Gent (Belgium) -- EskoArtwork will demonstrate a strong and innovative portfolio of leading products for POP, signs and displays at Fespa Digital 2009, Stand E110, from May 12-14 in Amsterdam.

Highlights will be the European introduction of SignUp Auto, a SignUp brand extension for fully automatic nesting and production control of sign and display jobs, and the new Kongsberg XP series equipped with the i-cut vision control system and a loading table for semi-automatic production. At the show, Guy Caputo - world record holder in speed racing - will be demonstrating the record-breaking speed and performance of the Kongsberg XP table. Other EskoArtwork best in class products for sign and display finishing are on display with live demonstrations. Company experts will be on hand to demonstrate and explain the solutions.

"In the sign and display industry EskoArtwork, with Kongsberg finishing tables and digital finishing workflow software featuring SignUp and the i-cut vision control, has become the de-facto benchmark in productivity, versatility and precision. The new solutions demonstrated at Fespa Digital 2009 take digital finishing productivity even further and will no doubt have a strong impact in the industry," remarks Armand Gougay, Vice President Sales and Marketing for Europe, Middle East, Africa and Latin America (EMEALA).

SignUp Auto headlines a showcase of new products

At Fespa 2009, EskoArtwork will introduce SignUp Auto, a fully automated nesting solution. Together with its workflow automation framework, it increases productivity and optimizes the use of print and finishing materials. SignUp Auto is able to understand and process XML and JDF files as prepress input and its automation makes it ideal as a receiver of storefront input for Web-to-print. Along with nesting and tiling, SignUp Auto also supports double-sided displays, multi-page PDF workflows, and can easily nest irregular shapes. In doing so, digital large format printing and finishing shops get faster production throughput with little manual intervention. SignUp Auto also saves time and trouble with its preparation workflow for sign and display businesses. It offers smart automation, allowing an operation to quickly accept more very short run jobs and deliver them to an increasing number of digital presses.

EskoArtwork will also demonstrate the new version of SignUp, the job preparation application for sign and display printers and finishers. SignUp takes designs created in standard graphics software products such as Adobe Illustrator, and optimizes placement on a substrate. With SignUp, one-up jobs arrive from desktop design and publishing packages, and print and finishing layouts are created based on ordered quantities and job priorities. SignUp is perfect for tiling for oversized jobs and billboards. Users can reduce the material waste down to an absolute minimum. New features include Automatic bleed to images and Offcut Manager, which can organize nesting of available images on the substrate, efficiently leaving a blank area of the board so that it can be re-used.

Kongsberg XP – New levels of digital finishing productivity

The new Kongsberg XP series of digital cutting tables is targeted for manufacturers of POP and permanent in-store product displays that need a fast and highly reliable solution for short to medium run production. They are the first tables to be designed to operate continuously in a 24/7 production environment. Production capacity can be increased up to twice as much as what is available on any machine currently on the market. The Kongsberg XP loading table ensures semi-automatic production for high-volume orders delivering greater productivity. The Kongsberg XP can handle all grades of corrugated board, display carton, corrugated plastic, foam boards, and rigid display materials such as MDF, plywood and acrylics. The machines can be equipped with the i-cut visual control system to match structural design with the graphic elements. These heavy-duty tables are optimized for very fast digital converting for the packaging and POP markets.

The i-cut OEM business of EskoArtwork supplying visual control systems for the sign and display printing and finishing industry will also be present at FESPA.

The new i-cut 7.0 Vision software, developed by recently-acquired Mikkelsen Graphic Engineering, Inc., takes print material specifications from the work stream, including cutting keys that supply operators with optimized tool settings and blade/bit recommendations. This makes finishing setup even easier and simplifies the tasks necessary for start-up of each unique job. In addition, i-cut 7.0 sports a new, streamlined user interface and is fully Microsoft VISTA compatible.

A speed racer keeps up with Kongsberg XP performance

Guy Caputo, professional land speed racer and holder of 15 world land speed records including the 'world's fastest nitrous motorcycle' record of 368.22kph (228.803mph) from a standing start to 1.6km (1 mile), will be demonstrating the record-breaking speed and performance of the Kongsberg XP table. Guy also is a Senior CAM Engineer with EskoArtwork in the U.S. and has worked on everything the Kongsberg factory has manufactured since 1980. Comfortable with high-speed technology, Mr. Caputo will be explaining the speed and efficiency of the Kongsberg XP table and EskoArtwork software while dressed in his motorcycle-racing suit-along with signing personal racing pictures cut on the Kongsberg table.

Jef Stoffels, Director Corporate Marketing at EskoArtwork comments: "Guys last assignment at the Graphics of the Americas show recently held in Miami Beach, Florida, was instrumental along with our sales team in creating an environment of lead accumulation and interest in our products by combining his motorcycle achievements with our table technology during demonstrations. This success has lead to Guy being asked once again to duplicate those efforts at the FESPA Digital 2009."

Other EskoArtwork solutions will be available for display, such as ArtiosCAD, which allows designers to create structural designs of POP materials, the Studio toolkit for boxes and flexibles that adds design power to Adobe Illustrator, and Visualizer, delivering exceptional virtual views of a POP designs on a computer monitor. All of these products are popular CAD to graphics links that EskoArtwork has developed for designers over many years.