Sacramento, California-based DOME Print and Marketing Solutions, a full-service commercial print shop that has been around for more than 40 years, has upgraded its superwide-format inkjet production capabilities in its new manufacturing facility with the purchase of two new EFI VUTEk printers.

The company became one of the first on the West Coast to install an EFI VUTEk HS125 Pro hybrid roll/flatbed inkjet press and an EFI VUTEk LX3 Pro hybrid LED inkjet printer.

Company officials say the new EFI VUTEk printers will give it the upgraded speed and quality that it needs to keep up with a growing demand for indoor signage with tight turnaround times. The company’s customer base includes many well-known national retail brands.

“Our single largest growth area is in retail,” says Bob Poole, DOME’s chief marketing officer. “And our technology investment with the new VUTEk printer purchases is driving a lot of that growth because it helps us print better-quality work at faster speeds.”

The two new 3.2m-wide inkjet production devices replace a pair of 3.2m VUTEk devices used at DOME. The VUTEk HS125 Pro model DOME installed is the most productive VUTEk press ever developed, according to the company, printing 25 percent faster than the previous-model VUTEk HS series press it is replacing. The press delivers high-quality, variable gloss output with UV/LED Pin & Cure imaging technology and has a variety of automated material handling options to accommodate high-volume throughput.

The new VUTEk LX3 Pro printer DOME Print and Marketing installed features energy-efficient, “cool cure” LED imaging technology. It replaced a 3.2m VUTEk GS series LED printer and offers a new, extended-gamut ink capable of delivering eight-color quality results using only four colors. Although the printer runs up to eight colors plus white, “we’ve found that the four-color mode on the LX3 Pro printer will work for a lot of jobs, and it will allow us to see some cost savings,” says Poole.

It has also allowed his company to print on substrates it couldn’t print on with heat-based technologies, Poole says, including yoga mats, which are foam-based and flammable.

The new EFI printers come as DOME is going a growth period, including having purchased an established signage design and manufacturing company last year.

“We’re anticipating a very busy fourth quarter,” Poole says. “That’s why we’re making these upgrades now. I’m going to need every piece of machinery I have just to keep up with demand.”

He adds that he expects to be hiring additional staff to keep with the extra workload.

Aside from EFI’s VUTEk printers, DOME’s other equipment includes an Inca Onset and several Epson printers and several HP production servers.