Johns Hopkins APL Streamlines Envelope Production

Dan Dore was tired of the waste he saw coming out of the old Standard digital duplicator that his in-plant used to print envelopes. So after reading about the Xanté Illumina Digital Production Press GT in early 2010, Dore, Printing Services Section supervisor at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Labratory (JHU-APL), sent two employees to the On Demand show in Philadelphia to check it out.

They liked it—so much that in November the in-plant installed one in its Laurel, Md.-based in-plant.

“It’s easy to run,” attests Dore. “You put so much stock in it and just let it go. It’s even got software to tell you how much toner you’re using. You can adjust the density, and you can adjust the line type so you don’t have to use as much toner.”

That software is Xante’s iQueue Color Smart Workflow software. It boasts such features as spot color matching, unlimited screening control, independent CMYK control, full color management, flexible queue management and archiving.

Though Printing Services’ old digital duplicator could still do a fair job printing envelopes, it couldn’t handle heavy stock jobs like Manila envelopes. Plus, repair costs were mounting.

“It was taking a beating,” says Dore. “It was wearing down pretty fast.”

The duplicator was also much slower than the new Ilumina. The in-plant previously printed return addresses on envelopes with the duplicator, then ran them through a multi-function device to address them, or pasted on a label. By contrast, the Ilumina prints both return and sender addresses in one pass. Ink dries immediately, Dore says. Since most of the in-plant’s jobs are same-day/next-day work, that speed boost is most welcome.

With six full-timers, one part-timer and two assigned customer service reps, the JHU-APL in-plant serves both the university and the government sector. It has an operating budget of $1.5 million and is a 100 percent cost recovery operation.

Adding the Illumina, which it bought from Atlantic Graphic Systems for $16,500, isn’t the extent of the in-plant’s expansion plans. In the next couple of months, the shop also plans to purchase a UV coater.

This month, the in-plant will receive several awards from Printing and Graphics Association MidAtlantic (PGAMA) at its annual “Excellence in Print” awards gala. A calendar and two book covers printed on the in-plant’s Ikon/Konica Minolta 6500 were cited for their quality.

“We competed against Indigos,” Dore boasts. “We’re one of the more successful in-plants. We’re very proud of that.”