Expo Visit Helps County In-plant Pick the Right Digital Press

By Bob Neubauer

With the lease on its Canon imagePRESS C10000VP coming to an end last year, the Palm Beach County Graphics Division needed to find a replacement. PRINTING United Expo came at just the right time for the Greenacres, Florida-based in-plant.

“We wanted to compare what all of the vendors had,” says Manager John D.L. Johnson. So he and Assistant Manager Carlos G. Duenas, visited the Canon, Ricoh, Konica, and Xerox booths to check out similar models.

Carlos G. Duenas (left) and John D.L. Johnson stand with the Palm Beach County Graphics Division's new Canon imagePRESS 1350, which they checked out at PRINTING United Expo 2023.

“We wanted to make sure we had given each one proper consideration,” Johnson says. “We had several constraints to work with. We often do jobs requiring as many as four different drawers such as multi-color, multi-part NCR forms with variable date numbering, and manuals with tabs.”

Talking with representatives at each booth allowed them to ask specific questions and assess each machine’s ability to meet their shop’s demands.

“We also wanted to look inside to see what the machines were made of,” he continues. “I guess I may be old school, but if the machine is made of metal and not plastic, I think it will hold up better, run smoother, and produce better work than ones with many plastic components. I think that the total weight of the machine makes a difference.”

After the show, Johnson received formal proposals from each vendor and had several follow up conversations and meetings. But seeing the equipment at the Expo was vital to helping them make their decision.

“In the end we chose the Canon 1350,” reveals Johnson.

The 135-ppm machine was installed in late February and has printed about 800,000 impressions for the county since then.

“We print just about everything, from reports and agendas, to newsletters and annual reports, to business cards and forms,” remarks Johnson.

Will he and Duenas be back at PRINTING United Expo 2024 in a few weeks? Definitely, says Johnson.

You can join them in Las Vegas from Sept. 10-12 by registering here.

0 Comments

View Comments

Bob Neubauer Author's page

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.