EFI, Foster City, Calif., a leader in customer-focused digital printing innovation, announces that Machesney Park, Ill.-based Interstate Graphics Inc. (IGI) has become the first customer to install the new EFI VUTEk GS Pro-TF thermoforming system, a UV printer and ink offering that advances the industry’s analog-to-digital transformation by bringing inkjet printing to the thermoformed product decoration market.

EFI showcased the VUTEk GS Pro-TF system at the recent 2013 SGIA Expo in Orlando, where it was named SGIA’s 2013 Product of the Year in the digital inks category.

IGI’s installation, which was completed earlier this month, includes a 2-meter VUTEk GS2000 Pro-TF printer operating VUTEk GS-TF inks. The award-winning system prints on flat sheets of plastic media that are meant to be thermoformed into 3D shapes, eliminating potentially costly and time-consuming screen printing, hand painting and vinyl lettering processes.

IGI is using the system to offer high-quality, shorter-run thermoformed work, including test runs and prototypes that are not cost-effective to produce using analog printing methods.

"Today, we do screen printing for customers who want thermoformed work,” says IGI president John Norwood. “Our new EFI VUTEk GS Pro-TF system is an option for them to go digital.”

The VUTEk GS Pro-TF system can print on a wide range of polystyrene, high-impact polystyrene, PETG, polycarbonate, PVC and acrylic substrates. The versatility in compatible media gives companies like IGI the ability to digitally print many products that benefit from 3-D thermoforming enhancements, such as outdoor, point-of-purchase and beverage signage, as well as vending and gaming panels.