Electronics For Imaging Inc. is making the highly versatile, super-high-speed, high-quality breakthrough capabilities
of its Nozomi single-pass UV LED printing technology available to a greater number of sign and display businesses with the company's new, modular and scalable EFI Nozomi 14000 SD printer.

"Last year at FESPA Global, we featured the industry's first single-pass inkjet printer designed for the display graphics market, the EFI Nozomi 18000+ LED printer," said Ken Hanulec, vice president of sales and marketing, EFI. "After learning more about the needs and successes of our customers with the 1.8-meter printer, we meticulously created this truly innovative, 1.4-meter-wide version that gives a larger share of the market the ability to fully transform their
business with super-high-speed and premium-quality imaging in a lower entry point, single-pass solution."

Available later this year, the modular, base-model, four-color, 1.4-meter-wide EFI Nozomi 14000 SD prints paper, synthetic media and board at speeds up to 30 linear metres per minute (lm/m). At that speed, customers will be able to produce up to 740 1.4-by-2.4m sheets per hour — a speed that is not achievable with other digital devices.

Using this printer, established display graphics shops will gain the capacity and speed to replace multiple scanning-head devices — each requiring one or two operators — with a single Nozomi production line operated by a two-person crew. And as their volume needs grow, users will be able to add speed and fully automated loading with a vision and inspection system to push productivity up to 70 lm/m or 1,845 sheets per hour.

The EFI Nozomi 14000 SD printer's capabilities include:

• High image quality with a 720-dpi effective resolution, including full gradients and brilliant colors
• Consistent and accurate color with the ability to produce 97% of the Pantone color gamut, G7 support tools, Fogra PSD certification and more
• Capacity of 2 to 5 million square metres of production annually with average ink usage of 4.5 grams per square metre
• Compatibility with a wide range of substrates, ranging from polystyrene, foamboard and corrugated to 100# text, folding carton, card stock and canvas

The EFI Nozomi 14000 SD printer also delivers superior sustainability with 45% more efficient production per kW hour compared with analogue printing. It reduces the media waste of overproduction up to 30% compared with analogue
printing. Its environmentally friendly LED inks are GREENGUARD certified with no odor or VOCs.

The base configuration features an analogue UV or water-based primer station, registration table, printer with LED curing, up to six printing bars and an advanced vision camera, and is available with several ink options, including CMYK, CMYK+W, CMYK+O, CMYK+OV and CMYK+W+O. Finally, an optional post UV or water-based analogue coater can be added for final treatment of the printed output.

This Nozomi 14000 SD printer reflects EFI's continued leadership and innovation in single-pass inkjet technology. EFI developed its first Nozomi single-pass printer for corrugated packaging in Spain in 2016, and within a few years captured the lead in market share with 50 Nozomi printers sold worldwide today.

The EFI Nozomi 18000+ LED printer brought a new level of digital productivity to the sign and display space, with installations completed or in process at some of the industry's leading signage producers in the United States and United Kingdom.

"Overall, EFI has more than 1,500 single-pass engines installed globally in five different vertical markets, including corrugated, sign and display graphics, ceramics, textiles and industrial decoration," Hanulec said. "As we gained more
experience with the sign and display graphics applications various Nozomi customers have been producing, we collected customer feedback that has given our engineers the insights needed to create this next highly versatile breakthrough single-pass solution for display graphics."