Shanghai Yaselan Advertising Material Co. Ltd., China's leading manufacturer of grand-format inkjet printers, has set its sights on expansion outside of China. Founded in 1993, the company has already installed more than 400 grand-format inkjet printers, primarily in China, which boasts the world's largest outdoor-advertising industry.
Now, Yaselan is developing the right combination of technology, international distribution, and customer support to satisfy expectations of graphics producers and graphics buyers outside of China. To date, Yaselan has sold more than 20 machines outside of China, in sites as diverse as Australia, Italy, Poland, Japan, and Korea.
At the International Sign Association's Sign Expo at the Mandelay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas, NV, Yaselan will attempt to dispel myths that Chinese-built machines can't meet the print-quality expectations of worldwide buyers of graphics. At Sign Expo, they will demonstrate the YSL-S8″?also known as the Silver Storm–which is Yaselan's first grand-format inkjet made with US-built Spectra printheads. Yaselan has also partnered with the new Jetrion division of Flint Ink to ensure that print quality will fully satisfy world standards.
The company started out building aluminum alloy sections for lightbox frames used in China's burgeoning outdoor-advertising market. In 1995, the company developed their first grand-format digital printer, using valve airbrush technology and a flat frame configuration. The company's breakthrough product was the YSL-5000A, a five-meter-wide roll-fed digital printer, which was the first of its kind to be made in China. The company then introduced a series of narrower-format machines, most recently the YSL 3524, using Xaar XJ128 printheads for faster speeds and better quality.
Yaselan president George Quan comments, “Our company continues to invest heavily in R&D to ensure that each new generation of our machines outperforms earlier models and our competitors.” He regards international distributors as partners: “The feedback from these companies helps us to keep improving our offerings. One day, we want to Yaselan name to be as famous worldwide for its quality as it is today in China.” (Yaselan: www.yaselan.com/eng/product/)