Saturday, 07 Jun 2014 22:41 GMT

Super Wide-format

Super-wide is getting bigger, installs are swiftly increasing, and the supplier base is growing. Russ Hicks takes a look at some of the main runners and riders in this supersized world


An industrial edge

This super wide-format feature fell at a very convenient time, with the information event of the year for signage just kicking off. Sign and Digital UK 2014 offered an excellent opportunity to take a look at some of the big players in the 3.2m and above market. New players like DGI and AEG were showing product for this sector in the UK for the first time, but more established super-wide players such as HP, Mimaki, MTex, and Fujifilm were also on hand to show and discuss latest offerings. Well-known trade print producer SuperWide Digital was also exhibiting, explaining its three-pronged super-wide format production capability: two MTex 5032; a VUTEk GS3250 LX LED machine; and a Durst Rho 500R.

New and here to stay

South Korean manufacturer DGI, being distributed by M Partners Wide, combines the very best of Far East know how. South Korean hardware manufacturing combined with Japanese Konica Minolta heads sounds like a formidable combination. Back this with a five-year warranty, including imaging heads, and you have a very persuasive product offering, and an argument that all potential customers within this sector will surely take note of, with typical warranties rarely stretching beyond the statutory twelve months.

Readers might conjure up thoughts of how the South Korean’s made their mark in the vehicle market when a conversation turns to five-year warranties. M Partners Wide joint managing director, Mark Stribley, acknowledges the similarity: “South Korean products lead the world with regard to build-quality and technological advancement—just take a look at how this Asian powerhouse has re-shaped the car market or the computer and technology worlds. Buyers know that if a product says, ‘Made in South Korea’ it stands for high-tech, high quality, and high-performance.

 Buyers know that if a product says
‘Made in South Korea’ it stands for high-tech, high quality, and high-performance”


“We want to emphasise this with our ‘Super-Wide Super-Warranty’ approach: these market leading products now come with a warranty that is second to none. No other super-wide format kit comes equipped with this much confidence; no other supplier is prepared to back their build quality for five years.”

Specification wise, the first number that hits is the throughput speed: the 6-colour fabric printing Fabrijet FG-3206 zips through a pretty impressive 140sq m/h, slightly outdoing the regular-substrate Velajet product at 120sq m/h. Velajet comes equipped with a halogen lamp drying system and an eight-head, four-colour printing system.

Cure me please

UV-curable inks are the focus for AEG, making its debut at Sign and Digital UK 2014 in partnership with Atlantic Tech Services, which manufactures what it described as the ‘attractively-priced’ UV-curable 3.2m Voyager Pro 3200, which includes a metallic ink channel among its versatile configuration options and incorporates the recently announced Xaar 1002 print-head.

The versatility of the combined flatbed and roll-fed series lies in the ink options that are available. A standard four-colour set can be enhanced with light cyan and light magenta, with options as well for white and metallic, plus the addition of clear varnish if required. The addition of metallic, as well as white, special shades, and a clear option, is seen as being beneficial to users who want to add special effects to an application.

Super-wide at the sharp end

For many it is all about what happens in the ‘real world’ that counts. Proud possessor of the Super-Wide.com internet address and owner of super-wide kit from three technology developers, SuperWide Digital is a printing house based in Lancashire that only offers its services to print, signage, and creative professionals. Its choice of print technology is indicative of some major trends that are sweeping the face of this market sector, as demand for ever-larger graphics for use in everything from graphics to dress buildings under restoration through to plane wraps continues to grow.

The company is focused on a full range of super-wide and large-format products including PVC banners, mesh banners, flex-face skins (non-illuminated and backlit), dye-sublimation fabrics, direct-to-board graphics, bespoke wallpaper, graphic flooring, and self-adhesive vinyl products for a wide range of applications. With the ability to print graphics up to 5m-wide in one piece, SuperWide Digital provides services to companies that do not have the resources to produce in-house. The latest addition to the SuperWide line-up is an EFI VUTEk GS3250LX installed earlier in 2014.


Gary Doman, head of sales at M Partners Wide, stands proudly next to the DGI Velajet



“We went for LED curing for two reasons: firstly, to enable us to handle heat-sensitive substrates; and secondly, for the energy savings,” says managing direction Anthony Drogan, who adds: “The reduction in heat is striking. Lots of materials warp due to the heat of mercury lamps; everyone who prints UV has that problem.”

The hybrid format of the 3.2m wide machine allows for the imaging of less flexible materials, such as flooring products, due to its flat-bed, but it also provides for the production of roll-fed materials.

This latest super-wide variant at the company joins a 5m-wide Durst Rho 500R. With production speeds of up to 350sq m/h, plus white ink for under- or over-printing, the roll-to-roll UV curable inkjet printer is capable of printing up to six colours at 600 dpi.

O Factoid: Generally, super wide-format printers are considered to be anything that have a print width of over 100".  O


The company’s super-wide stable is completed with two MTex 5032 3.2m fabric machines. This unit has proven to be particularly popular in the UK market, with a tenth machine sale announced at Sign and Digital 2014 UK. This latest order for MTex Techn-ologies was from Borney Display Solutions, Huntingdon. The direct-to-textile printer incorporates a twelve infrared heater fixation unit, providing what the supplier describes as, ‘simplified dye-sublimation printing’. Capable of producing up to 62sq m/h, the solid Portuguese-manufactured steel chassis is equipped with Mimaki print engines.

Gone Hollywood

Also installing big in the super-wide sector is Birmingham’s Hollywood Monster. A circa-£400,000 investment in an EFI VUTEk GS5000r has been well publicised. The machine is the sixth super-wide printer to be installed at the company but is the first to offer an eight colour plus white capability. Other devices at the company include two further 5m units from HP, an HP Latex machine, a VUTEk GS3200, and a Mimaki JV33. This latest VUTEk offers speeds of up to 288sq m/h with a resolution of 600dpi. High-quality imaging at 1,000dpi is also available.


An operator sets up Fujifilm’s Uvistar to tackle another major print run. The industrial level build-quality allows the system to not just print large widths, but to run at constantly high levels without fear of a breakdown



With offerings from 3.5 to 5m, Fujifilm has a lot to offer for big projects. It considers billboard and building wraps to be its focus with a 600dpi machine that is capable of whipping through a whopping 350sq m/h on the wider machine.


The Uvistar Pro8 from Fujifilm is one of its flagship systems and is designed for
ultra-high speed applications



Bradford-based Dominion is a Fujifilm Uvistar Pro8 5m machine user. Company director Tom Clark explains why: “The 5m version suits our requirements for producing super-wide applications such as building wraps and banners.”

The 5m version suits our requirements for producing super-wide applications such as building wraps and banners”


Clark and the management team at Dominion were impressed by the Uvistar Pro8’s ability to print in a multiroll configuration, with three 1.5m rolls on-board simultaneously.


The Mimaki JV5-320s has a  high speed of 40 sq m/h in quality mode (top speed 58 sq m/h)



Clark continues: “The flexibility to print potentially three different materials at the same time is just amazing, as it will further boost our productivity. In addition, the optional automatic media load and unload tables for rigid media handling will give us the versatility to switch between a variety of jobs and print the maximum flat-sheet stock available.”

It’s a wide market

UV-curable roll-to-roll is the 3.2m offering from the Agfa stable. At the introduction of this device at FESPA 2013 in London, Willy Van Dromme, director of marketing wide-format at Agfa Graphics, explained: “Most UV-curable production printers are designed to ease the transition away from solvent-based engines carry a heavy price tag. We have developed the Anapurna M3200 RTR to be a reliable and good-quality system at a sensible and attractive cost.”
The 3.2m Agfa Anapurna is a heavyweight option for sign-makers who require high-levels of quality and productivity



The M3200 (6-colour, 50sq m/h) also supports dual roll printing, which is ideal for sign-makers, display producers, and commercial print shops in search of higher productivity levels for less effort.

Looking across to HP, its water-based latex inks fuel the Latex 3000, a 3.2m-wide device that claims a swift 180sq m/h throughput speed. HP is claiming the upper hand in the quality market with the latex approach and a 1200dpi resolution, with costs comparable to UV inks.

With a 3.2m dye-sub capable of printing direct to textile or to transfer paper Mimaki consider that they have a flexible solution for super-wide, especially as they also offer a solvent version at the same 40 to 45sq m/h productivity bracket, but with resolutions up to 1440dpi. The company that also provides the engines for MTex appears to have a strong hold on the sector.

How wide do you go?

Arguably 3.2m offers a lot more flexibility and moving on to 5m gives a bundle of extra questions to solve, production space for starters, and who or what is going to be moving those great big media rolls around for you. However, overall throughput, if you have customers queuing out of the door for building wraps, is going to be phenomenal.


 DGI claims it is continuing to gain market share as its South Korean-manufactured super-wide printers prove their reliability and efficiency. A trend being experienced by the country’s car manufacturers such as Kia



Speed versus resolution: this favourite old trade off still exists. Is 600 dpi all you need for a billboard or building wrap? Also worth considering is what ink and drying solution is best for you? Dye-sublimation would appear from our mini-survey of suppliers to be the imaging method of choice for those moving into markets that require flexible and hardwearing media, and provides the option of diversifying into textile printing. Latex is considered the best quality, but is the material you are producing going to be viewed at such a distance that all of that extra excellence is lost? From the drying perspective, how much electricity is each proposed solution going to soak up? This very important and increasingly expensive running cost needs careful consideration before you make a final decision.
One thing that is crystal clear is that demand for wide-format print is only increasing, and so those sign-makers who are positioned with super-wide kit at their disposal will possess the flexibility to be both more productive and to some extent future-proof their business.

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