CWE Solutions has launched a new premium line of media - branded 'Expanse' - targeted at wide format print providers. All Expanse-branded media is fully tested and industry proven to deliver a reliable, consistent and trouble free performance.
The launch range is made up of seven vinyls, two polylaminates, a pop up and a roll up material. All Expanse media comes with ICC Profiles for the most common wide format printers in use today with particular focus on the HP Latex printer range. The vinyls include a 5-year premium poly-vinyl designed for outdoor durable graphics and a premier Cast Vinyl – Expanse Premier.
Developed for the vehicle wrapping market, Expanse Premier is a 50 micron gloss white cast film with Micro-Air bubble releasing system and tinted, repositionable and permanent pressure-sensitive adhesive. The Micro-Air system allows installers to achieve fast installation while maintaining a high enough tack to ensure long term bond. It’s made of premium quality cast face stock with a lay-flat liner. The Expanse Premier’s adhesive system is designed to provide exceptional opacity, along with easy installation. It also provides superior conformability around rivets, curves, and contours.
Graham de Kock, Commercial Director of CWE Solutions explained the reasoning behind the introduction of the new brand. “CWE has always offered a premium range of media to ensure our customers’ needs for quality results are met and exceeded. There are certain medias which in the past we, as a highly knowledgeable supplier, would like to have adapted to further improve the properties and output. By creating our own brand, these adjustments can be made bespoke to our customers’ requirements. Purchasing through a predefined channel can also have adverse cost implications and to overcome this we have negotiated with the biggest manufacturers to have products manufactured under a plain label to keep the cost to our customers as low as possible without sacrificing on product quality."
He continues, "Product quality for wide format media in the UK has been suffering with increasingly low quality, cheap products being imported from the Far East. With these cheap imports there is a natural lack of consistency from roll-to-roll and there are ethical as well as health and safety issues that we were concerned about. As a result of years of research and development, CWE are excited to be launching the 1st phase of the Expanse media portfolio that is of the highest standards both in terms of printed results and it’s manufacture to ensure that the Expanse range will not only meet but exceed our customers high standards.”