Following its January appointment as EFI dealer, Currie Group held a series of Open House days last week, at its Melbourne demonstration Centre. Of around 90 staff across Australia and New Zealand, 60 are engaged in service-related functions, says Currie Group Operations Manager Marcus Robinson.
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| Currie Group's Paul Whitehead demonstrates the EFI Pro 32r+ in the freshly-decorated Melbourne showroom |
“Training on the EFI technology is a priority; we have cross-trained some existing service personnel and are actively recruiting more,” says Robinson, adding: “we cover five time zones from Auckland to Perth, I don’t think any other supplier would have such in-house service coverage. For 65% of the service calls we receive, we are able to resolve the issue without sending a service technician out, with our 24/7 six days-a-week team of phone and online personnel.
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| Ops Manager Marcus Robinson oversees in excess of 50 service personnel |
Such customer care spread was the main reason why EFI approached Currie Group to become a dealer, according to Paul Whitehead, Business Unit Manager, Wide Format. “Extensive due diligence was carried out by both sides. EFI needed a service infrastructure and Currie Group was attracted to the respected industrial-strength of the brand and its fit with both our existing and prospective customers.”
He adds: “Our strategy is to diversify as a company and not be reliant on one brand or one industry.”
As wide format, particularly UV curing using LEDs, penetrates manufacturing sectors, particularly textiles, clothing and footwear but also markets such as ceramics, wallpaper, home décor, wood and composite panel decoration and corrugated packaging; such manufacturers are investing in digital inkjet printing that goes beyond simple labels and barcodes.
Currie Group has been involved with inkjet technology for some years via its representation of Scodix digital enhancement presses.
Whitehead was impressed at the variety of customers who attended the Open House appointments. “We found some of our existing customers, for example Horizon post-press users, were keen to find out how to get into wide format. Of course, with multiple HP Indigo presses in Australia and New Zealand, this is another ready market and many of these are already into wide format at varying levels,” he says.
The star of the show of course was the EFI Pro 32r+, the only accessible demonstration machine of its type in the Oceania region. Apart from being a beautiful-looking machine, its features are legion. It starts with the all-LED curing of EFI's own UV inks. LED-UV uses a fraction of the electricity of metal-halide UV, the lamps last considerably longer, are safer, cooler-running and contribute more to sustainability.
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| Paul Whitehead (L) with EFI technician Steve Powne |
At 3.2 metres media width and up to 256m2 per hour production, the Pro 32r+ can cope with the vast majority of wide format roll-to-roll work. Indeed, Currie Group's demonstration centre was replete with wall, floor and one-way vision perforated graphics. For vehicle wrapping, EFI has partnered with 3M and offers the EFI - 3 SuperRange of XF inks with 3M MCS Warranty, including white ink. A mesh kit is integrated with the machine. EFI VUTEk Superflex inks are also available.
Ten piezo printheads delivering 7pl 'Ultra Drop' inkjet droplets can be configured variously, from CMYKW + option of White or Clear, at up to 857dpi true resolution. Whitehead points out that the varnish is a true clear coating that does not yellow and can be used for 3 year outdoor signage, instead of lamination film. He also notes that the Pro 32r+ can be run with CMYK + white or varnish. Up to 5 layers of white can be printed in spot or overall coverage, to create some stunning effects, one of which can also serve as a light diffuser in backlit applications. The built-in lightbox makes assessing backlits quick and easy.
The supplied built-in Rip is, naturally, EFI Fiery Fast Rip or pre-ripped files can be sent from Fiery XF server software for Windows which includes full colour support, colour profiler, color verifier, cut marks and unlimited macOS or Windows installations of Fiery Command WorkStation, supporting up to 10 concurrent connections.
For demonstrations of any of EFI's broad range of wide format equipment not within Currie Group's showroom, the company has full access to EFI's Global Customer Access Centre at Manchester, New Hampshire, USA where working printers of all EFI's range can receive customer files, hook up via Zoom and provide a complete remote customer demo service.
To book a demonstration on the Pro 32r+ or have sample files printed on EFI wide format equipment, please contact:
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| CMYKhub was one of the many companies who attended: (LtoR) Dayne Nankervis (CMYKhub), Bernie Robinson (Currie Group), Shannon Nankervis (CMYKhub) and Paul Whitehead (Currie Group) |
