Sign and Graphics Franchisor Maintains Extensive Digital Printer Testing Facility; Evaluates Printers Before Recommending to FASTSIGNS® Owners

For IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 12, 2006

CARROLLTON, TX - To help owners of FASTSIGNS® sign and graphics centers know what to expect from new technologies such as wide-format, digital full color printers, FASTSIGNS International, Inc. maintains a 3,300-square-foot printer testing and training area various where printers, inks and media are evaluated, the company said.

Now housed in the printer testing area at the company’s Carrollton, Texas headquarters are seven different digital printers, which are loaned to FASTSIGNS® by printer manufacturers. Currently, FASTSIGNS has water-based printers, a wide range of solvent printers, UV-curable flatbed and non-flatbed printers, and hybrid printers under evaluation.

The nearly 500 FASTSIGNS® centers in six countries are major users of digital printers, with all new stores required to open with the equipment and with most established owners also adopting the technology. For example, 50 FASTSIGNS® centers over the last 18 months have purchased UV-curable printers, whose ink instantly dries and adheres to almost any flat, smooth surface. Because UV ink does not evaporate, it is more efficient, requiring less ink to produce a good quality image. Flatbed UV printers can print directly on surfaces such as acrylic, wood, glass and metal.

Digital printers often represent the single largest equipment investment that a FASTSIGNS® center owner makes, said Jim Hunt, director of technical services for the sign and graphics franchisor. Explaining the concept behind the printer testing, he said, “Our owners don’t have time to test a piece of equipment. When we learn about a new print technology and determine it might be a fit for a FASTSIGNS® center, we work to get it in here to evaluate firsthand if it’s right for our business,” he said. “Our owners need to know what works and what doesn’t.”

The company’s seven technical service representatives test models of printers against each other, as well as types of printers against each other, said Hunt. “We apply our understanding of the FASTSIGNS® business model, considering what we print on and what products we print. We understand what a FASTSIGNS® center needs, and what the product has to offer from a durability, cost and application standpoint.”

Once a new printer is loaned to FASTSIGNS by either the manufacturer or a reseller, the company’s technical services representatives receive advanced training on the equipment. In addition, under the company’s “Adopt-A-Printer” program, each tech rep gets additional specialized training on the printer that he or she chooses. That training is then shared among the technical services department and with other FASTSIGNS International employees. “The printer adoption program allows us to use our resources wisely, remain cost effective and help more people to understand the technology,” he said.

Center owners who experience a problem with a printer or any part of the digital imaging process can contact the FASTSIGNS technical services department for help. The technical services consultant assigned to that printer “can be on the phone with the owner and use our printer here to replicate the problem,” said Hunt. “Since that consultant has trained others in the department, there is support available regardless of which tech is staffing the phones.”

In addition to testing each printer over a 90-day to 180-day period, the FASTSIGNS technical services department tests media for durability and color fastness and inks for adhesion to both flexible and rigid media. The department works with media vendors to obtain media that can be used with specific printers, and builds profiles for special media, which are distributed to FASTSIGNS® centers. “The owner directly benefits from our printer evaluation results as well as information about what ink, media and profile he or she can successfully use with that printer,” said Hunt.

To stay current on new printers, the technical services department attends digital trade shows and works to develop good relationships with equipment manufacturers, said Hunt.

For printer manufacturers, FASTSIGNS’ testing facility offers the opportunity to have their equipment thoroughly evaluated, tested and then recommended to the network of FASTSIGNS® centers. “The benefit to manufacturers is that theoretically they can sell more of their printers to our centers,” said Hunt.

About FASTSIGNS®
FASTSIGNS® sign and graphics centers focus on meeting the needs of the business community, and offer a full range of custom sign and graphic products, including large-format, full color graphics; banners; window and vehicle graphics; floor graphics; safety and identification signage; trade show displays and exterior signage. There are nearly 500 centers in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Mexico and Australia, where locations operate under the SIGNWAVE® name. For more information, visit franchise.fastsigns.com or call 800-827-7446.