The first machine in a sign shop sets the shape of everything that follows: which jobs you can quote, which materials you keep in stock, and how much labour each panel absorbs. Buy too small and tiling becomes a permanent cost line; buy the wrong ink configuration and the transparent and coloured substrates that carry the best margin stay outsourced.

Signage is one of the clearer starting points for a UV flatbed because the product mix is predictable. Panels arrive in standard formats, they are usually flat, and the margin sits in turnaround and finish rather than in exotic materials. This guide works through the sequence a first signage line should follow: which sign products the machine must cover, the board sizes that decide the platform, throughput against real shift capacity, the ink channels that signage actually needs, the finishing equipment that has to match, site services, and the tests worth running before the order.

Which sign products should the first machine be able to print?

Rigid panels first, then promo and display work.

A first line should cover rigid signage on PVC, composite, acrylic and corrugated plastic, which is the bulk of local sign demand, and add display work as it fills.

The published substrate list for this range covers PVC board, ABS board, foam board and Sintra, acrylic and Plexiglass, wood, MDF and plywood, glass and ceramic tiles, metals including aluminium, brass and steel, leather, and promotional items such as phone cases and pens. In signage terms that translates into the work a general sign shop is asked for most often: shopfront panels, wayfinding boards, site hoardings, display stands, vehicle-adjacent rigid signage and event graphics.

Two substrate families deserve separate attention because they behave differently at the printer. Corrugated plastic signs are light, prone to static and easily marked, so vacuum control and static management matter more than head count. Composite and metal panels are dense, and the weight limit becomes the binding constraint rather than the bed size. Andresjet publishes collections organised by substrate and application, including UV printers for signage and UV printers for PVC and ABS panels, which is a faster way to check whether a configuration matches the material you actually buy.

What board sizes drive the platform decision?

The largest finished sign, plus finishing allowance.

Published maximum print areas in this range are 2500 × 1300 mm on the AJ2513G/R, 2100 × 3000 mm on the AJ2130 series and 3200 × 2000 mm on the AJ3220 series.

Start from the board the supplier delivers to your door, not the size of the print inside it. An 8 ft × 4 ft sheet is the common trade format in many markets, and the AJ2513G/R is specified for a maximum print size of 2500 × 1300 mm, which matches that format with a trimming allowance. Sign work that mixes vertical panels, hoardings and wide display walls tends to sit on the 2100 × 3000 mm platform used across the AJ2130 series, while the 3200 × 2000 mm bed on the AJ3220 series suits wide architectural and banner-panel work.

The trap is specifying the bed against the average job rather than the largest one. Tiling a single sign across two passes costs more than the material: it costs alignment time, a visible seam if the operator is under pressure, and a delivery date that depends on two successful passes rather than one. Where two formats are close in price, the larger platform usually removes more cost over a year than it adds at purchase.

How much throughput does a sign shop actually need?

Match the mode you will really run, not the draft figure.

Published figures across these models range from 13.02 m²/h in high-quality mode on the AJ2513G/R to 154.3 m²/h in draft on the AJ3220EX, so the only comparable number is the one for your mode.

Most sign shops run in a mode that balances quality against speed for the substrate, and that is rarely draft. The published production figures for the AJ2513G/R are 27.46 m²/h in draft, 17.71 m²/h in standard production and 13.02 m²/h in high-quality mode. The AJ2130G/R is published at 48.3, 34.9 and 27.9 m²/h across the same three modes, the AJ2130EX at 128.6, 92.9 and 74.6 m²/h, and the AJ2130Ultra at 140.7, 120.5 and 104.5 m²/h. The AJ3220EX is published at 154.3, 111.5 and 89.6 m²/h.

The useful calculation is to take the square metres you expect to sell in a normal week, divide by the number of productive hours in your shift pattern, and compare the result against the high-quality figure rather than the draft figure. Working printers rarely achieve a theoretical maximum, because setup, material changes and finishing interrupt the run. Allowing for that gap at the start prevents the common mistake of buying for a volume that only exists in the sales forecast.

Why do white ink and varnish matter more in signage?

Sign substrates are often clear, coloured or metallic.

White underlay is what makes colour readable on clear acrylic and dark composite, and a varnish channel is what produces the gloss and raised finish that differentiates a premium sign.

Printers in this range differ in how many channels they dedicate to white and varnish. The AJ2130G/R is specified with an extended eight-colour set of CMYK plus light cyan, light magenta, white and varnish; the AJ2513G/R with CMYK plus white and optional light cyan, light magenta and varnish; the AJ3220EX with an extended seven-colour set of CMYK plus light cyan, light magenta, white and varnish; and the AJ3220G/R with CMYK plus white and varnish, expandable to eight colours. The AJ2130EX and AJ2130Ultra are specified as four-colour CMYK machines.

Channel layout is not adjustable after delivery, so it belongs in the initial specification rather than in a later upgrade conversation. The published capability also includes raised effects and spot varnish, which are finish options a sign shop can sell rather than cost centres — the AJ360i cylinder printer is published with raised effects up to 0.15 mm and four white channels for dark objects, an indication of what the ink system supports across the range.

Which finishing equipment has to match the printer?

Cutting, edge finishing and lifting bind first.

A printed panel still has to be trimmed, drilled or routed, and a dense 10 mm composite sheet at 2500 × 1300 mm is a handling task before it is a printing task.

The equipment list that sits behind a signage line is short but decisive: a vertical panel saw or CNC router for trimming, an edge finisher for exposed composite edges, and enough lifting capacity to load and unload without dragging the sheet across the bed. Dragging is not just a labour problem; it abrades the platform and risks marking the print, which is one reason the published platform across this range is hard-anodised aluminium with a four-zone vacuum system.

The second matching question is drying and stacking space. UV inks cure immediately under the lamp, so a printed sign is handleable as it leaves the bed, but stacking a heavy panel against a fresh print will still mark it. A simple rack layout is a smaller investment than the downtime caused by reprinting a marked sign, and it is worth planning at the same time as the machine rather than after installation.

What does a single-shift layout require on site?

Power, access, extraction and floor loading, planned early.

The flatbed models are published at AC 220 V, 50/60 Hz with more than 20 A on the AJ2130 series and AJ3220EX, and the AJ2130 series measures 4172 × 4250 × 1390 mm at 1850 kg.

For a first signage line, the machine itself occupies less floor space than the material flow around it. Plan for a board storage area, a loading aisle wide enough to swing a full sheet, the printer, and a finishing and dispatch zone in a straight line, because reversing a 2500 × 1300 mm panel between two pinch points is where handling damage happens.

Operating conditions are published as 20–30 °C at 40–60 percent relative humidity for several models in the range, with the AJ3220G/R specified from 40 to 80 percent relative humidity, non-condensing. Extraction and operator protection follow local rules rather than supplier preference: in the United States the OSHA printing-industry guidance covers ventilation and exposure control (OSHA), and in the United Kingdom the HSE printing pages set out the equivalent duties (HSE). Waste ink and cleaning materials carry their own handling obligations in most jurisdictions (US EPA).

How should the machine pay for itself on sign work?

Compare your price per square metre to a known ink cost.

Andresjet publishes an ink cost of approximately $0.80 to $1.20 per square metre for a full-colour print, which you subtract from your own selling price to reach a margin.

The arithmetic that matters is per job rather than per machine. Take a sign you already sell, note its area and its selling price, subtract the published ink cost for a full-colour print, and then subtract the labour and finishing time the job consumes. What remains is the contribution each square metre makes towards the machine, the rent and the overheads. Running that calculation across your five most common products shows which mix the machine should be selling into, and it usually shows that finish and turnaround — not raw print speed — decide the margin.

Ink consumption itself varies with colour saturation, resolution and the amount of white underlay, so ask for a test print of your own artwork through the RIP to obtain the exact ink consumption for a representative job. That converts the published range into a figure specific to your product mix.

What should be tested before the order?

Adhesion and wear on your own boards, in your configuration.

Send the substrate and the production artwork, state the ink configuration and pass mode, and require the result to be recorded with the resolution and measured output.

For signage, two physical tests cover most of the commercial risk. Adhesion on non-porous substrates such as acrylic and coated metal is assessed with the ASTM D3359 tape test (ASTM D3359), and resistance to handling and cleaning is assessed by abrasion testing under ASTM D4060 (ASTM D4060). Andresjet publishes an outdoor lifespan of 3 to 5 years for its high-quality UV inks without significant fading, depending on the level of sun exposure, and notes that prints are waterproof and suitable for most indoor and outdoor applications, with a topcoat or lamination available for high-wear surfaces.

Ask also for the colour workflow that will be handed over. Signage work is judged on consistency between panels produced weeks apart, which depends on the ICC profiles built for each substrate rather than on the machine alone (International Color Consortium). Confirming who builds and maintains those profiles is part of the purchase, not an after-sales detail.

Which model suits a first signage line?

Start with the format, then the channels, then the heads.

For a general sign shop the AJ2513G/R covers the 8 ft × 4 ft trade sheet, while a mix of vertical panels and wide walls points to the AJ2130 platform or the AJ3220 series.

What the decision comes down to

A first signage line should be specified from the largest finished sign, the substrates you actually buy, and the mode you will really run. Those three answers set the platform, the ink channels and the head count, in that order. Everything else — finishing equipment, lifting, racking and extraction — is the flow around the machine, and it is cheaper to design it before installation than to retrofit it around a bottleneck.

Configuration detail for the models referenced above is published within the wide format UV flatbed range and on each model page, and the support terms are set out on the support page.