

Launched along with a raft of other EFI kit at last year’s Fespa Digital, the roll-to-roll Quantum, also known as the EFI Quantum 3, which uses seven picolitre drops, was said by EFI in 2016 to have the lowest cost of ownership in its class.

The four-colour-plus-white machine runs at 210 sqm/hr, printing at maximum 1,200dpi resolution and incorporating LED-curing technology.

18-staff DIS, which has just entered its 20th trading year, mainly produces retail graphics, window graphics and POS, having produced work for the likes of McDonald's and the British Fashion Council (BFC).