Briggs & Stratton Swaps Indigo for NexPress

Adding an HP Indigo 5000 in 2005 was a great decision for Briggs & Stratton Graphic Services. It moved the 34-employee, Milwaukee-based in-plant into variable data printing and high-quality digital color.
“It was a really, really great starting point for us,” says Manager Debbie Pavletich. “But I think we’re ready for that next step.”

So the shop recently replaced its leased HP Indigo press with a new five-color Kodak NexPress S2500. Printing 83.3 pages per minute at 600 dpi, the S2500 boasts an 11,000-sheet capacity and can print on a range of substrates of different sizes and weights. Bundled in with the new lease was a Kodak NexGlosser.

“One of the main reasons that we went with the NexPress is that it offered a couple of features that the HP Indigo didn’t have,” explains Pavletich. “It’s a larger sheet size. We can print to 14.33x20.5?.” The maximum sheet size on the 5000 was 12x18?, she says. Now more items can be grouped on a sheet, she says, which cuts costs.

Kodak’s new Dimensional Clear Dry Ink was another reason for the switch to a NexPress. The ink creates a raised effect that gives images a dimensional feel that mimics the surface of the items in a photograph.
“We think that we may have a good application for it,” Pavletich says. Namely, business cards.

Being able to negotiate the glossing unit into the deal was another plus. Had the shop kept the HP Indigo 5000, it would have had to pay for a UV coater. Getting the glosser with the NexPress was much more affordable.
Operators are in the process of learning the new machine, but Pavletich thinks the transition will go smoothly.

“Because we had some experience with the Indigo, it’s not as challenging for the operator,” she says. Kodak has been very helpful, she adds. “So far we’ve been really happy with support.”

The in-plant also added a black-and-white printer, a new Ricoh Katana Pro 906EX with an inline perfect binder. It prints 90 ppm and features a duplex inverter, as well as high-speed color and black-and-white scanning.

The inline perfect binder, which can bind 200 sheets (400 pages), was a key reason the shop wanted the 906EX. Its Océ 6250 can only bind half as many pages. Repair manuals and benefit booklets are getting larger, she says, and the in-plant needs to be able to bind them inline.