A Wide Open Opportunity
In-plants that have wide-format ink-jet printers say the devices have quickly paid for themselves in increased business.
by Caroline Miller
According to Joe Goss, if there is one thing that has had an impact on the wide-format ink-jet printing market, it's the PowerPoint presentation.
"We never realized the kind of demand there would be for charts and posters to accompany PowerPoint presentations," says Goss, director of university printing and materials management at Indiana University, in Bloomington, Ind. "The professors don't want to keep redoing the charts. They need something that is printed on a flexible material that they can roll up, place in a tube, get on a plane with and reuse several times for presentations. We never realized the demand that professors would have for the ColorSpan."
The 36-employee in-plant originally had other reasons for acquiring the printer, Goss says.
"Originally, we bought our wide-format ink-jet printer after a customer talked to us about needing banners in the buildings," he says. "We figured the work that the one customer would give us would pay for the machine." But that machine brought in much more business than anyone had anticipated.
That's what in-plants around the country are discovering: Wide-format ink-jet printers are generating lots of new work.
Roger Chamberlain, manager of printing at Cincinnati Insurance Co., reports that most of the work produced on his shop's Hewlett-Packard 800 is legal charts and photographs for legal trials.
"The large-format ink-jet printer is really critical to our operations," he says.
While presentation work has helped justify the purchase of the wide-format machine, traditional products like signs, banners, posters and proofs still keep the machine busy.
Buy One Now
For those in-plants that do not own a wide-format printer, now is the time to buy, maintains Rick Wise, director of Printing Services at the University of Missouri-Columbia. The $8 million, 117-employee in-plant recently purchased its first wide-format printer, a Hewlett-Packard 5000.
"We feel that we are actually late in getting into the picture and that we are behind other universities in offering wide-format printing," he notes. "Although we could have benefitted from offering it in the past, until now, we didn't think that the quality was there, and the expense seemed rather high."
But all of that has changed recently; prices for wide-format printers now range between $10,000 and $13,000, and the technology has matured, states Wise.
"The quality is stunning now and the price of the device has come down significantly," he adds.
Another benefit is that today's wide-format machines are more flexible in their ability to accept different substrates, says James Brouse, prepress manager at Wal-Mart's Print Mailing and Distribution Center, in Bentonville, Ark. The $25 million center, with 329 employees, uses a ColorSpan 7100.
But How Can You Justify The Cost?
While the increased flexibility, lower price point and improved technology might make your mouth water at the thought of adding a wide-format printer, in-plants still have to justify the cost.
For Chamberlain, of Cincinnati Insurance, it was an easy argument to make; the purchase of a machine meant that his 18-employee in-plant, with a $3 million budget, no longer had to outsource $8,000 a year in wide-format printing.
"It truly paid for itself in a year," he remarks.
For Goss and Wise the clamor among customers for a wide-format printer was so intense that it made less sense not to purchase the machine.
"Honestly, I didn't worry about the ROI," says Wise. "There was such a demand for it on campus. Our primarily goal was just to break even on it. By offering wide-format printing we continue the perception on campus that campus Printing Services is where you go when you need printing. We want to stay viable in their eyes. If we can't meet their needs, they are going to go to an outside printer and we lose them as customers. To us, to maintain that perception of service is just as important as the ROI."
Don't Forget The Laminator
When you purchase a wide-format printer, plan to purchase a trimmer and a laminator, as well, notes Wise. Most of the products you will print require trimming, laminating and mounting onto foam or gator board.
"We didn't realize that we'd need a wall trimmer and a laminator when we began looking at the wide-format printers. But the more research we did, the more we realized that they go hand-in-hand," says Wise.
He also recommends talking with other printing facilities that offer wide-format printing to get a feel for how it works before you invest.
Then go shopping.
"Obviously you've got to go to major print shows and look at what is out there. Also, if you have a corporate IT department, they can provide some additional expertise," recommends Chamberlain. "People shouldn't be afraid to take advantage of that in-house expertise."
Another unlikely source of good information on a wide-format printer is your laminating vendor. Because laminators are such an integral part of setting up your wide-format capabilities, laminator vendors can be very helpful in finding the right wide-format printer, says Chamberlain.
"We spoke with our laminating vendor about which ink-jet printers don't adhere to their lamination, and there are some," he says. "They were really open and honest with us. It was extremely helpful to us."
