"We are delighted to be awarded the Sign Industry Innovation Award," said Graham Evans, Managing Director of Durst UK: "Particularly this award, because Durst has consistently led the way on innovation within the flatbed inkjet market. This award recognises the fact that we are not concerned with new technology just for the sake of it but are only interested when it offers better business opportunities for our customers."

This is a new award and, for the first time, it recognises the contribution of suppliers to the sign industry. Those people who come up with new ideas to make life easier and more profitable for sign makers. The nominations for the award came from the team at SIGN DIRECTIONS magazine and the judging was via "postal votes" from a number of people representing all facets of the industry. In all, 13 products were nominated, but the one which received most points after the voting was the new RHO 205 from Durst.

The RHO 205 is a large format direct to media inkjet printer and is designed to be upgradeable with both speed and colour ink options allowing the machine to "grow" with your business. It was the first to offer white ink printing together with both an under and over printing capability. It also provides two additional spot colours plus a selective varnish option. The basic machine has 8 print heads which can be increased to 16, effectively doubling its output.

The latest development, "Smart Speed" was demonstrated at Sign UK. It is a dramatic improvement in output speed available on both 8 and 16 head versions of the Rho 205. With no loss in quality Smart Speed effectively increases output by 30% across all print quality levels. This means that at print level 1, the Rho 205/16 is capable of printing up to 65m_ per hour.

At Sign UK Durst also demonstrated for the first time in this country our unique feeder/stacker system, which enables fully automated print production for rigid media.

"Apart from winning the award, Sign UK was a very good exhibition for us. We received a great deal in interest on the stand for our Rho range," said Graham Evans: "Which resulted in a large number of high quality sales leads."

For more information contact Durst UK on 01372 726262 or visit www.durst-online.co.uk