As my WhatTheyThink colleague Andy Tribute said yesterday, the agreement between Heidelberg and EFI for Heidelberg to distribute EFI’s line of VUTEk GS superwide format printers makes a great deal of sense. The only surprise is that conventional offset manufacturers have not jumped on this market opportunity sooner.

According to Ray Cassino of Heidelberg, “We look at this as an extension of functionality that customers wanted us to offer. We have a good relationship with EFI on the software side, integrating their MIS solutions into our production workflow. We looked at the various superwide format offerings on the market and felt that the EFI VUTEk GS series was the best fit for us and for our customers.  We think of it as the Speedmaster XL-105 of inkjet.  I don’t think you will find any other device that has as high a resolution at as high an output speed.” Cassino points out that the VUTEk GS series is one of few, if not the only, superwide format printer in the marketplace that can, in effect, lay down 10 colors simultaneously—8 colors and two layers of white in one pass. “You can print Coca-Cola red on a blue background because of the ability to add that white layer under the red,” he adds. “This gives the device a wider application range. It also has the smallest picoliter resolution and fastest speed.”

The EFI VUTEk GS line includes the GS 2000 (2 meter hybrid flatbed/roll-to-roll), GS 3200 (3.2 meter hybrid flatbed/roll-to-roll) and GS 5000 (5 meter, dedicated roll-to-roll). “This offering opens up the door for commercial printers to tackle almost any type of job,” said Cassino, “be it on flexible or rigid media, including wall coverings, doors, ceiling tiles, glass—just about anything you can think of up to 2.5 inches thick. While some printers may also use them as proofing devices for their large presses, we think the majority of the volume will be associated with multi-media campaigns and point of purchase materials.”