FASTSIGNS wins Project of the Year with HP Latex R1000 Plus Printer

When a healthcare organization requests signage, they need more than fast service, and more than signs, they need a company that can help them meet the special challenges their industry faces. From being able to meet indoor air quality standards to being able to provide reliable, high volume/industrial-scale production capabilities.

A FASTSIGNS franchise owner in Louisville, Kentucky, Susan Cilone, met this specific set of challenges head-on when she helped a customer rebrand more than a dozen medical facilities to reflect recent acquisitions. FASTSIGNS International, Inc. is the global franchisor of FASTSIGNS sign and graphic Centers, with more than 750 locations in 9 countries, providing comprehensive sign and graphic solutions to help businesses and organizations extend their brand’s reach and communicate messages to their audiences. FASTSIGNS Louisville, KY found the quality, sustainability, and client-focused solutions they needed to complete this job with the HP Latex R1000 Plus Printer. This large-scale project was so inspiring and successful, it won the FASTSIGNS 2020 Project of The Year, sponsored by and featured on the cover of wide-format printing magazine “What they Think”

HP Latex water-based inks help FASTSIGNS Centers manage projects for healthcare facilities by providing assurance that no harmful chemicals are introduced into environments and the prints remain odorless. Typical eco-solvent and UV-curable inks do not have the sustainability of HP Latex inks. With an HP Latex printer, FASTSIGNS of Louisville, KY was enabled to meet the demands of the health care industry and exceed expectations of the UofL Health Management team while partnering on the expansive rebrand.

In May of 2018, coinciding with the product launch, Cilone, owner and CEO of FASTSIGNS Louisville, traveled to the HP R&D Center in Boise, Idaho to see and thoroughly test the HP Latex R series printers first-hand. She was blown away by its capabilities as soon as it started printing. Cilone found a printer that she can stand behind 100% - knowing that the quality meets and exceeds her high expectations.

Industry: Commercial printing
Sector: Wide-format printing and signage
Objective: Gain the competitive advantage to win new business
Approach: Purchase the most advanced, reliable, and versatile wide format printer in the industry
Technology | Solution: HP Latex R1000 Plus Printer

The Challenge

The large-scale project included both complex exterior and interior sign and graphic installations for more than a dozen medical centers, hospitals, and doctors' office buildings. The project was very demanding in terms of print quality, print volume, timeline, and the need to meet healthcare environment requirements. Every day for months, FASTSIGNS provided pandemic-related rush jobs for healthcare while also moving the rebrand project forward. Messaging was constantly changing. The team was able to print the exciting full-color rebrand graphics while also printing the day-to-day COVID messaging necessary for healthcare to offer testing and vaccine support. FASTSIGNS was also able to provide wayfinding solutions with wallpaper graphics and acrylic maps to help visitors navigate the facilities connected by pedways on the main downtown campus FASTSIGNS is a visual solutions provider: with the R1000 Plus, FASTSIGNS produces graphics that help customers tell a story.

Cilone, franchise owner of FASTSIGNS of Louisville, Kentucky relied on the HP Latex R1000 Plus Printer, with confidence, to produce a wide variety of elements for the interior phase of the project as well as the unanticipated high demand for COVID related signage that later emerged. Cilone knew she could rely on this printer to deliver again and again with no downtime while maintaining outstanding print quality.

The Solution

That same visual quality is also time withstanding with HP Latex Inks. FASTSIGNS uses a lot of white ink, and the team was impressed with how the finished products come out looking smooth instead of textured. HP Latex White Ink offers the glossiest white on transparent and colored media with high opacity that resists yellowing over time. Plus, the team can use the white ink “on-demand,” removing the printheads quickly and efficiently thus not wasting any ink while the printer is not being used.

The healthcare industry demands high-quality signage that includes tiny text, full color, and spot color – all on one poster. HP Latex printers not only keep up with the everyday – “color, beauty and pop” that the team promised but also provide all the details required in healthcare signage. Additionally, the FASTSIGNS Louisville team was so impressed with the HP Latex technology that they invested in another model, HP Latex 800W Printer, so that they could continue to increase capacity to print roll to roll and white ink applications for all their projects.

Results

From patient room dry erase boards to healthcare regulatory signage, to employee appreciation signage, the HP Latex R1000 Plus Printer was able to meet the diversity of all the requirements in one printer. The reliability and versatility were unmatched – delivering a large-scale project that includes – flexible, rigid, and white ink applications, at high quality and short turnaround time. The healthcare organization was very pleased with the results and will continue to look to FASTSIGNS to produce these challenging projects.

The FASTSIGNS Louisville, KY team knows there’s a growing importance for sustainability; something they can now deliver through HP products. To move away from solvent-based roll-to-roll printers, by replacing equipment with eco-friendly alternatives, the FASTSGINS team can be confident that FASTSIGNS Louisville provides superior quality and sustainability with client-focused solutions printed on HP latex printers.

Source: FASTSIGNS

The preceding press release was provided by a company unaffiliated with Wide-format Impressions. The views expressed within do not directly reflect the thoughts or opinions of Wide-format Impressions.