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As a leader and top innovator in the sign and graphics industry, Signs Now has more than 230 franchise locations across the US, Canada and the UK. One of its top shops is located right in the heart of Cheap Trick country in Rockford, IL.
"We've been in digital arena for about 11 years and have grown with the technology," said owner Tim Anderson, who also runs a Signs Now location in Milwaukee, WI. Anderson said that they were using roll-to-roll printers to produce most of their jobs and wanted to get into the flatbed market. "Many of these roll-to-roll jobs can be both labor and material intensive, especially when you are printing onto pressure-sensitive materials. We needed to cut costs, so we started looking for a solution that would help eliminate some of those extras. We purchased a CNC router and we wanted to pair it with a flatbed printer so we would have less media waste."
Anderson said they wanted a true flatbed model. "We did massive amounts of research and looked at host of the flatbeds out there. We saw the Gandinnovations Jeti 1224 at ISA and liked what it could do. The 1224 is a true flatbed. It can print high quality and has a good color gamut. The speed was another selling point for us. We can output a 4x8-foot print in about five minutes. We can print on any substrate and then cut right on the router if we need to," said Anderson.
"The Gandi 1224 had an unbeatable combination of print quality and speed in a very economical price range," commented James Hubbell, tech specialist/equipment operator. "It's proven to be workhorse in our shop since it was installed in July. The resolution is outstanding, even when printing jobs with small text. In addition, the colors are really sharp. They are among the best I've seen from UV flatbed printer," Hubbell added.
More Versatility
"The Jeti 1224 is specifically designed to give print shops like ours and gives us versatility we need," Anderson pointed out. The printer utilizes 24 Spectra print heads to produce high speed graphics in six color with 1200 dpi achieves 40 sqm/hr (450 sqft/hr) in best quality mode. A true flatbed table using linear motion to control movement is said to ensure perfect registration on rigid and flexible materials. Easy loading and unloading of large and heavy material can be performed by one person with the 4x8-foot print area. A strong vacuum table holds virtually any rigid material in place up two-inches in thickness.
Hubbell said that Gandinnovations was very helpful in getting them up to speed with the printer. "They sent two tech reps to our location and they had test prints running by the end of the first day. They stayed us for the full week and trained us until we were comfortable with the printer. They have been great to work with."
Anderson said that the Jeti 1224 printers came in handy on a recent big project. "We just produced all the signage for the Wisconsin State Fair through our other location in Milwaukee. In the past, when we printed that job, we would go through incredible amounts of overtime because we would have to print on pressure sensitive using our roll-to-roll printer. It would normally take us a week or more to produce. With the 1224 we were able to turn most of the job in a little more than in a day! We saved so much on labor and material on that job. It was huge savings for us," Anderson concluded.
author: BY BILL SCHIFFNER