The company has acquired American Samoa based miniaturisation company NanoPrint LLC. EFI plans to utilise the NanoPrint technology to release a Micro-VUTEk® pocket-printer, driven by a Fiery® Mini-RIP.
While financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed, the acquisition is not expected to be material to EFIs 2012 results. Current CEO Edward Minimi will step down and CTO Michael Smolen will take on the roll as the new general manager of EFI Miniature Printing in American Samoa.
EFI is already the dominant player in super-wide printing, and now well be scaling that down for the booming mobile printing market, said Smolen. Miniature printing holds opportunities for many unique, on-demand applications, including individual business cards, labels, ID tags, and e-signatures. The technology will even enable printing of fingernail-size items such as business cards that have to be read with a loupe.
For years EFI has been encouraging the industry to Think Big, but we now see a need to consider small investments in small sized printers, said Scott Schinlever, senior VP and GM of EFI inkjet solutions. We are starting a long journey with the goal of putting a Micro-VUTEk on every desk in the world by 2025.
The new Micro-VUTEk and Fiery MiniRIP will be on display this month at EFI Connect, the companys annual users conference, where attendees will be invited to print a miniature version of their conference badge using the new technology.
