Rolling Meadows, Illinois-based Modagrafics, a full-service printer specializing primarily in fleet graphics, says that its new Durst three-meter Rho 312R UV inkjet digital roll printer will be the centerpiece of the company's new patented print production process.

Paul Pirkle, president and CEO of Modagrafics, says the patent for the company's process is pending and he prefers not to elaborate on it in detail, other than to say the Durst Rho printer fit in perfectly with the rest of the process.

“We looked at several presses on the market” before deciding on the Durst, Pirkle told Sign & Digital Graphics.

Fleet graphics have been at the core of Modagrafics' business since the company was launched in 1973, and since Pirkle joined the company in May of 2015 he has re-emphasized that focus. He says today, about 75 percent of the company's revenue comes from fleet work.

“As president/CEO of the company, the most important thing to me is our mission and our vision,” Pirkle says, adding that the mission is to boost the clients' brands, and “everything we do ties into that.”

After shopping around and visiting Durst's headquarters in Brixen, Italy, and its R&D and manufacturing facilities in Lienz, Austria, Pirkle says he concluded that the Rho would offer better quality and better consistency than the others he had been looking at.

“The print head and carriage design, ink transfer and functionality of the software and electronics—especially in how you can manipulate and manage your production flow—really sold us,” Pirkle says.

The three-meter, or 10 ½ feet, Rho 312 comes equipped with Durst's trademarked, 12-picoliter Quadro Array printhead technology and produces output speeds as high as 2,900 square feet per hour with highest quality backlit mode at 750 square feet per hour. Its workflow options include an integrated border cutting system, simultaneous dual roll printing and double-sided printing.

Modagrafics employs about 75 people and its clients have included companies such as McDonald's, United Van Lines, Bulls Eye, SAB Miller and Caterpillar.