Fastsigns

FASTSIGNS® Crawley has been supplying sign, display and graphic solutions to local businesses in the Crawley, Gatwick, Reigate and surrounding areas since 1995.

With a particular expertise in vinyl graphics the company produces a wide range of custom products, mainly indoor and outdoor full colour banners and posters and trade show displays and signage. They also produce vehicle graphics such as car decals and wraps, traffic signs, site signs, wall and window decals.

With a commitment to providing its customers with effective sign and graphics solutions backed up by the expertise of its dedicated staff and state-of-the-art technology, FASTSIGNS Crawley lives up to the FASTSIGNS motto ‘More than fast. More than signs’.

When the time came for FASTSIGNS to upgrade its old printer a few manufacturers were considered but the competitively priced Epson SureColor SC-S30600 64-inch, wide-format, inkjet printer offered the best return on investment while still offering the speed and colour quality needed. The four-colour, roll-fed printer was installed by large-format print equipment and consumables supplier Stanford Marsh Graphics Group (SMGG). Rajesh Vithlani, Director FASTSIGNS Crawley said: “Guided by SMGG we looked at a number of different printers but the Epson SureColor SC-S30600 offered the best fit for our business requirements and was better value for money than the other solutions we looked at.”

Since investing in the new SC-S30600 printer FASTSIGNS has seen an increase in both productivity and colour consistency. Alan White, designer at FASTSIGNS explains: “Our workload can be unpredictable and we have to be able to handle a broad range of products. We print a lot on self-adhesive vinyl for indoor and outdoor banners, exhibition banners and pop-ups so colour is the most important element as far as our clients are concerned, followed by speed. With the SC-S30600 we can be assured of the colour consistency and still process the work faster than before. A job that would have taken two days to produce previously can now be turned around in less than a day without losing quality.”

FASTSIGNS can now take on high-volume jobs with tight deadlines – something they wouldn’t have been confident of handling with the old kit. “We produce a lot of work for our local shopping mall – mainly double-sided hanging banners that need to be turned round pretty quickly,” says Alan. “It’s often last minute so we’re under pressure but with the SC-S30600 we can just set it up, leave it to print and before you know it the job’s done! We can now print around five banners in a morning.”

The SureColor SC-S30600 builds on the success of Epson’s wide-format printer range for signage and POS applications and sets a new price/performance ratio in this highly competitive sector, delivering efficient, environmentally-friendly production at the lowest total cost of ownership. The SC-S30600 can produce everything from posters, signs, banners, backlit panels and POS materials to vehicle wraps, interior decorations and exhibition displays. The printer supports a wide range of media, allowing users to print reliably and cost-effectively on vinyl, PVC and clear film, photographic paper and a range of popular banner substrates.  Print speeds range from 7.3 to 29.4m2/hour depending on printing mode and maximum resolution is 1440 x 1440dpi.

Epson’s UltraChrome® GS2 ink set for the SC-S30600 guarantees high-quality results with a new yellow formulation that is lightfast for longer and works perfectly with Epson’s new generation of TFP printheads, which have double the nozzle density compared to conventional Epson piezo printheads. UltraChrome® GS2 is odourless, nickel-free and requires no special ventilation, allowing the SC-S30600 to be used in an office environment.

The SureColor SC-S30600 printer is also easy to operate with really fast, simple media changeover thanks to a jack at the rear. Tensioning can be controlled easily from the front and the rear of the machine reducing set-up time and maximising productivity.

“The SureColor has exceeded our expectations,” says Alan.

Nick White, business manager, ProGraphics at Epson UK, said: “Epson’s new SureColor range of printers has been developed with companies like FASTSIGNS in mind. The SC-S30600 offers exceptional value for money while still delivering high-quality productivity and the flexibility and reliability that print firms, signmakers and copy shops need to keep ahead in this highly competitive market.”