The Gerber Solara ion Goes to Washington

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1 The Gerber Solara ion Goes to Washington The Washington, D.C. area is an exciting and demanding place to run a sign making and specialty graphics business. Being the hub of U.S. government activity, the home of many prestigious universities, and the site of numerous arts and entertainment events, the metro-d.c. area is alive with sign making possibilities. No one understands the sign business in the area better than Scott Goehrung, computer graphics engineer for Signs By Tomorrow in Rockville, MD. Signs by Tomorrow has been in business since 1992 and thrives on the creative challenges posed to us by our demanding and innovative clients, said Goehrung. As one of the top Signs by Tomorrow franchises in the country, Signs by Tomorrow in Rockville, MD owes its success to the production of leading-edge graphics using the latest technology bolstered with a strong dose of creativity. Signs by Tomorrow partners with many ad agencies and party planners who think outside the box and come up with exciting (and sometimes) crazy ideas. Our experienced and educated designers team up with our clients to produce very ingenious solutions, said Goehrung. While the work can be challenging, it also makes it more interesting to do business day in and day out. Signs by Tomorrow has developed a reputation for taking on difficult jobs and getting them done on time and under budget. To stay one step ahead of the ever-changing needs of their creative clients, Signs by Tomorrow has always invested in the latest sign printing and finishing technology. A few years ago we looked at flatbed UV printers, explained Goehrung, but we just couldn t find one that met our expectations of what a UV printer should be and cost. We made a conscious decision to let the market mature a bit; to let the prices come down and give the technology some time to get the kinks worked out. Last year, several other Signs by Tomorrow stores purchased wide-format UV Page 1 of 5

2 printers with a price tag of over $200,000, but we were willing to wait for the technology to reach a better price point (which eventually happens when new technology comes on the market). We also wanted a printer in our store for our exclusive use. In 2007, Goehrung started investigating flatbed UV printers again and considered the Inca Spyder, and Océ/Fujifilm Acuity, but found that they all still required a compromise in one or more areas. Then Signs by Tomorrow was introduced to the Gerber Solara ion. It was amazing that the Gerber Solara ion matched our features wish list perfectly and at such a great price. The printer is very economical when considering comparable flatbed printers. The combination of eight print heads, several resolutions and multiple speeds were just what we were looking for, and in addition to the generous 5' x 10' flatbed printing table you get the bonus of a true roll-toroll printer too. When evaluating UV printers, one of the most important features of the Gerber Solara ion was its patent-pending Cold Fire Cure technology which uses low energy and low temperatures to cure the proprietary GerberCAT inks. When I learned about Gerber s Cold Fire Cure, I was sold, said Goehrung. The UV technology of other printers employs lamps that degrade with use. You are required to occasionally re-adjust the lamps to maintain curing effectiveness. The Gerber Solara ion s lamps do not lose intensity with use and require no on-going maintenance. Ultimately it was the low temperature cure that really made GSP s printer stand out from the crowd. Now I can easily print on heat-sensitive materials like banner, corrugated plastic, paperboard, and fabric, commented Goehrung. We use a lot of Coroplast and the Solara ion is able to print on this material without slowing down. Other printers need to slow down to print on Coroplast, which undermines the economic benefits of using that material as well as causing ink adhesion problems. Page 2 of 5

3 GerberCAT ultra-flexible, cationic ink also expands Signs by Tomorrow s range of materials. The cationic ink formulation has superior adhesion, flexibility, and abrasion resistance as compared to traditional free-radical inks. The amazing flexibility allows for difficult applications including vehicle wraps and installation over rivets. This ink sticks to just about anything! Goehrung exclaimed. We print on all the common signmaking materials like Sintra, Dibond, and aluminum with great success, but it is the possibility of printing on unusual materials that really intrigues us. For instance, we printed on acoustical ceiling tiles and the ink covered the uneven surface beautifully, and we recently produced a carpet with a corporate logo for one of our clients and they were thrilled with the crisp, durable results. The unique, cationic UV ink technology also suits the Green Initiative of Signs by Tomorrow. Signs by Tomorrow has committed to do their part to lessen their impact on the earth. Already reducing paper usage through electronic communication and minimizing air conditioning and heating usage, the installation of the earth-friendly Gerber Solara ion fit right into Signs by Tomorrow s environmental plan. The Gerber Solara ion s UV lamps do not emit ozone and the GerberCAT cationic inks are comprised of 100% solids and do not release VOCs when curing, so the printer does not require special ventilation. It also produces a smaller amount of waste ink than other UV printers on the market. There is simply less waste to manage when using this printer, explained Goehrung. Perhaps the most important green feature of the Gerber Solara ion is its ability to print on paperboard or other recyclable material and the cured ink does not prohibit its recyclability. That meets our Green Initiative goals perfectly. Signs by Tomorrow used the Gerber Solara s eco-friendly ink to create signs for Marriott International, whose corporate headquarters is in Washington, D.C. Marriott is currently introducing a program called Green Marriott which is designed Page 3 of 5

4 to reduce both its environmental footprint and energy costs. Goehrung explained, During Marriott s recent Green Marriott conference we were able to showcase our own environmental commitment and the role that the Gerber Solara ion plays in it. We ended up doing quite a lot of signage for their conference due to recyclability of the Gerber Solara prints. The GerberCAT UV inks were a real selling feature for us. Ease of use is a tangible benefit for a company like Signs by Tomorrow that cross-trains its employees to use all equipment. Installation went smoothly and the machine was basically printing right out of the box, commented Goehrung. In my sixteen years in the business, this was the simplest machine to use immediately. The color profiles for the majority of materials we use are included with the Gerber Solara ion and they are really good. The color gamut is excellent and actually much better than I expected. The reds are really red and the blues are really blue. The profiles are dead-on from material to material and even match PANTONE colors very well, continued Goehrung. We are completely confident that we can produce consistent color, no matter which substrate we print on, or who is running the printer. The Gerber Solara ion requires very little daily maintenance to keep the print heads delivering vibrant, full color prints. There are no awkward and lengthy wake-up and put-to-bed routines using noxious solvents. You simply go through a short head cleaning procedure at the beginning of the day and after every four hours of printing to keep the print heads operating at peak performance. With the Gerber Solara ion, said Goehrung, I don t have to get my hands dirty cleaning up ink. Maintenance is easy! The generous 5' x 10' flatbed printing table matches the size of the router used by Signs by Tomorrow to finish rigid media. The large table size of the Gerber Solara ion has improved our process used to create oversized POP displays and graphics, said Goehrung. Previously we would print large jobs on adhesive-backed vinyl, mount the vinyl on a substrate, and then finish the job on the router. Cutting adhesive-backed vinyl on the router produces tons of sticky little chips which adhere to everything the sign, the router table, and the cutting bit. Removing these sticky chips Page 4 of 5

5 is very labor intensive, continued Goehrung. With the Gerber Solara ion, we are able to print directly on the oversized substrate and cut it on the router without the messy cleanup. This printer has shortened our turn-around time and substantially reduced our production costs. The speed and quality of the Gerber Solara ion s Production mode was a welcome surprise to Signs by Tomorrow. I did not expect the two-pass production mode to be as good as it is, said Goehrung. The Gerber Solara ion prints super-fast in two-pass mode and yields sellable results. We frequently use Production mode to create spot color, outdoor-durable signage on Coroplast. It can actually take longer to warm-up the UV lamps than it can to print an entire 4' x 8' sheet of material, said Goehrung. Recently we had to live up to our company name Signs by Tomorrow and create 200 golf tournament signs in one day. Without the Gerber Solara ion we would have needed two people to work overtime to get the job done. Using the Gerber Solara ion we were able to complete the job without any overtime at all, continued Goehrung. The customer got high-quality signs, on time and under budget, and we reduced production costs and increased profits. When I made the decision to purchase the Gerber Solara ion I was confident that it would be the robust, reliable machine it has turned out to be, said Goehrung. GSP has lived up to its reputation of being a highquality, innovative manufacturer of leadingedge sign making equipment. We own one of the original Gerber EDGE thermal printers and it still churns out durable graphics weekly. With the engineering excellence and customer service and support of GSP behind the Gerber Solara ion, we expect it to continue to make money for us for a long, long time. Gerber Solara ion, GerberCAT, and Cold Fire Cure are trademarks and GSP is a registered trademark of Gerber Scientific Products. Dibond is a registered trademark of Alcan Composites USA. Coroplast is a trademark of Coroplast, Inc. Sintra is a registered trademark of Allucabond Technologies, Inc. MultiCam is a registered trademark of MultiCam LP. Page 5 of 5