New NexPress Brings Dimensional Printing to Colorado

Though the State of Colorado’s Integrated Document Solutions (IDS) operation most recently made headlines for installing a four-color Ricoh InfoPrint 5000 MP production inkjet press to produce transactional materials, the 64-employee in-plant also prints a fair amount of high-quality color marketing materials.

“We have a handful of customers that require a little more dynamic printing because they’re truly marketing driven,” explains Mike Lincoln, Colorado state printer.

Mike Lincoln

To satisfy those customers’ needs, the Denver-based in-plant replaced its Xerox Color 1000 Press in December with a remanufactured Kodak NexPress SX3300 digital color press. Ricoh provided the press in a deal that did not raise lease payments and brought additional capabilities such as the ability to print on a larger sheet size (14x20.4˝) and Kodak Dimensional Printing, a spot-coating technique that uses Kodak Clear Dry Ink to add a three-dimensional, tactile element to printed pieces.

“Having the added capabilities of the larger sheet size and the Dimensional really were the things that cemented the deal for us,” remarks Lincoln.

He anticipates great interest in the NexPress’s capabilities from the Colorado Lottery and Colorado Parks and Wildlife.

“They very often will want to create a short-run, high-impact piece,” he says.

The in-plant’s first Dimensional Printing job was its own IDS calendar, which it prints for customers every year.

“That’s one of our primary marketing pieces,” he explains. “We’re hoping to drive some interest in the new capabilities with our IDS calendar.”

A capabilities booklet that will demonstrate Dimensional Printing and other features is also in the plans.

Lincoln is excited about the 14x20.4˝ sheet size capabilities as well, which will enable the shop to produce certain jobs that it previously could not.

Standing with the State of Colorado’s Ricoh InfoPrint 5000 MP inkjet press are (from left) Mike Lincoln, Tonya Douglas, Steve Wilkerson and Dan Zamora.

“With the larger sheet size and slightly different configuration, we can do short-run, print-on-demand, customized pocket folders with the device,” he says.

Customers have requested small runs of pocket folders, and in the past the in-plant has accommodated them by printing large runs of generic folders and then putting stickers on them to personalize them. With the NexPress, each order can be printed separately.

“Being able to do short-run customizable pieces on so many different substrates is really where a lot of our customers are making requests that we haven’t been able to address in the past,” Lincoln says.

The larger sheet size will let the in-plant keep other jobs in-house as well. Lincoln notes that the health department had a project that was 13.5x19˝ with bleeds that the in-plant could not accommodate with the Xerox Color 1000’s 13x19.2˝ sheet size.

“The finished sheet size with the bleeds prevented us from printing that in-house, so we had to outsource it,” he says.

The in-plant plans to add a high-capacity feeder that will provide a maximum sheet size of 14x39.37˝, Lincoln says, with an image area of 13.4x35.6˝.

In January, IDS also added a new Ricoh Pro C7100, which it will incorporate into its transactional printing operation. Any spoilage from batches being printed on the inkjet press will be reprinted on the C7100. Since the Ricoh has a booklet maker, he says, it can also be used in combination with the NexPress to create high-end booklets.

“We can run high-end Dimensional toner covers on the NexPress, then we’ve got a cover interposer on the smaller [Ricoh] machine … so we can actually do these short-run, nice pieces on that machine,” he says.

Lincoln is confident that the two new digital presses will help the in-plant bring additional work in-house and save taxpayers even more money.

“With the added capacity, I really hope to impact the amount of work we outsource by close to a third,” he predicts. “It gives us more agility to serve customer needs. In the past, a lot of it would have to be outsourced, and so we would have to add time to allow for the outsourcing. By bringing new devices in … it’s really just a win-win for both this shop and then the customers we serve.”