Miamisburg, OH – On booth 2231, Esko (www.esko.com), will demonstrate the importance of a complete workflow for wide format applications during SGIA Expo 2015, November 4-6, in Atlanta, GA. Focusing on Esko i-cut Suite, Automation Engine and ArtiosCAD, the company will show visitors to the booth the importance of workflow software to the quality and efficiency on digital graphic production. The company will also operate and demonstrate Kongsberg tables, showing how they are integrated into a workflow to digitally finish materials from a wide format digital press.

"Esko looks forward to impress visitors at SGIA, once again, this year in Atlanta. We now offer a complete, automated workflow of design, prepress and cutting solutions for wide format print providers," explains Jon Giardina, President, Esko Americas. "We will demonstrate how to provide consistency and speed to the entire process—two very important deliverables to print buyers."

Workflow software to power the design to print to cut process

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 Automation Engine, all of these functions are automated in a single workflow, with less operator intervention and greater uptime for the entire range of equipment.

During SGIA Expo, on Wednesday, November 4, from 11:30am to 12:30pm in room B216, Tyler Thompson, Esko Application Engineer, will offer a presentation, "The Importance of an Automated Workflow to the Print Provider's Profitability and Success". This presentation will focus on the specific advantages of workflow automation and the considerations a print provider must make before implementing a system.

Display designs made easy

In a more commoditized market, sign & display shops are realizing that unique 3D display projects offer higher margins.Displays are becoming ever more complex, with more and more pieces and parts. Designers like to create all parts on a single 'document' so they can see how each piece will interact and fit with each other. Part of Esko's complete solution includes ArtiosCAD, a powerful structural design editor for displays. Esko will showcase its recently launched ArtiosCAD version featuring Canvas Design, which significantly improves the workflow for anyone designing and producing multi-component displays, making multi-part designing easier than ever before. The new Canvas File in ArtiosCAD is a master design template. A designer can create all the pieces on a single canvas. From that one canvas, they can now redirect those components that need graphics, separate the components based upon how they are manufactured and identify each part for reports, database searching or for integrating with a business system.

Esko celebrates 50 years of Kongsberg digital finishing excellence

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Esko Kongsberg, a world-leading manufacturer of digital finishing systems with many thousands of installations around the globe. Durability, reliability and precision have always been key values throughout its history. "Digital finishing is a vital part of Esko’s solutions portfolio, and Esko Kongsberg is key to our future success, and that of our customers,” says Giardina. “Fifty years of constant innovation have provided us with a strong reputation and foundation. We have excellent technology and skills to help our customers take full advantage of the opportunities digital finishing offers for signs and displays.”

Esko will be featuring its Kongsberg C digital finishing table with its 3.2-meter platform. One of its most noticeable 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.

Connected to the Kongsberg C64 will be a new take up unit. Esko introduces this prototype of a motorized system installed at the end of a conveyor feed and winds up kiss-cut adhesive vinyl or waste material from roll-based semi-automated production for simple disposal. The take up unit can be used with any Esko Kongsberg XN, i-XL, XP or C table equipped with a conveyor feed. Included is an integrated basket for finished materials.

Also on the booth will be the Kongsberg XN24, Esko’s most versatile, mid-range digital finishing device, able to working with just about any substrate, from thin flexibles, to foam, to fluted materials, to rigid boards. It can be easily configured for the widest range of applications: from kiss cutting to heavy-duty milling. Most important, the Kongsberg XN can be equipped with a very powerful, optional 3kW, water-cooled milling spindle, the MultiCUT- High Power, offering up to three times greater milling productivity.

Attached to the Kongsberg XN will be a new, stand-alone collector basket, catching finished goods —flexible or rigid materials as large as 8" x 8"—off the conveyor belt. This stand-alone unit can be used with any Kongsberg XN, i-XL, XP or C tables equipped with conveyor feed. The unit is equipped with wheels that may be locked when the unit is in position. One side of the basket edge is detachable so it can be emptied easily.

Esko partners at SGIA

On Esko's booth, Enfocus will demonstrate its PitStop, Switch and Connect solutions. PitStop, a preflight solution, offers PDF quality control. PitStop Pro automatically detects nearly any possible error in PDF files. Switch helps companies gain time by automating repetitive tasks, while maintaining consistency and saving money by avoiding re-work and corrections. Production settings and technical details to deliver jobs to the print provider are often confusing—and when settings are wrong, it usually leads to more frustration and delays. Connect removes the confusion for proper PDF creation and job delivery by giving the control to the expert: the print provider. The customer experiences less pain and the print provider benefits from consistency to the jobs it receives.

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 comes with a MultiCUT tool head for milling productivity, along with a camera system.

"In wide format production, the digital printer is an important, but not the only, component," concludes Giardina. "Esko has a complete complement of hardware and software that delivers print-ready files to the digital press, while automating the finishing process after a job is printed. Esko looks forward to showing visitors how our solutions are being utilized very successfully by wide format print providers."