Cincinnati Excited About Novel Equipment Choice

They looked at an HP Indigo. They tested Xerox and Canon digital printers. But in the end, the City of Cincinnati’s Printing Services operation made an unexpected and original choice: The in-plant installed a Meteor DP60 Pro from MGI USA.
Though not as well known as Xerox and Canon, MGI has been gaining recognition in recent years, most recently at PRINT 09 when it earned three “Must See ‘ems” awards, including an encore “Must See ‘em” for its Meteor DP60 Pro multi-substrate digital press.

For the City of Cincinnati, the decision to go with the Meteor DP60 Pro came down to letterhead. The nine-employee in-plant needed a digital color printer to print letterhead that could be run back through a laser printer. After rigorous testing, the in-plant found that other devices, despite their claims, could not do this.

“The Meteor DP60 Pro was by far the best option,” says Steven Howe, manager of Printing Services, Stores and Mail Operations for the city. “It was the only press that was truly laser safe, and the quality was outstanding.”

This was a far cry from his initial reaction when a dealer first suggested this unknown product from a French company.

“I just wouldn’t give them the time of day,” he laughs.

His shop had been searching for a replacement for the two-color ABDick Century 3500 press it had been using to print letterhead.

“The 3500 had been a sore spot for quite a while,” he says. “Parts were not readily available. Color consistency was not the best.”

And to top it off, the city was about to move to a three-color logo. The shop needed to be able to reproduce this consistently.

After testing many other devices, Howe eventually decided to give the Meteor a shot as well.

“I was totally amazed. I was shocked,” he recalls. “The color consistency is unbelievable. It matches the offset like you wouldn’t believe.”

Still, he had some reservations.

“I was very nervous about...buying a machine that nobody really knows about. It was nerve-racking,” he admits. But in the end, his visionary spirit took over. “I’m always willing to take that risk if it’s something I believe in.”

One bonus of the Meteor, he says, is its ability to handle thick stocks, including PVC, polyester and vinyl.

“We do a lot of posters, we do a lot of door hangers. We need that heavier weight stock,” he remarks. The shop has already produced plastic parking tags on the press.

Another feature Howe loves is the press’s ability to apply extra toner to create a glossy, more vibrant look. “We did it on a poster,” he says. “It made the colors jump up out of the paper at you.”

Though the press seems a perfect fit the the in-plant, the shop finds itself fighting the age-old perception in city government that color printing is an extravagance. Regardless, Howe has promoted the new press by inviting graphic designers to come and see what it can do.

“It opened up more ideas for them to add more color to documents,” he says.

In contrast to his initial skepticism, Howe now feels MGI’s technology will have a great impact on the industry in years ahead.

“I feel confident this is the kind of product people are going to want to have in the future,” he says. “The Meteor DP60 Pro has truly changed how we think about printing. We’re now able to undertake projects that were previously constrained by cost and capabilities, and we’re excited about exploring the multi-substrate aspects of the press and producing more variable data print jobs.”

Howe feels the new press will give his shop an advantage over local printers. Several of them have already asked to take a look at it.

“We feel confident this MGI [press] will give us the capability to be more competitive with the outside world,” he says.