Equipment Upgrades Precede Iowa Bankers Move to New Facility
Todd Palmer stands with Iowa Bankers Association’s new Canon varioPRINT 135.
As Iowa Bankers Association Print & Mail Services prepares to move into a new facility next month, the two-employee in-plant is upgrading its printing capabilities for an expected increase in work. Over the summer, the Johnston, Iowa, operation swapped two Xerox D125 black-and-white printers for a new Canon varioPRINT 135 monochrome device, and replaced a seven-year-old Memjet envelope printer with a faster, easier-to-use Printware iJetColor NXT.
With the new Canon varioPRINT 135, the in-plant has gotten better finishing capabilities, fewer jams, a lower click charge, and less downtime.
“It feeds heavier stock a lot better than the 125,” notes Manager Todd Palmer. “The quality is probably a little bit better too.”
The varioPRINT 135 uses Océ DirectPress Technology to provide high print quality and better consistency by eliminating unstable variables such as charge, static, and light. “I don’t see a lot of variances on it,” observes Palmer. “The screens seem to be real sharp.”
The in-plant still prints a lot of black-and-white mailings, manuals, statements, and newsletters. It uses an offline inserter to insert color covers preprinted on its Konica
Minolta bizhub PRESS C1100. Palmer hopes the new Canon varioPRINT 135 will help bring back some of the outside print work the in-plant lost during COVID when customers scaled back their printing.
The new Printware iJetColor NXT has eliminated some software issues the shop had with the old envelope printer, and added the flexibility to run larger envelope sizes (up to 10.5 x17˝) and even padded envelopes. Its user-friendly touch screen has simplified operation.
Todd Palmer shows off the new Printware iJetColor NXT.
“It’s a lot easier to run and set up,” Palmer remarks.
The in-plant prints approximately 30,000 envelopes per month currently, but Palmer expects that to climb to 50,000. The shop prints both return addresses and variable data address information.
“This will actually do full bleeds too,” he adds.
Even as the in-plant gets used to its new capabilities, it is already preparing to pack up and leave its long-time facility for new digs about a mile and a half away. The new shop will be larger, with more storage space, tables for the equipment, space to expand, and a lot more windows than the current facility.
“Everybody says the print shop has the best view,” says Palmer.
Bob has served as editor of In-plant Impressions since October of 1994. Prior to that he served for three years as managing editor of Printing Impressions, a commercial printing publication. Mr. Neubauer is very active in the U.S. in-plant industry. He attends all the major in-plant conferences and has visited more than 180 in-plant operations around the world. He has given presentations to numerous in-plant groups in the U.S., Canada and Australia, including the Association of College and University Printers and the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association. He also coordinates the annual In-Print contest, co-sponsored by IPMA and In-plant Impressions.
