In-plants At Drupa

Though the expense of flying to Germany makes Drupa a little out of reach for most in-plants, a handful of managers made the trek to Düsseldorf for the mega trade show.

Craig Sedgwick, director of the LDS Church Printing Division, traveled there with Operations Manager John Bernstein, to get ideas for future purchases.

“Since Drupa is the event where most major manufacturers introduce new products, we feel it is very important to attend to see what is on the horizon for equipment, software and supplies,” he says. “We have no specific items that we are buying, but we will look at everything in general to get an idea of what to consider as we purchase equipment in the future.”

Another Salt Lake City in-plant manager who made the voyage was Doug Maxwell, managing director of Brigham Young University Print and Mail.

“We have found these shows to be of great benefit to us,” he says. “In addition to keeping up with technology and knowing what new things are in the works, we have made some significant purchases at the shows.”

Hoping to make such a significant purchase after touring Drupa is Wes Friesen, manager of Revenue Collection and Community Offices at Portland General Electric.

“I have started the process to get approval to replace in 2009 our existing IBM production printing system,” he says. “I am hoping to be able to purchase two color digital printers. We use these printers to print our customer billing statements, late notices and letters. So at Drupa, Eric Houger and I will be examining about six different potential digital printers that might be good fits for our needs.”

Below is a photo of Wes and Eric with an InfoPrint 5000, one of the devices they were looking at.