Fremont, CA (Sept. 26, 2018) — Lenexa, KS-based Custom Color Corp. has long excelled in developing unique, high-value superwide-format graphics applications, and now the company is taking some of its best work into a higher gear with a newly installed EFI VUTEk HS125 Pro hybrid flatbed/roll inkjet press and an EFI Fiery proServer digital front end (DFE) from Electronics For Imaging Inc. (Nasdaq: EFII).
The new 126″-wide, high-volume press offers the consistent, high-volume, high-definition imaging needed for their core business. With the addition of the HS125 Pro, Custom Color Corp replaced an older, dedicated flatbed printer. Mike Lecus, Custom Color’s COO says, “We continue to invest in next level technologies to provide our clients with the highest-quality products on time and on budget.”
Printing at speeds up to 125 boards per hour, the VUTEk press has eight channels, including two with white ink, and delivers premium-quality, grayscale imaging on a broad range of flexible and rigid substrates up to 2″ thick. “The HS125 Pro increases our capacity three to four times on UV-printed work,” according to Lecus.
The newly installed hybrid printer is also doing double-duty on roll-to-roll goods, however. Custom Color is one of the country’s largest producers of printed G-FLOOR polyvinyl flooring. “Before now,” explained Lecus, “printing vibrant, full-color designs over the clear base of G-FLOOR required printing white ink at slower speeds. We looked at everything else available on the market, and realized the increased throughput with the dual channel white heads was the ideal solution for our high-volume white ink production.” To accommodate this amount of work, Custom Color purchased its printer with an elevated unwinder, one of several full- and semi-automated media handling options available with the VUTEk HS125 Pro.
Reliable, consistent high-quality printing with EFI technology
The new press is just the latest investment in EFI technology at Custom Color. At the start of the year (2018), the company underwent a major upgrade in fabric soft signage production, replacing four solvent-based printers with a pair of EFI VUTEk FabriVU 340 aqueous dye-sublimation printers. The printers have allowed Custom Color to keep up with surging demand for silicone edge graphics for retail signage and display, exhibition signage and other applications.
Custom Color’s digital print operators have experience with several different DFEs, but have found the Fiery proServer offers efficient functionality that reduces mistakes and helps ensure high quality. “Our VUTEk FabriVU printers and our new VUTEk HS all run on Fiery,” Lecus said. “The upside for us is their usability. The Fiery proServer DFEs are very intuitive, and they are doing a great job for us.”
EFI’s complete printer portfolio, which in addition to industry-leading LED and UV inkjet wide- and superwide-format technologies include advanced industrial printing and decoration systems for corrugated board, textile, ceramic tile and other building materials, gives customers profitable opportunities for the “Imaging of Things,” delivering greater product customization and appeal in everything from signage and packaging to décor, apparel and industrial manufacturing. Click here to see many of the extensive, imaginative applications possible with EFI print technology.
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About EFI
EFI is a global technology company, based in Silicon Valley, and is leading the worldwide transformation from analog to digital imaging. We are passionate about fueling customer success with products that increase competitiveness and boost productivity. To do that, we develop breakthrough technologies for the manufacturing of signage, packaging, textiles, ceramic tiles, and personalized documents, with a wide range of printers, inks, digital front ends, and a comprehensive business and production workflow suite that transforms and streamlines the entire production process.
