This week I had the opportunity to attend the ribbon cutting ceremony at the new 225,000 square foot EFI innovation center in Londonderry NH. This is a great win for the New England economy and a great platform for the continued advancement of the inkjet industry. In his opening remarks Guy Gecht, CEO of EFI said “the future of packaging is inkjet printing” and based on EFI’s massive investment in this very impressive facility, they are ready to meet demand.
Matthew Gardner and Guy Gecht cut ribbon at EFI Innovation Center
EFI will innovate, manufacture, and service worldwide customers from the Londonderry facility as well as providing training. Let’s take a tour.
The extensive Engineering R&D Center housed every EFI device from entry-level through high output hybrid machines.
The EFI Production Floor offers access to 38 different production machines representing 13 EFI models. The manufacturing operation has the capacity to produce 480 devices per year from this facility.
The manufacturing operation is supported by a modern and highly automated stock room, including a vending machine for tracking valuable inkjet components and vertical lifts to manage space efficiently.
An extensive warehouse can store completed print devices as well as test materials.
EFI has the ability to provide both demonstrations and hands-on customer training with state of the art class-rooms and access to the subject matter experts who build, service and support the devices all in one place.
The facility also houses an extensive ink formulation and pilot laboratory for development of integrated ink chemistry and printhead jet testing. Capabilities include industrial application and weathering chambers to support printer and ink qualification.
Guy Gecht referred to New Hampshire as the Silicon Valley of Inkjet while Taylor Caswell, NH Commissioner of Economic and Business Affairs presented the state as the fastest growing economy in New England, and perhaps the eastern US. It certainly appears that the 2005 acquisition of NH-based VuTek by EFI in 2005 laid a foundation that has helped EFI to achieve over $1billion in global revenue, roughly half of which is directly attributable to inkjet.