New Press in the Pinelands

FOR STEVE Amitrano, getting a four-color press was always in his long-range plans. For many years, his six-employee in-plant at New Jersey's Burlington County College (BCC) had been running tons of four-color work on its two-color presses, fitting it in between two-color jobs.

"It wreaked havoc with our schedule," notes Amitrano, manager of the BCC Print Facility.

Recently, after months of research, planning and even a little demolition, the in-plant successfully installed its first four-color press, a Ryobi 524GE, purchased from xpedx. With a maximum printing area of 19.88x13.78˝, it boasts speeds of up to 11,000 sheets per hour.

"This was a good fit for us," he affirms.

Customers have been keeping the press busy with work since virtually its first day of operation, Amitrano says. The design department, in particular, has been eagerly routing their previously outsourced four-color projects to the in-plant.

"The flood gates opened," Amitrano remarks. "It runs nearly every day."

Located on a 225-acre campus just outside the small town of Pemberton, N.J., BCC sits at the edge of New Jersey's Pinelands, a heavily forested, largely undeveloped area stretching across the state. Amitrano came to the in-plant in 2000 and has studiously maintained a five-year strategic plan for the in-plant ever since.

That plan brought in a new Fuji processless computer-to-plate system back in March 2009. The plan also included a four-color press, though space limitations had been keeping that purchase on a back burner. But when a buyer expressed interest in the shop's old Heidelberg KORD, which has been collecting dust in the corner, the newly freed-up space set things in motion.

First Amitrano talked to customers about their future needs, to make sure there would be enough work to justify a four-color press. Satisfied there would be, he then got permission to start his research.

"The college administration backed us on new technology," he says.

Offset or Digital?

This opened up the question of what type of technology to get. These days, most in-plant press installations are of the digital variety. Amitrano says he and his staff did look at toner-based digital presses as well as direct imaging offset presses, but determined that a four-color offset press would best suit them.

For one thing, the in-plant already had an offset infrastructure in place. Then there were the lease and maintenance costs for a digital device, which Amitrano's research revealed would be higher than the cost of a press. Also, he felt an offset press would be the best way "to handle the high-quality demands of the college and the community."

After some preliminary research, Amitrano flew to the xpedx Technology Center in Cincinnati for an in-depth look at the Ryobi 524GE.

"They took a file, made plates, put it on press and had press sheets ready for OK in seven minutes from when the press operator was handed the plates," he enthuses—with only 50 waste sheets. He was sold.

The college board approved the purchase last December. Then xpedx sent a team to look at his shop. They told him the press—which was not modular—wouldn't fit through the shop's doors. A wall would have to be removed.

"That was the only way to get it in," Amitrano remarks.

So the college sent its physical plant team to take down the wall and put in a temporary one. They also renovated the area where the press was to go.

When the day came, the new press was wheeled down the hall, and easily fit into the shop. Setup went smoothly, and before long the new press was pumping out student handbooks, orientation materials, posters, newsletters, annual reports and commencement programs.

During IPG's visit, the press was deep into a run of 275,000 post cards. Jobs that used to be done in black-and-white, Amitrano says, are being redesigned in color to take advantage of the press.

Offset Quality Impresses

Customers have been extremely pleased with the quality—and quality is pretty important, Amitrano says, especially for recruitment materials.

"We're advertising ourselves to potential students," he explains.

In addition to the quality, the new press has greatly improved productivity. The shop turns jobs around much faster now, meeting deadlines with less rescheduling. It can also accept more jobs.

The Ryobi 524GE came with lots of automated features, including auto blanket washing and ink roller cleanup, and a semi-automatic plate changer.

"It uses very little blanket wash," remarks Amitrano.

The plate register remote control quickly makes adjustments of the image position in increments of 0.01 mm. Program inking automatically supplies ink to ink rollers to match the image from the start of printing. After the preset number of prints is finished, the ink on the rollers is automatically restored to an even state. Ink Volume Setter software can calculate image area ratio from prepress data.

The press isn't all that's new at BCC. The in-plant also added EFI PrintSmith print management software in June, and placed a new Duplo DC 445 creaser to eliminate cracking on the folds.

Amitrano was recently given oversight of BCC's mail operation, and plans to change the in-plant's name to the Print & Mail Facility. He's excited about the new responsibility.

"We welcome it," he says. "We want the opportunity."