While in Colorado for the annual In-plant Printing and Mailing Association (IPMA) conference last week, IPG Editor Bob Neubauer embarked on a 200-mile road trip to visit three different in-plants, then toured a fourth as part of the conference.

At Urban Fulfillment Services, Bob Neubauer (right) poses with Brett Birky by the shop's two inkjet presses.

First he toured Urban Fulfillment Services’ extremely clean and spacious in-plant, located in a 25,000-sq.-ft. facility near Denver International Airport. As noted in IPG's May cover story, the company started a new in-plant with two Ricoh InfoPrint 5000 GP inkjet presses about a year and a half ago. Working 24/7, the 15-employee operation prepares, prints, inserts and ships mortgage-related transactional documents; everything that comes in by midnight must go out the next day.

"We have no idea, day to day, what kind of volume is coming in," remarked Brett Birky, who oversees the operation.

Tim Waltz, of Cherry Creek School District's in-plant.

From there Neubauer drove to Cherry Creek School District to talk with Tim Waltz and tour his eight-employee in-plant, which was busy printing middle and high school course materials. The shop also prints math books from files it gets from the publisher, saving the district a quarter million dollars a year. The in-plant is in the middle of adding Web-to-print software.

Joe Morin and Bob Neubauer stand by Colorado Springs School District 11's Konica Minolta C1100.

After that, Neubauer headed for Colorado Springs, 65 miles south, to visit Joe Morin at Colorado Springs School District 11. With 38 years at the in-plant, he’s seen a lot of technology come and go.

“I just love technology, and I love to see what’s coming next,” he said.

The shop just sold its four-color Ryobi offset press after taking it offline a year ago and going all digital with a Konica Minolta C1100 bizhub PRESS.

Al Goranson talks with visiting in-plant managers at the University of Colorado-Boulder's Imaging Services operation.

During the conference, Neubauer and most of the other 154 attendees toured the University of Colorado-Boulder's Imaging Services operation, chock full of equipment, including a Presstek DI press, a Ricoh Pro 901 Graphic Arts plus, a Duplo System 5000 and much more.

Watch for videos of these in-plant visits soon.