Premium Color Group is meeting surging demand for new business and its custom packaging line with high-end LED digital inkjet technology from Electronics For Imaging, Inc.
The Carlstadt, New Jersey-based company has installed an EFI VUTEk LX3 Pro hybrid flatbed/roll-to-roll LED inkjet printer that will significantly increase the company’s responsiveness and capabilities supporting PCG’s growing business.
The 126-inch wide digital printer, which produces up to 50 boards per hour in its premium quality/point-of-purchase modes, offers a dramatic speed increase for PCG, so much so that the company was able to replace a pair of smaller LED printers while increasing its throughput capacity by 78%. Because the VUTEk LX3 Pro handles both rigid and roll materials, the company has also eliminated the need for one of its two roll-to-roll printers.
Founded 25 years ago as a prepress shop, the company has grown to become a full-service marketing solutions provider and offers offset and digital printing, hand assembly, fulfillment, wide format graphics and a custom packaging line of products. PCG’s core clients consist of major advertising companies, display manufacturers, pharmaceutical, cosmetic and corporate/retail accounts, along with a national footprint of promotional product distributors.
Superior quality without compromise for rapidly growing volumes
“Two and a half years ago, we got into the custom packaging business with our U.S.-patented Box line,” said Mark Fitzgerald, one of the three managing partners at PCG along with John Watson and Andy Griffin. “In two-and-a-half years, we grew the line tenfold, and the demand continues to grow. We needed to vastly increase our throughput while keeping the same great quality, and the VUTEk LX3 with the Fiery controller fits the bill perfectly. We loved the quality of our previous EFI printers, so we had confidence the VUTEk LX3 Pro would also be a quality product, and it is.”
PCG’s new printer delivers high production throughput for shorter lead times while maintaining exceptional image quality. The versatile hybrid device can print on materials up to two inches thick with eight colors plus white and multilayer printing at resolutions of up to 1,000 dots per inch.
“Cool cure” LED for greater hybrid versatility
The range of compatible media for the VUTEk printer was a key consideration in the company’s purchase decision. PCG’s new production device features EFI’s “cool cure” LED technology. Compared with latex and UV printers, LED not only reduces the amount and cost of energy used for curing prints, it gives PCG the ability to print heat-sensitive substrates.
The company is getting the most out of the printer’s LED technology and its hybrid flatbed/roll-to-roll format by printing packaging board and rolled media.
Reliable, accurate profiling and color with EFI Fiery
PCG’s experience and comfort with using EFI technologies goes beyond the printer to the advanced Fiery proServer digital front end (DFE) the company also acquired to drive the new printer. According to Fitzgerald, PCG’s operators appreciate the advantage Fiery DFEs bring to streamlining production processes and maintaining high quality. “We have two digital presses with Fiery DFEs, plus we had them on our previous EFI Wide Format printers,” he said. “So, we know first-hand how Fiery gives us more control over color profiling than other systems.”
PCG aims to continue on an accelerated growth path relying on its new EFI technologies, utilizing a digital superwide-format inkjet production platform that delivers true premium-quality packaging and graphics output.
EFI’s complete printer portfolio, which in addition to industry-leading LED and UV inkjet wide- and superwide-format technologies also includes textile, corrugated packaging and ceramic decoration printers, 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.
