Miamisburg, OH – At the SGIA Expo 2014, October 22-24 in Las Vegas, NV, Esko will present the widest range of digital finishing tables, from the Kongsberg V for Sign and Display Production, offering durability, precision and ease of use at an attractive price, to the Kongsberg C64, a 3.2-meter table designed to keep up with faster, wider printers. SGIA Expo is also the North American introduction of a new, easy-to-use front end for Kongsberg tables, i-cut Production Console, combining the best elements of Esko’s market leading i-cut vision control system and well-known table guide software. Accompanying these solutions within a complete ‘design to print to cut’ workflow is the Esko i-cut Suite. 

“It is an exciting time for Esko, as our two new Kongsberg tables—the C series and Kongsberg V—are being successfully installed in North America,” comments Jon Giardina, Esko President, Americas. “At SGIA Expo, Esko offers a wide variety of systems for sign and display companies to choose from—systems that are already making a difference in North America. And, we continue to make the process easier with the introduction of our new a new, easy-to-use operating system for Kongsberg tables, i-cut Production Console.”

Newly developed i-cut Production Console (iPC) user interface makes operating Kongsberg tables highly intuitive, easy, fast and flexible

Esko has created the i-cut Production Console (iPC), a new front-end operating system that will be the common platform for all Kongsberg digital finishing systems, combining the best elements of Esko’s market leading i-cut vision control system and well-known table guide software. The i-cut Production Console drives all functionality found on Kongsberg tables, such as camera control, machine set up, tool recognition, calibration and tool adjustments—with a much more intuitive operating system for users. 

Displayed on both the Kongsberg XN and Kongsberg V during SGIA Expo, the i-cut Production Console is available now, worldwide through all Esko sales and distribution channels for Kongsberg XN and V Series tables. Beginning in 2015, it will become available for most Kongsberg models, including upgrades for existing customers. 

Kongsberg C64: A larger finishing table re-engineered for the 21^st century

Esko will be featuring its Kongsberg C digital finishing table with its 3.2-meter platform. One of the most noticeable new features is the innovative composite traverse technology that provides the fastest throughput along with the highest quality and precision in cutting and routing compared to all other systems of the same size. It provides the highest versatility for all sign, display and packaging applications. At SGIA Expo, Esko demonstrates the Kongsberg C64 model: working with 126” wide x 126” long materials to accommodate today’s large format printing sizes. 

Along with the Kongsberg C64 system will be an auto feeding system, capable of handling a wide range of rigid and flexible media, picking up materials from a pallet or table. It eliminates the manual loading of large format materials, thus preventing imperfections caused by manual handling. 

Cost-effective cutting with the industry’s most solid table 

At SGIA Expo, Esko will also be showing the Kongsberg V for Signage and Display Production for companies that are introducing in-house finishing capabilities. It delivers durability, precision and ease of use at an attractive price. Kongsberg V cutters offer a broad selection of tools, providing quality results on a wide range of cutting, creasing, and plotting activities. Kongsberg V for Signage and Display Production, which comes with a MultiCUT tool head for milling productivity, along with a camera system. 

i-cut Suite: Software to power the design to print to cut workflow

i-cut Suite software lets sign & display companies streamline their workflows. It preflights and edits incoming PDF files, and helps build and edit sheet layouts, ensuring that jobs make the optimum use of substrates through intelligent true shape nesting and tiling. Kongsberg table technology ensures that die-less cutting contours match printed images perfectly, registering the actual dimensions and positioning cuts on the printed result. With i-cut Automate, all of these functions are automated in a single workflow, with less operator intervention. In a more commoditized market, sign & display shops are also realizing that unique 3D display projects offer higher margins. More and more companies are also investing in ArtiosCAD for structural design. ArtiosCAD’s extensive library of resizable display designs helps designers so they don’t have to design new displays form scratch. 

Esko throughout SGIA

The Kongsberg table and Esko workflows will be present at other SGIA locations. At booth 111, Esko reseller Prisco Digital will be displaying the Kongsberg V24 table with the new iPC operating system. HP (booths 2045/2059) will be showing its printers driven by an Esko-based front-end workflow system. Agfa Graphics and Fujifilm Graphic Systems have both reserved time during SGIA to show their customers the Kongsberg C64 table on the Esko booth. New reseller, Grimco, will be showing its customers the Kongsberg V for Signage and Display Production on the Esko booth.

“The versatility that Esko’s Kongsberg digital finishing solutions offer alongside i-cut Suite and ArtiosCAD software is exactly what sign and display manufacturers need. Workflow automation and digital finishing eliminate the two bottlenecks that almost invariably happen when a company invests in a fast wide format digital printer,” explains Giardina. “And, with the ability to create three-dimensional displays aided by ArtiosCAD, they have the ability to produce more profitable work beyond the typical, two-dimensional projects that tend to be treated as commodities. We look forward to showing visitors to SGIA Expo the important decisions they can make beyond the investment of a good wide format printer.”