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G R A P H I C S - P R O. C O M M A R C H 2 0 2 3 • G R A P H I C S P R O 4 1 a good reputation and machines that are built to last, says Deluca. "Most of our customers are looking for long-term solutions for their printing so for me investing in a machine that has a track record of consistent long-term dura- bility seems like it would save you more money over the long haul by getting the right equipment upfront," he says. Allegra and Image360 is a wide-format sign and print specialist in Lexington, Kentucky. The company upgraded its seven-year-old hybrid flatbed/roll-to-roll printer with an EFI Pro 24f flatbed LED printer from Electronics for Imaging in 2018. Mark Stovall, COO and co-owner of the company, says that the "true flatbed design allows us to do more, especially more direct printing." Stovall's business started as a Signs Now franchise in 1998 and converted to an AFB franchise of Image360 in 2014. From a return-on-investment standpoint, Stovall says that the Pro 24f printer "lit- erally cut our monthly ink and substrate costs in half." He added that there have been fewer machine operator and maintenance costs compared with other wide-format equip- ment he has used. e printer's throughput quickly handles small- and medium-sized orders as well as larger quantity jobs. "We can do more with fewer people and haven't had to add more employees to get big orders of yard signs done," Stovall says. e machine is also used to reproduce a variety of prints, including flat-panel sig- nage and high-end acrylic prints. Because the LED imaging on the printer requires less heat, it uses less energy than tradi- tional UV or latex printers, making it eas- ier for Image360-Lexington to print on thinner and specialty substrates. According to Electronics for Imaging, the EFI Pro 24f LED flatbed printer works well for producing graphic art, art repro- ductions, graphic overlays, and other spe- cialty applications up to 2" thick as well as overflow printing and projects where precision and fine-detail, image quality and speed are critical to meeting customer demands. Transition from printing to finishing Erik Norman, president of swissQprint, says that for any print shop, their through- put is only as fast as their finishing capabil- ity and "with a continued increase in short run digital work, printers need to invest in finishing workflow that will keep up with the new demands. In short, it's a big deal. Any time a printer invests in new print equipment, there should be consideration to the impact this printer will have on the overall workflow." With lead times getting shorter and shorter and specific jobs needing to take priority over others to meet deadlines, "companies need to increase their cutting capacity to keep up with the ever-grow- ing list of faster printers coming out, more intricate designs and depending on what their current offerings are," says Voight. (Image courtesy of Roland DGA)