On the first day of FESPA Digital, EFI and its long-term customer Escher & Theiss Digitaldruck signed a deal for a VUTEk GS3250LX Pro 3.2m printer with LED 'cool curing' and EFI's new 7 pL UltraDrop technology. The UltraDrop technology combines the smallest drop sizes available in its class with greyscale imaging and more precise control for customers that need the ultimate in image quality, crispness and speed.

After the Bavarian-based business was formed in 2008 by Helmut Escher and Alexander Theiss around their initial 5m VUTEk model, they bought a new VUTEk every year for four years, including a GS5000r roll-to-roll printer in 2011. Last year Escher & Theiss added EFI's Pace MIS software, which now enables the company to handle the large numbers of orders it produces each day more efficiently and with improved communications across all departments. Pace has helped Escher & Theiss cement its entrepreneurial skills and build on its early success by bringing the business full accountability and shorter lead times.

"Escher & Theiss have demonstrated great entrepreneurial skills and built a successful company with great people," states Paul Cripps, vice president sales, EFI Europe Middle East & Africa. "We are proud of our strong partnership and looking forward to working with them in the years to come."

With its original superwide-format printer still in daily use, having printed nearly two million metres of material since 2008, it was a logical progression to move up the 5m VUTEk GS5000r for higher colour quality and productivity, and now to LED technology for a wider range of applications and greener production.

"By 2011 our growing customer list was demanding higher colour quality, which led us to increase our roll-to-roll productivity. This resulted in our decision to purchase the VUTEk GS5000r 5m superwide-format printer," states Alexander Theiss, joint managing director at Escher & Theiss. "The high standards and the flexibility of the ink with its three-layer white capability have been instrumental in helping us to win business."

Helmut Escher, joint managing director, adds, "Our relationship with EFI extends beyond print technology to MIS and, as planning is critical to our success, the new VUTEk GS3250LX Pro can be integrated easily into our existing workflow. It will enable us to work to shorter lead times while maintaining the highest quality. Its LED technology means that we can develop applications onto new media and become greener and more energy efficient. At Escher & Theiss we use solar energy when possible and the new printer's cool-cure energy savings will further help reduce our environmental footprint."

The calculations of Fogra's Energy Efficiency Project ("Energy efficiency of large and small format printing systems") have demonstrated that users can save around €16,000 every year on power consumption, an important factor for businesses pricing up jobs on both rigid and flexible materials. EFI's exhibit at Fespa Digital Munich is in Hall B1 Stand 110.