From Five to Three: Georgia In-plant Boosts Quality, Cuts Costs, Trims Fleet

The Columbus State University Printing Solutions team stands with the Canon imagePRESS V1000. From left: Drew Burgering, Isabel Guzman (holding samples printed on the V1000), Laquan Clark, and Alan Haas.

When Drew Burgering came to Columbus State University Printing Solutions in October 2021, he knew the end was near for his in-plant’s five digital presses. Not only were the leases almost up on the two Xerox color presses and three Ricoh monochrome and color devices, most of them were just old. As manager of Printing Solutions, he wanted more modern printing capabilities for his four-employee shop, as well as better in-line finishing.

A few months ago, Burgering got exactly that when his Columbus, Georgia, in-plant replaced those five devices with three Canon digital presses, cutting not only the number of machines but the price tag as well.

“I was able to reduce my monthly lease payment by $900,” boasts Burgering. And click charges dropped too, he adds.

Thanks to university “repair and replace” funds, he was able to purchase a Canon imagePRESS V900 outright, then lease a Canon imagePRESS V1000 and a black-and-white varioPRINT 140. All three have in-line bookletmakers. The V1000 has three-sided trimming and the others have face trimming. The V900 has an extended feed tray that enables it to run 13x30” sheets. This came in handy when Admissions revamped its acceptance package to include a 27” brochure with four folds.

“Up until now, I would have had to send it out,” says Burgering. “Now I can offer that to them and do it all in-house.”

From left: Drew Burgering, Isabel Guzman (holding samples printed on the V1000), Laquan Clark, and Alan Haas.

The in-plant has been using the new digital presses to print event programs, Admissions letters, course packs, lab manuals, event tickets, postcards, invitations, ROTC cadet handbooks, and more. Burgering is very pleased with the print quality, especially on solid blacks. The in-line multi-hole punch on the V1000 has proven very useful, he adds.

“We do a lot of music scores,” he says. These are wire bound. “We had to hand punch them before.” Now they come off the digital press punched and ready to wire bind on an Akiles WireMac E31.

The in-plant also recently added an OKI SP1360S envelope printer, Burgering says, though for one- and two-color envelopes it still uses its trusty A.B.Dick 9985. The shop’s biggest growth area, however, is wide-format printing, he adds. It uses a Mutoh ValueJet 1628 hybrid flatbed printer and a Canon aqueous roll-fed printer, as well as a Mutoh ValueCut 1300 contour cutter to print and cut hall signs, theater banners, dining hall signs, conference presentation posters, wedding and birthday signage, and lots and lots of stickers.

“We do sometimes 5,000 of them at a time,” he says.