IPI Tours Four Sacramento In-plants
I took advantage of a recent trip to Sacramento to visit four different in-plants around the California state capital. Though the near-constant rain made driving a bit slippery (and did little to support California’s reputation for sunny skies), I enjoyed the opportunity to see in-plants in a different part of the country.
Visiting managers from the University of California - San Francisco talk with Darin Hinman (right) of UC Davis.
I was in town to attend and speak at an In-plant Printing and Mailing Association Road Show on the campus of California State University – Sacramento. The day before that event, I drove right from the airport to the University of California - Davis Repro Graphics operation, located in a street-level facility a few miles from campus. There I met new Director Darin Hinman, who took over a few months ago from the retiring Donna Horbelt.
We were soon joined by a trio of visiting managers from the University of California - San Francisco, led by Mario Carmona, associate director of Documents & Media. I listened as they compared notes on their copier programs (UC Davis manages 550 devices, which it owns; UC San Francisco oversees twice as many leased copiers and printers at three different sites) and other topics.
Darin Hinman (right) shows off UC Davis Repro Graphics to managers from the University of California - San Francisco.
Then Darin led us on a tour of his 18-employee operation, which featured a pair of Xerox Iridesse digital color presses, one with white, clear, metallic, and gold specialty dry ink capabilities and a booklet maker, the other with a high-end stacker and two-up punching capabilities. Next to these were two Canon monochrome printers: a varioPRINT 140 and a new Titan, added to help the shop keep up with growing black-and-white volumes. Darin told me the in-plant printed 7 million monochrome impressions last year.
Like at many in-plants, wide-format printing is the fastest-growing part of Repro Graphics’ business, he said, and the shop is handling this work with a roll-fed 60˝ Mimaki UCJV300-160 print-and-cut device and a Mimaki JFX200-2513 flatbed printer, along with a Canon imagePROGRAF TX-4000 and an HP Latex 700.
IPI Editor Bob Neubauer (left), Mario Carmona of UC San Francisco, and Darin Hinman of UC Davis stand with ReproGraphics' new Canon Titan.
Into ‘Wide-Format Land’
Laura Lockett (right), director of University Print & Mail at Sacramento State, leads a tour of her in-plant as part of the IPMA Road Show.
The next day at the IPMA Road Show, after the presentations and lunch, the entire group trekked over to Sacramento State University Print & Mail for a tour. Some of us walked, during a break in the rain, across the gorgeous sylvan campus, which was bursting with fall colors and adorned with towering redwoods.
Director Laura Lockett and her team proudly demonstrated their equipment and showed off various unique printed pieces. Two Konica Minolta digital presses stood just outside the lobby area, near a collection of Standard Finishing and Duplo bindery devices. Visiting in-plant managers plied the staff with questions about the machines. Two of the newest are a Printware iJet 1175 inkjet envelope press and a Standard Horizon CF362 creaser/folder, added in January.
The tour of Sacramento State University Print & Mail
After a demonstration of the mailroom staff’s mail throwing expertise, the group entered “Wide-Format Land,” a former paper warehouse converted into a dedicated wide-format production area. The centerpieces were a new Mimaki JFX 200EX flatbed UV printer and a Colex Sharpcut Pro SX1732. We watched the Colex cutting out magnets from a large sheet. The wide-format area also features a Direct Color Systems 1800z UV LED printer, used to create ADA-compliant signage and acrylic awards, as well as other roll-fed wide-format printers, cutters, and laminators.
One of the Largest In-plants
IPI Editor Bob Neubauer (left) and California State Printer Lou Butera.
The next day I drove in the pouring rain to the California Office of State Publishing’s production facility. The second largest in-plant in North America, OSP relocated to this 128,000-sq.-ft. plant in August 2019, after 67 years in a much larger facility in downtown Sacramento. I sat down with new State Printer Lou Butera, who started about three months ago, to chat about his goals for improving the 313-employee operation. He and his team are looking for ways to improve the workflow to decrease the number of times documents are being touched. They have started scheduling regular meetings with top clients to learn about their business needs, so OSP can adapt and become “the printer of choice.”
OSP's web offset press.
After we talked, I got a tour of the massive production floor from Robert Bibica, plant superintendent, and Brian Allen, operations manager. The centerpiece was the eight-color Heidelberg M-1000B web offset press, which consumes about 128,000 lbs. of paper a day – about three truck loads. The warehouse of stacked paper rolls gave some indication of what a staggering amount of paper this is. One huge recent job was printing 16 million voter guides, each 144 pages.
The shop also runs a six-color, 40˝ Heidelberg Speedmaster sheetfed press and two web forms presses, which print items like drivers’ license renewal forms. Three Halmjet presses turn out 150 million envelopes per year.
Brian Allen, Robert Bibica and Bob Neubauer stand by one of the Canon varioPRINT 6330s used for legislative printing.
Handling high volumes of legislative printing are a trio of Canon varioPRINT 6330 monochrome digital presses, which do the bulk of their work late at night, after the legislative sessions end. It’s not uncommon for the in-plant to get 200-300 bills a night, and have to print 500 sets of each by the next morning.
I also got a tour of OSP’s secure digital print and mail facility, located downtown. It houses a new Ricoh Pro C9500 digital color press, two Canon VarioStream 7650 continuous-feed presses, two cut-sheet Canon 6320 black-and-white devices, and a 20˝ Ricoh Pro VC60000 inkjet press, among other devices. The facility produces about 20 million impressions a year, and there are plans to add another inkjet press.
Repurposing Signage
Still stunned from the impressive firepower of this massive in-plant, I next journeyed to American River College to see a more typically sized in-plant. Supervisor Don Reid welcomed me into his sign shop, housed in its own building (a former childcare center) and featuring a Canon Arizona flatbed printer and a Colex automated cutter (see it in action here), as well as other roll-fed wide-format equipment. Driven by a sustainability mindset, Don pushed the school to repurpose its old wayfinding signage instead of sending it all to a landfill and buying new signs. By adding the Arizona (using the in-plant’s own equipment fund) he was able to collect the old aluminum signs and print over them, saving the college half a million dollars.
The American River College sign shop staff by the Canon Arizona.
Don also collected all the plexiglass COVID sneeze guards (originally made by the in-plant) and is repurposing them for print jobs. The shop encourages customers to use recyclable Falconboard instead of Coroplast.
Don drove me in a golf cart to see his in-plant’s production operation, which features a Canon varioPRINT 6250 and two Canon varioPRINT 115 black-and-white printers. Then he gave me a golf cart tour of the rainy campus to show off signage the in-plant has printed, from window graphics and A-frames, to flagpole banners and stadium fence signage. It was nice to see what a visual impact this four-person in-plant is having on its college.
It was great to visit these in-plants and get a taste of all the services they’re providing to their parent organizations. Wide-format printing is a strong focus for three of them, and they are making great use of their flatbed printers. I shot video in three of the shops, so stay tuned for a closer look inside their operations.
Here are more photos from these four in-plants:
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.
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