That advice was well-heeded and was evident in the size of the stand the company booked (144sqm) at Sign Africa Johannesburg 2009.

On display at the Sytech stand was the newest range of digital UV printers and cutting plotters from GCC, a series of CNC routers from Viccam, water-based digital printers from Lecai (pronounced Le-Tai), Solvent and UV digital inks from Triangle, de-identification liquids from Crystaltek, a host of digital print media and colour sign vinyl and the busiest, most enquired about dye sublimation systems.

‘Day one of Sign Africa saw the entire contingent of staff at the Sytech stand run around like ants, helping clients, distributing product samples, answering questions and of course selling. Our range of CNC routers generated loads of enquiries and the brochures (which are slow moving at our business premises) were taken like they contained insulin and everybody that attended were diabetic,’ said Van Wyk.

On day two further buzz was created and attention drawn to the Sytech Supplies stand when Arthur Van Wyk was interviewed at the stand by a television crew from the SABC3 design program “Hatch”. Every member of staff fielded queries from multiple attendees – sometimes simultaneously. There was also a lot of attention given to the water-based Lecai printers after everybody saw the immaculately colourful backlit film print-outs on the exhibition floor.

By approximately 10:00 am on Day 3 a gentleman came by looking for Richard (our Technical Manager). He had a cheque ready to pay for a CNC router and wanted to take it right there and then. Not long after our demo model heat press that was on exhibition was paid for and taken as well.

Eventually this is what happened to every single machine on the Sytech Supplies exhibition stand at Sign Africa. The only machine they had to bring back to Durban was the GCC 250UV digital printer. The reason for that is because it went straight to the exhibition from the boat and nobody locally had been trained on how to use it yet. As soon as training finishes this week, that printer will be shipped to its new owner as well.

‘So in a sense we had been “cleaned out” at Sign Africa 2009.

Sytech Supplies will be importing and distributing all GCC’s printers and cutters as well as accessories for these machines.

The first order of stock has just arrived at the Durban harbour and is being delivered to the premises of Sytech Supplies as you read this newsletter. Among these arrivals is the latest GCC breakthrough in wide format UV digital print technology. The K72UV digital printer.

With 8-channel printing and a 2-litre ink capacity, the K72UV is capable of handling both rigid and flexible media, has an output resolution of 720dpi, with an option to increase even further to 1440dpi. It has 3 variable print speeds and supports all popular graphic file formats. The colour gamut includes Light Cyan, Light Magenta and dedicated White ink printing. It also comes equipped with a varnishing top coat solution that can cover entire graphics or be applied as spot highlights. The printer also comes with a pre-coat (for printing on stainless steel, ceramic tiles etc) to enhance ink adhesion. This then enables printing with ink as well as a UV topcoat.

Auto-calibration ensures the distance between print heads and media stays constant. Its dual UV lamps enhances bi-directional and high speed printing, and are equipped with shutters to shield the print heads from the UV rays.

This darling of a printer will be unveiled at the Sign Africa exhibition stand of Sytech Supplies on Level 2 of the Sandton Convention Centre on 2 September 2009. Sytech Supplies’ head of Marketing Arthur Van Wyk claims this printer could easily be the “newest, youngest” printer at the Sign Africa exhibition, having come off the production and testing line less than a month ago. Van Wyk further says the very first unit that GCC’s R&D personnel were happy with was shipped to South Africa – to Sytech Supplies.

To see the colour and creative wizardry that this machine makes possible, make your way to the Sytech Supplies stand at the Sandton Convention Centre between 2 and 4 September 2004.