Fifth Color Station Opens Possibilities for Sonoma State

It was time for Sonoma State University Campus Prints to make a decision: the lease was up on its five-year-old Ricoh Pro C900, so the in-plant needed to either buy out the machine or look into a new model.

Although a sturdy mainstay, the C900 had started having some issues due to its age, so the team came to a decision: it was time for an upgrade. In June, Campus Prints replaced the C900 with a Ricoh Pro C7110X.

Doug Schiller, manager of general services at Campus Prints, says the decision ultimately came down to either a Konica or a Ricoh machine.

“They were both solid,” he remarks. “The main reason we went with Ricoh was the price of what we were getting. Ricoh could do everything, and on top of that, we could utilize the fifth station for added revenue.”

The fifth color station allows the addition of white or clear toner to pages to enable the creation of new applications and effects like spot gloss. Although the amount and type of work that the in-plant processes hasn’t increased significantly since the installation of the 90-page-per-minute C7110X, “it’s made things a lot easier for setting up jobs and the flow of production,” Schiller admits. 

The operator controls are improved over those of the C900, he says, and with the addition of a media identification unit—a scanner to identify stock—the workflow has become more streamlined. Any stock that can’t be detected is added manually. The new machine has opened up substrate capabilities by giving the team access to petallic and synthetic papers that couldn’t be run on the C900. Schiller explains that clear toner on petallic papers creates an eye-catching effect, which can be achieved now that the team has the fifth color station.

With about 8,000 full-time students on campus, Schiller plans to rely on word of mouth in addition to direct mailers to let students know of the new equipment’s capabilities. By using the Ricoh Business Booster website, the in-plant downloaded files to create examples of the work that can be done with the fifth station.

Now Schiller plans to use clear spot toner on flyers and envelopes to highlight the different capabilities of the new equipment. The envelopes will contain approximately 10 examples of printing techniques, which will be sent out through campus mail. Schiller also plans to host a tutorial class for graphic designers on campus to walk them through the fifth color station’s capabilities.

In addition to standard stapling, the C7110X features an in-line GBC StreamPunch Ultra three-hole, coil and wire punch and a Plockmatic 500 saddle stitcher. Shortly after firing up the machine, the in-plant used the Plockmatic stitcher to finish a large run of programs for a conference.

Overall, Schiller reports that his team of three full-time and five student employees is happy with the decision to add the Ricoh 7110X.

“It’s been running pretty solid—which you would kind of expect from a machine you just got,” Schiller laughs.